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
Recommended
