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&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
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.
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
