The eCommerce market is highly competitive, and as a result, e-retailers look for ways to make their operations seamless and increase productivity. A variety of eCommerce software is available, which ensures that e-retailers can leverage this productivity by eliminating redundant processes and allowing them to focus on their core business functions.
An eCommerce software can integrate with several eCommerce platforms, such as Amazon, eBay, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Shopify, and Magento. It connects to the platform's application programming interface (API) to transfer data between them. Without such a connection, the software cannot provide e-retailers with all the needed functionality.
In this article, we'll discuss eCommerce API and show you examples of the integration of eCommerce platforms.
What is eCommerce API?
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are the intermediary between two applications. One application needs data from the other, and API is what allows this to happen. This communication is termed a request-response model, where one application makes a request for information, and another sends that information back.
An eCommerce API, therefore, acts as an intermediary between an eCommerce platform and the software that helps the latter to retrieve data from the former, thus allowing it to offer its core functionality to e-retailers.
What is eCommerce API integration?
When the specific software connects to an eCommerce platform via an eCommerce API to access the data stored in online stores, it is known as eCommerce API integration.
Integration between eCommerce software and various eCommerce platforms allows SaaS apps to retrieve the data they need for performing designated tasks. In other words, eCommerce API integration ties SaaS apps with eCommerce APIs of different shopping cart solutions and marketplaces.
Examples of eCommerce APIs
There are multiple eCommerce APIs available. Here are some examples:
Shopify API. Shopify has an extensive customer base of over 1 million active users. It powers over 3,600,000 websites across the web. With such an immense customer base, the Shopify API is an ideal eCommerce API for many software vendors. The Shopify API allows developers to create tools that interact directly with Shopify. It also allows you to work with methods like Category, Customer, Product, Order, etc., using JSON or XML. All you need is to work with the latest version of API as Shopify regularly updates its API.
WooCommerce API. As one of the largest eCommerce platforms, WooCommerce powers more than 4 million websites. Its API is more stable than others. The WooCommerce API allows developers to work with the WooCommerce database. It uses REST API and lets you manage items, orders, categories and other information. However, you need to deal with increasing API versions, complex PHP modules and a lack of native documentation.
Magento API. The Magento API allows developers to create and manage eCommerce stores through a series of calls in order to manipulate data related to products, orders, customers, and categories. It supports both JSON and XML through four primary HTTP methods: POST, GET, PUT, and DELETE.
How to Develop an eCommerce API Integration?
When developing an eCommerce API integration, you have two options. You can either onboard an in-house integration development team that will look after your requirements or outsource to a third-party provider.
The process of in-house integration development comes with many challenges. You will first need to find advanced developers to code such complex integrations; every eCommerce API has a different logical architecture that your developers must understand.
In-house integrations consume a lot of time, leaving your clients waiting for your services. Thus it is challenging to manage multiple integrations together when you invest a lot of time, money, and resources in a single integration.
Another option is to use a third-party integration development service, such as API2Cart. It can easily integrate your software with as many marketplaces and shopping cart solutions as you wish to connect with.
API2Cart is a unified API tool that allows software vendors to integrate their products with more than 40 eCommerce platforms and marketplaces at once. It eliminates the need for integration with each shopping platform or marketplace separately.
Furthermore, it also looks after updates and maintenance of integrations. As eCommerce platforms keep releasing new versions of their APIs for security reasons, integrations need to be updated regularly to keep them reliable and productive. By providing upgrades and maintenance assistance, API2Cart solves this problem.