Marketplace integration
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This document discusses various challenges and considerations for integrating an e-commerce business with online marketplaces. It outlines the common integration tasks including product listing, pricing, inventory, orders, and payments. It then describes the different integration methods used by marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, Play.com and Tesco which can include APIs, file uploads, and manual processes. The document emphasizes the importance of proper integration to avoid issues like suspensions or loss of sales, and stresses planning for ongoing management and responding to changes from the marketplaces.
Marketplace integration
- 2. Where do you want to sell?
- 4. Integration tasks • Product Lis,ng • Pricing • Inventory • Order Ingest • Payment • Order Status • CRM
- 5. • Welcome to Hell. • Many, many, different technologies and formats. • Batch and message based. • Some interfaces are well defined... • ...some are not. Integration Methods
- 6. eBay Integration • Fine grained, single operation API • Document style web service • XML Documents • WSDL + XSD • SDKs Available
- 7. Amazon Integration • Batch style API • HTTP GET/POST • XML Documents • XSD • SDKs Available • Request params are passed via a signed query string. POST mws.amazonservices.com/ AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAFJPPO5KLY6G4XO7Q&Act ion=GetFeedSubmissionResult&FeedSubm issionId=4321011681&Marketplace=ATVPDKI KX0DER&Merchant=A3F1LGRLCQDI4D&Signa tureMethod=HmacSHA256&SignatureVersion= 2&Timestamp=2011-02-04T23%3A08%3A19Z &Version=2009-01-01
- 8. • Batch style API • HTTP POST • TSV & XML documents. • No schema • Request params are passed via HTTP headers POST https://api.playtrade.com/ AdvancedReports.asmx/ GenerateAdvancedReportNow HTTP HEADERS Authorization: Basic dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ= Content-Type: text/xml ReportName: CompetitorPricing AdvancedPricingCondition: 0 AdvancedPricingType: 0 Play.com Integration
- 9. Tesco Direct Integration • 'Conversa,onal' Batch API • FTP/Email • Tab separated values (ish) • This “schema”
- 10. Integration Considerations • Get it right! • Feedback is public • You can be suspended from the marketplace • GeUng it wrong can be expensive
- 11. Design and Development • Decide on a sensible scope. • Plan your development. • Contact the marketplace. • Select your libraries carefully. • Consider a service like Channel Advisor.
- 12. Traffic Management • Rate limit strategies • Calls per Hour/Day • Amazon's 'Leaky Bucket' • File size limits • Upload limits • Processing queues.
- 13. • Product matching • Marketplace specific data • Categorisa,on • Shipping Costs. • Lis,ng page design Product Listing
- 14. Inventory Management • Maintaining an accurate picture of stock can be hard. • Latency can cause overselling. • Strategies: • Stock segmentation • Never decrement inventory • Hold excess stock • Maintain a buffer stock
- 15. Managing Change • Changes to marketplaces will be outside your control. • Fair warning is usually, but not always given. • Constant monitoring is necessary. • Managing change can be a full time role.
- 16. API Change • API and Document specs. can change frequently. • Category structures change frequently. • eBay API every two weeks. • Tesco had breaking changes during development
- 17. • Rules govern what can be changed • Some data is read only once listed • Take care when deactivating listings • Protect your ranking Changing Listings
- 18. • It's worth the effort • Plan well • Plan for change • It's a full time role • Get it right because feedback will be very public