B2B eCommerce software vendors who are willing to surpass the competition around their products need to enhance the functionality of their software before proposing them to potential clients (merchants).
eCommerce software like inventory and order management systems, warehouse management systems, shipping management systems, PIM software, multichannel systems, etc. are required to get order data from the client stores to be able to provide the core functions of their software.
The client stores are built on various eCommerce platforms like Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and many more. Therefore, in order to get order data from client stores, the software vendors have to connect their software to the eCommerce platforms mentioned above. The process is termed as eCommerce API integration, wherein the APIs of the two participating applications connect with each other and facilitate data transfer.
Which Order Data You Can Retrieve from eCommerce Platforms
Order data from eCommerce platforms contains various information that can be used for different purposes.
Here is the detailed description of order data that can be retrieved from eCommerce platforms:
Customer information - customers’ name, last name, ID, email address, phone number, create date, etc.
Billing and shipping address - postcode, address, phone number, city, country, state, company and website (if any).
Payment and shipping method
Ordered product information - order ID, name, price, quantity, etc.
Apart from the data mentioned-above there are several other parts of order information you can retrieve from eCommerce platforms as a result of integration.
Having access to order data eCommerce software vendors can provide the following features to the eCommerce merchants:
Synchronization of inventory levels. Real-time inventory synchronization is vital for online store owners. To implement this feature it is important for software vendors to get order data and sync product info across different sales channels.
With order data related to customer information and ordered products, eCommerce software like marketing automation systems can send personalized emails to their customers. These emails feature new items, discounts, offers, recommendations, abandonment cart notifications, and special prices on the top products.
Send notification on order statuses. Software solutions like marketing automation, cart abandonment software or chatbots can implement the features that allows to notify end customers about their orders and successful purchases, track cart abandoners, etc.
Order data is also used for generating statistics, specifically reports, to allow the merchants and marketing strategists to analyze the latest trends and patterns in the eCommerce sphere. This analysis is then used for strategizing eCommerce operations.
To get order data from all the eCommerce platforms on which your clients have built their e-stores, you need to establish integrations with all of them. However, developing such a connection often comes with a lot of challenges you will need to overcome.
What Challenges You May Face with While Developing the Integration
Integrations are complex. Every eCommerce platform has its own API and every API has a different architecture. To integrate with these platforms, the architecture needs to be understood beforehand. In-house integration development requires advanced developers to be hired, onboarded, and trained to do the task. Such developers are hard to find. Now you can imagine the situation with several platforms you wish to connect with.
Moreover, some platforms have their own peculiarities of data retrievement. For example, eBay works with different data formats like XML or JSON. To get order data from it may be confusing and difficult.
Integrations are expensive. Establishing one in-house integration can cost a fortune. You will have to pay for setup, infrastructure, development team, upgrades, and maintenance (as eCommerce platforms keep updating their APIs). Multiply this cost with the number of integrations you are planning.
Integrations are time-consuming. It may take you around 8 weeks to 4 months to integrate with one eCommerce platform, that is, one eCommerce integration. Hiring developers, training them, coding integrations, and looking after upgrades and maintenance consumes most of your time.
The challenges of eCommerce integration are not limited to the ones mentioned above. To retrieve information from eCommerce platforms, you invest a hell lot of time, money, and resources, which is important for other crucial business operations. Therefore, you need a solution that could save such hefty investments and allow you to integrate with multiple eCommerce platforms in a more feasible way.
Solution to Get Order Data from More than 40 eCommerce Platforms
When it comes to integrating with various eCommerce platforms without investing all your time, money, and resources, nothing is better than API2Cart, a unified API that allows your eCommerce software to connect with more than 40 eCommerce platforms at once. That means you do not need to integrate with every platform individually and spend tons of resources on it.
All you need to do is, integrate your eCommerce software with just API2Cart, and in turn, it will integrate your software with all the eCommerce platforms that you wish to connect with. Add the names to the list, and API2Cart will automatically integrate your software with all of them.
Hence, to get order data from multiple eCommerce platforms like Amazon, Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, eBay, etc. you need to connect only to API2Cart and execute the following methods:
webhook for order.add event.
Here is the response structure of order.list method:
{
"return_code": 0,
"return_message": "",
"pagination": {
"previous": null,
"next": "BcHdEkJAGADQB3Kx2NXOXrjIWNpaJTIadzYj7PipL4Wn7xwmBbQQVeroU9nVsQd66LzNiW08zpkocy%2FgWmeEvIZ%2Bl1jfW35anTVtjKCXzLe2dHl%2FpiYwC7JGpn9JEAspAk5HUvKlrFQv2gMQVJ%2FjWybQjH6KIcyUKLDBHvfBxim1AUKqqeYEi6ec9qS9uu4f"
},
"result": {
"orders_count": 1,
"order": [
{
"id": "000000001",
"order_id": "1",
"basket_id": null,
"channel_id": null,
"customer": {
"id": "1",
"email": "[email protected]",
"first_name": "John",
"last_name": "Smith",
"phone": null
},
"create_at": {
"value": "2019-12-20T13:48:19+0000",
"format": "Y-m-d\\TH:i:sO"
},
"currency": {
"id": "USD",
"name": "US Dollar",
"iso3": "USD",
"symbol_left": "$",
"symbol_right": "",
"rate": 1,
"avail": true,
"default": true
},
"shipping_address": {
"id": "2",
"type": "shipping",
"first_name": "John",
"last_name": "Smith",
"postcode": "12345",
"address1": "Green str.35",
"address2": "",
"phone": "",
"city": "Chicago",
"country": {
"code2": "US",
"code3": "USA",
"name": "United States of America"
},
"state": {
"code": "IL",
"name": "Illinois"
},
"company": "",
"fax": "",
"website": null,
"gender": null,
"region": null,
"default": false,
"additional_fields": {
"prefix": "",
"suffix": "",
"middlename": "",
"tax_id": null
}
},
"billing_address": {
"id": "1",
"type": "billing",
"first_name": "John",
"last_name": "Smith",
"postcode": "12345",
"address1": "Green str.35",
"address2": "",
"phone": "",
"city": "Chicago",
"country": {
"code2": "US",
"code3": "USA",
"name": "United States of America"
},
"state": {
"code": "IL",
"name": "Illinois"
},
"company": "",
"fax": "",
"website": null,
"gender": null,
"region": null,
"default": false,
"additional_fields": {
"prefix": "",
"suffix": "",
"middlename": "",
"tax_id": null
}
},
"payment_method": {
"name": "checkmo",
"additional_fields": {
"additional_payment_info": null
}
},
"shipping_method": {
"name": "UPS Ground",
"additional_fields": {
"code": "custom_custom",
"provider_code": "custom"
}
},
"shipping_methods": [
{
"name": "UPS Ground",
"additional_fields": {
"code": "custom_custom",
"provider_code": "custom"
}
}
],
"status": {
"id": "complete",
"name": "Complete",
"history": [
{
"id": "complete",
"name": "Complete",
"modified_time": {
"value": "2019-12-20T13:48:19+0000",
"format": "Y-m-d\\TH:i:sO"
},
"notify": true,
"comment": "Reference order #000000001
Payment method:checkmo
Shipping method: UPS Ground
Complete
"
}
],
"refund_info": null
},
"totals": {
"total": 9,
"subtotal": 10.5,
"shipping": 0,
"tax": 0,
"discount": 0,
"additional_fields": {
"hidden_tax": 0
}
},
"total": {
"subtotal_ex_tax": 10.5,
"wrapping_ex_tax": null,
"shipping_ex_tax": 0,
"total_discount": 0,
"total_tax": 0,
"total": 9,
"total_paid": 9,
"additional_fields": {
"shipping_discount_ex_tax": 0,
"subtotal_discount_ex_tax": 0,
"tax_discount": 0,
"subtotal_tax": 0,
"wrapping_tax": null,
"shipping_tax": 0
}
},
"discounts": [],
"order_products": [
{
"product_id": "5",
"order_product_id": "1",
"model": "sku_1",
"name": "Product1",
"price": 1.5,
"price_inc_tax": 1.5,
"quantity": 7,
"discount_amount": 0,
"total_price": 10.5,
"tax_percent": 0,
"tax_value": 0,
"tax_value_after_discount": 0,
"options": [
{
"option_id": 0,
"name": "Color",
"value": "mint green",
"price": 0,
"weight": 0,
"type": null,
"product_option_value_id": null
}
],
"variant_id": null,
"weight_unit": null,
"weight": 0,
"barcode": null,
"parent_order_product_id": null
}
],
"bundles": [],
"modified_at": {
"value": "2019-12-20T13:48:19+0000",
"format": "Y-m-d\\TH:i:sO"
},
"finished_time": null,
"comment": "",
"store_id": "1",
"warehouses_ids": [],
"refunds": [],
"gift_message": null,
"additional_fields": {
"base_currency_code": "USD"
}
}
]
}
}
To know more about how API2Cart is beneficial for your business use case, book a free call with us today. We also provide a 30-day free trial period for you to see how easy the integration with eCommerce platforms can be.
