As a software developer, you are constantly seeking for ways to increase and simplify application functionality. By integrating your software or app with Etsy, the well-known internet marketplace where people sell handmade, vintage, or art products, you and your users will enjoy these advantages.
Etsy provides an API for developers to integrate their software applications with the Etsy platform. By this, your software or app can work with Etsy's data and functionality.
In this article, we will overview the pros of Etsy marketplace integration development.
What is Etsy Marketplace Integration?
Just like other marketplaces, Etsy also has its own API that allows working with the Etsy platform. With the help of Etsy's API, developers will be able to work with databases and retrieve data about items, sellers, and orders. The Etsy API works by the REST architecture for data exchange and a secure data connection that provides the developers with a powerful tool.
The data from the Etsy API is in JSON format. Secondly, the API employs the mechanism of OAuth to identify and authorize users and give access to the public and private data of the e-stores to the customers.
The Etsy API supports the HTTP methods. For example: PUT, POST, GET, and DELETE. The API performs request and response mode of operation.
In addition to this integration, there are many advantages, such as having a large customer base, being able to get product data, order management that is hassle-free.
Basically, Etsy integration in your software or app can improve their functionality and usability, enabling your users to have more value through your product.
Benefits of Etsy Marketplace Integration
Targeting e-retailers as potential customers, it is important to know their needs and struggles. You should also be aware of the benefits of integration with a marketplace like Etsy. For example:
- It can be your business's world compass. It is used by e-retailers from various countries, and they can be your prospective software clients.
- The stream of customers translates to more sales. The need to integrate this solution is crucial for the purpose of increasing revenues and profits. Etsy integration can lead to fast growth of your business.
- Through integration, you can offer clients software that enables them to automate most of their business functions.
- The integration provides you with the opportunity to work with all the customer data, orders, categories, and products and to manage Etsy online stores.
- Integration will enable you to enhance the quality of your services through the provision of more accurate data.
Integration Challenges
When it comes to eCommerce software developers who provide shipping, marketing automation, and also product management solutions, developing an integration with the Etsy marketplace presents challenges for them. The reasons for these difficulties are due to the fact that Etsy’s API is built in a slightly different way, data has some limits, and there are platform specific requirements.
- Complex API and Documentation: Although Etsy’s API is quite powerful, its documentation can be incomplete and sometimes difficult to understand. For eCommerce software developers new to Etsy’s ecosystem, it can be a long development cycle with a lot of troubleshooting as it is necessary to understand the API structure and its limitations.
- Access to Certain Data With Limits: Unlike Amazon or eBay, Etsy doesn’t give you access to all the data they have. Privacy policies limit access to certain things, such as customer details and order specifics. Such software solutions that rely on information about customers can have problems because of this.
- Rate Limits: Etsy’s API has strict rate limits, and only allow a certain amount of requests to be made in a time frame. These limits can slow down operations for software that needs frequent updates (like real time inventory syncing, or order status updates) depending on how often you need to update; which means developers will have to implement complex data caching and rate management strategies.
- Unique Product Listings: Etsy is famous for its handmade, vintage, and other kinds of items that don’t fit into the standard product categories of other eCommerce marketplaces. When product management software depends on standard data formats, this can be problematic. To show Etsy listings as they are, developers may have to create custom mapping and normalization functions.
How to Build Etsy Marketplace Integration Easily
Such integration can be tackled in two distinct ways: either in-house integration or the development of integration through third-party services. To offer a survey of both approaches, we will discover the advantages and disadvantages of each of them.
In-house integration development
In the case of the in-house integration development, you should hire a development team and train them to develop integrations specifically for you. Hence, you have to find programmers who can do the integrations and onboard them.
Usage of third-party services like API2Cart
While choosing Etsy API integration development through a third-party service, it is necessary that one identifies an appropriate service provider to develop the desired integrations. This way, you won't need to hire and train the staff or pay for their salaries. Instead of you, the service provider will complete all required actions on your behalf.
One of the services that are provided is the API2Cart which helps B2B eCommerce software developers to do the integration with over 40 eCommerce platforms and marketplaces in one go.
Via API2Cart, you will get access to more than 100 API methods to use necessary online store data from eCommerce platforms and marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, and Etsy.
The service also maintains and upgrades the integrations as well. Via API2Cart, providers can easily collect information about products, orders, clients, shipments, categories, and more from eCommerce platforms and marketplaces like Etsy.
Schedule a free demo now and be ready to integrate your software with Etsy easily via API2Cart.
