With increasing competition in the eCommerce industry, the need for marketplace integration is at its peak. And why shouldn’t it be? It is the only way B2B eCommerce software vendors can connect their software with eCommerce marketplaces. One such marketplace is Etsy, and this article will discuss more about Etsy API integration.
eCommerce vendors like you need to serve their clients with full-fledged software to streamline their business operations. When you integrate with eCommerce marketplaces, you add extra functionality to your software which proves indispensable for the e-retailers. Therefore, if your clients have e-stores on Etsy, you need Etsy API integration to provide them with your software core functionality.
What is Etsy Marketplace API Integration?
Etsy recently gathered 96.3 million buyers with annual revenue of $2.3 billion. In addition, it features more than 4.3 million sellers. From a simple website back in 2015 to a vast marketplace today, Etsy has come a long way. Therefore, Etsy API integration can prove to be a profitable affair for any eCommerce SaaS business.
Let’s explore the benefits of Etsy API integration development:
- It can get you international exposure for your business. It is used by e-retailers from various countries who can be your software prospective clients.
- More clients mean more sales. It will increase your revenue and will dramatically increase your profits. Etsy integration can improve your growth in no time.
- With integration, you can provide your clients with multi-faceted software that allows them to automate most of their business operations.
- Etsy API integration helps you work with all the data related to customers, orders, categories, and products and manage Etsy e-stores directly from one place.
- Integration can help you improve your end services by giving you access to more important data.
However, there are some challenges associated with Etsy API integration. Here are a few of them:
- Integrations are time-consuming. Every integration can take around 8 weeks to develop. You will also have to spend time hiring and training your development team for the job.
- Integrations are costly. Etsy API integration can cost you around 4000 dollars, and you can add upgrades and maintenance charges to the expenses. Plus, you have to pay salary to your development team for developing integrations for you.
- Integrations are complex, and your development team will have to understand the architecture of Etsy API before connecting with it.
- Etsy API integration is not the only one you will develop if you have clients who have multiple e-stores on different platforms. The challenges will be much more visible and hard to overcome when the number of integrations increases.
API of Etsy
The API of Etsy helps in connecting the eCommerce software to this marketplace. It acts as the intermediary between the software and the marketplace. With Etsy API, you get direct access to data related to products, categories, orders, etc.
Just like every other marketplace API, Etsy has a unique API that functions particularly for the Etsy marketplace and helps developers connect with the platform. Etsy API uses REST architecture for data transfer and a secure and constraint-based data connection.
It allows JSON format for data resources and through it helps you to access data related to sales, customers, listings, tags, public profiles, shops, and favorites. Further, Etsy API uses the OAuth method for authenticating you to read and write both public and private data of the customers on the e-stores.
For information retrieval, Etsy API allows the use of HTTP methods like PUT, POST, GET, and DELETE. It works on the request and response model wherein a successful response comes with 200 codes, and an unsuccessful one comes with a 404 error code.
How to Develop Integration with Etsy?
Etsy API integration can be developed in two different ways. One is in-house integration development, and the other one is development via third-party services. Let’s take a look at both approaches.
In-house integration development
In in-house integration development, you will have to hire a development team and train it to build integrations for you. You have to look for advanced developers who can code integrations and onboard them along with training them according to your client’s requirements.
You will also have to look after the setup and infrastructure for developing integrations in-house. Further, you will have upgrades and maintenance for each integration to take care of because every time Etsy rolls out a new version of its API, your integration will need an update.
Usage of third-party services like API2Cart
Choosing Etsy API integration development via a third-party service, you need to find a service provider to develop integrations for you. Here, you don’t need to hire or train a development team or pay them a salary. Instead, everything will be taken care of by the service provider.
One of such services is API2Cart, which allows B2B eCommerce software vendors to develop integration with more than 40 eCommerce platforms and marketplaces in one go.
The platforms include Amazon, eBay, Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, and Etsy. API2Cart provides more than 100 API methods to help vendors access the required data from these platforms.
Moreover, API2Cart also looks after the setup and infrastructure on its own, so you don’t have to spend money from your budget. It will also take care of upgrades and maintenance of integrations based on your preferred service package. API2Cart makes it easy for the vendors to make their software access data related to products, orders, customers, categories, shipments, etc., from the eCommerce platforms and marketplaces like Etsy.
Conclusion
Etsy API integration development can be challenging if you don’t choose the right approach like a third-party service provider. But its importance cannot be overlooked, considering the benefits it brings to your SaaS business.
As an eCommerce software vendor, you need eCommerce integration to keep your business competitive and drive improvement for your clients’ eCommerce operations. Therefore, partnering with a third-party service provider like API2Cart is your best bet. Get in touch with us today to know more about how our service works.