Marketplace integration

Marketplace Integration

Tom Greasley

Where do you want to sell?

Marketplace Integration

Integration tasks

•  Product  Lis,ng  •  Pricing  •  Inventory  •  Order  Ingest  •  Payment  •  Order  Status  •  CRM  

•  Welcome to Hell. •  Many, many, different

technologies and formats.

•  Batch and message based.

•  Some interfaces are well defined...

•  ...some are not.

Integration Methods

eBay Integration

•  Fine grained, single operation API

•  Document style web service

•  XML Documents •  WSDL + XSD •  SDKs Available

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&Action=GetFeedSubmissionResult&FeedSubm issionId=4321011681&Marketplace=ATVPDKIKX0DER&Merchant=A3F1LGRLCQDI4D&Signa tureMethod=HmacSHA256&SignatureVersion=2&Timestamp=2011-02-04T23%3A08%3A19Z &Version=2009-01-01  

•  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

Tesco Direct Integration

•  'Conversa,onal'  Batch  API  •  FTP/Email  •  Tab  separated  values  (ish)  •  This  “schema”  

Integration Considerations

•  Get  it  right!  •  Feedback  is  public  •  You  can  be  suspended  from  the  marketplace  

•  GeUng  it  wrong  can  be  expensive  

Design and Development

•  Decide on a sensible scope.

•  Plan your development. •  Contact the marketplace. •  Select your libraries

carefully. •  Consider a service like

Channel Advisor.

Traffic Management

•  Rate limit strategies •  Calls per Hour/Day •  Amazon's 'Leaky

Bucket' •  File size limits •  Upload limits •  Processing queues.

•  Product  matching  •  Marketplace  specific  data  •  Categorisa,on  •  Shipping  Costs.  •  Lis,ng  page  design  

Product Listing

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

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.

API Change

•  API and Document specs. can change frequently.

•  Category structures change frequently.

•  eBay API every two weeks. •  Tesco had breaking changes

during development

• Rules govern what can be changed •  Some data is read only once listed •  Take care when deactivating listings •  Protect your ranking

Changing Listings

•  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