Various eCommerce software often rely on order data from customers' online stores. For example, the marketing automation software sends personalized emails, order statuses, or repurchase reminders based on this information. Order and inventory management systems use order data for functions such as order fulfilment, reporting, etc. Warehouse management systems, shipping management systems, point-of-sale software, multichannel systems and others also must gather order data from client stores to perform their core functions.
The online stores are built on various eCommerce platforms and marketplaces like Magento, Amazon, eBay, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and many more. Therefore, to get order data from the stores, the software vendors have to connect their systems to the eCommerce platforms and marketplaces mentioned above. The process is termed eCommerce API integration, wherein the two participating applications connect with each other and facilitate data transfer via API.
This article will explore how it is possible to import orders from shopping carts and marketplaces.
Order Data That Can Be Retrieved from Shopping Carts and Marketplaces
Order data from eCommerce platforms can provide information that can be used for a variety of purposes.
Order data retrieved from eCommerce platforms may include:
- Online store customer information - customers’ names, last names, IDs, email addresses, phone numbers, etc.
- Billing and shipping addresses - postcodes, phone numbers, location, company and website (if any)
- Payment and shipping methods
- The ordered product information like order ID, name, price, exact quantity, etc.
Software Features that Can Be Implemented with Imported Order Data
The list of software vendors that must import e-store order data to implement their features is extensive. Having access to such information, they can provide the following features for online store owners: inventory synchronization, order status notification, product recommendations and more. Let's take a look at some popular features that deal with order data in detail:
- Synchronization of inventory levels. Online merchants need real-time inventory synchronization. To develop this feature, software should be integrated with shopping platforms and marketplaces and capable of importing order data and syncing product information across different sales channels.
- Sending personalized emails to e-store customers. Order, customer, and product data allow marketing automation software to generate personalized emails to online store clients. Such emails can include information about new products, discounts, offers, product recommendations, abandonment cart notifications, and other personalized information.
- Sending notifications on order statuses. Software vendors, such as eCommerce marketing automation software and cart abandonment software, need to provide the functionality to track and notify customers about the status of their orders.
- Creating detailed reports. Retailers have to track orders and analyze the data to determine which channels are most effective for selling their products and whether certain products are better suited to particular sales channels.
The Difficulties Related to The Process of Order Import
eCommerce software developers should add eCommerce integrations to their applications. The more shopping platforms they support, the more potential customers they may have. However, because developing the integration with multiple shopping cart solutions and marketplaces is a complex and costly task, it can prove to be an obstacle to the performance level of any software company.
Integrating eCommerce software with multiple shopping carts and marketplaces can be challenging. Most software solutions have the integration with only a few shopping carts, losing many potential customers and sales. However, integrating with various shopping platforms and marketplaces allows eCommerce B2B software to gather orders from multiple sales channels. As a result, online retailers can easily manage orders and distribute order and product information across different platforms. To access order information, the software providers must remember that each shopping platform has its own method of data storage.
When shopping cart and marketplace software is updated, compatibility with new versions of the platform must be considered. Software providers that do not have a specialized developer on staff may have to spend money on integration upgrades.
How to Import Orders from Shopping Carts and Marketplaces Easily
API2Cart provides a unified API that allows you to connect your software to more than 40 different shopping cart solutions and marketplaces, including Wix, Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce and Amazon.
API2Cart provides a comprehensive set of API methods for working with orders, products, prices, customers and other data.
For example, to import orders from shopping carts and marketplaces, you are given the following options:
- Webhook for order.add event
- Order.list method
By setting up webhooks for the order.add event, your application will be notified each time a new order is placed. Webhooks are more effective than APIs because they reduce server load and eliminate the need to send frequent requests to an API for updated information.
New e-store orders can be easily tracked with the help of the order.list method. Moreover, this method allows filtering orders by their id, store id, customer id, order status, order id, shipping provider, and time parameters such as create_from, created_to and modified_from, modified_to.
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"
}
}
]
}
}
You can register a free API2Cart account and try to import all the needed order data from your clients’ stores with the help of API2Cart API methods. We provide detailed API Docs and 24/7 customer support. So, do not hesitate to contact us if you have any additional questions.
Summer Kennedy
January 6, 2023 on 3:11 pm
Nice post. I learn something totally new and challenging on websites