API2Cart: Shopping Cart Integration for Order Fulfilment Automation
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[email protected] www.api2cart.com Shopping Cart Integration for Order Fulfilment Automation UNIFIED APPROACH Intro / Overview In short, order fulfilment comprises order picking, processing, and shipping. In detail, it embraces about 20 steps that are no easy to organize into a unity/system. That’s tons of tech work to do, including dozens of connections to develop because the whole scope of activities that fulfilment involves requires real-time data integration with external data sources and systems like shopping carts, marketplaces, CRM and ERP platforms, accounting software, and multi-channel order and inventory management solutions. No matter how terrifying this sounds, integrations are unavoidable. What is avoidable, however, is a larger quantity of integrations and the problems it entails. API2Cart offers help with multiple shopping cart integrations & further multi-platform maintenance. You integrate with the API once, get connected to more than 30 eCommerce platforms, and don’t worry about upgrading your code every time new versions of shopping carts come out.
Transcript of API2Cart: Shopping Cart Integration for Order Fulfilment Automation
Shopping Cart Integration for Order Fulfilment Automation
UNIFIED APPROACH
Intro / Overview
In short, order fulfilment comprises order
picking, processing, and shipping. In detail, it
embraces about 20 steps that are no easy to organize
into a unity/system. That’s tons of tech work to do,
including dozens of connections to develop
because the whole scope of activities that fulfilment
involves requires real-time data integration with
external data sources and systems like shopping carts,
marketplaces, CRM and ERP platforms, accounting
software, and multi-channel order and inventory
management solutions.
No matter how terrifying this sounds,
integrations are unavoidable. What is avoidable,
however, is a larger quantity of integrations and
the problems it entails.
API2Cart offers help with multiple shopping cart
integrations & further multi-platform maintenance.
You integrate with the API once, get connected to
more than 30 eCommerce platforms, and don’t worry
about upgrading your code every time new versions
of shopping carts come out.
How Shopping Cart Integration Builds a Critical Link in the Chain
For an online merchant, their web store is
where the order fulfilment service you provide
starts. For you, as an order fulfilment software
provider, their e-shop is a valuable asset because
that’s where the information on orders, customers,
and products is stored.
On the level of code and transactions, data
from stores powers the majority of features and
processes that every order fulfilment solution
covers.
In particular, integration with customer stores
enables the system to do the following:
create, view, and edit orders
view and forecast inventory levels
determine shipping details (e.g. names, addresses,
shipping facilities, and carriers)
run reports
Integration ensures that all the data needed for
the service to process the user’s requests will be
there. It also means tying your application with
a third party, so should something go wrong and
an information loss or distortion occurs, the whole
lot of integrated processes will go on the blink.
The consequence of this will be, that first your
customers, and then you, will suffer losses.
The best way to avoid this is to invest into
a well-coined connection, and the safest way to do so
is to integrate via APIs.
They don’t dictate any UI platforms, so you will
have full control over the medium and user
experience. Plus, APIs make it equally easy to
integrate shopping carts with both web and mobile
applications.
Integrations in the Raw
Every new connection takes resources and
entails further engagement. All in all, your integration
process will cover some steps and involve a number
of challenges. Let’s see what they will be.
Key API Integration Steps
1. Assigning the Development Work
You could either delegate integration development
work to a developer from your product team or
entrust it to an agency. Either way, expertise and
experience of the coder responsible will
determine the quality of results greatly. Plus,
a seasoned integration ace will get it ready faster.
2. API Integration Pattern
On this stage, you will need to make a couple of
decisions that will define how your interactive API
integration will work. Let’s take a closer look at them.
2.1. Data model, mapping and interaction
When working on integration, you will see that data
structures of your product and the platform you
want to connect with differ. What you will want to
get straight might need extra steps. Adapting this
to your system will take at least 4 steps.
2.1.1. Defining fields and objects
The first thing on the list is finding which of
the data objects of the software you want to
integrate with are relevant to those of your
system. Once decided on the custom and
standard objects and fields to integrate, explore
their structure at the endpoint.
2.1.2. Creating a template
A mapping pattern will help to specify how
default data structures from an endpoint will
map into the data model of your system. It will
save your users connecting to your system time
and effort because they will have it pre-mapped
what you already know from the endpoint.
2.1.3. Not forgetting about custom instance
data mapping
Users like to customize things. This means that
mapping of standard fields and objects will be
just the beginning for most clients of yours.
You will likely need to support multiple one-off
data maps specific to relevant authenticated
accounts of the endpoints at the level of
instances.
2.1.4. CRUDs
When you have your data objects determined,
the next step is to set which HTTP methods
will execute against each of them. The popular
options are GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE.
2.2. Events and synchronization
When it comes to data synchronization, depending
on what the platform supports, you can either poll
its API once in, let’s say, 5 minutes, or use web-
hooks to get notified when any changes to the data
on stores occur.
Unfortunately, far not every shopping cart supports
this kind of an HTTP callback, so you will either
decide to develop those on your side or leave it as
it is - webhooks supported only for some or even
for none.
2.3. Authentication
It is important for users to know their personal
information is safe. Determine what type of
authentication will satisfy your the requirements
best (e.g. OAuth or SAML).
Some of the questions that can help here are
do you need the authenticated instance to stay
active? how will you manage the keys?
3. Routine maintenance: staying on top of
changes
Integrations need to be supported and maintained.
Shopping carts version and get enhanced, which
makes changes and new development necessary on
your side too.
Key Challenges
The integration steps mentioned above imply
software vendors looking to integrate with shopping
carts and other related systems will have to deal with
the following challenges:
1. Time
On average, an integration takes 4-8 weeks to
develop. In this time the responsible developer will
learn the platform logic and architecture, put effort
into reducing the friction between the product and
the system, and very likely find themselves off base
a couple of times.
2. Expenses
Be ready to pay a set sum of a few thousands
of dollars plus extra if the need for additional
development occurs. After the integration is
complete and iterated to success, it will need
developer work and attention because new
versions will appear and this will mean
upgrades to make. Plus, your clients might request
modifications and custom enhancements.
3. Human resources
Each integration is both tons of work to do and
a separate thorn in the side that never goes away
after the work is done, that someone has to deal
with. For better and more reliable results, you will
want the someone to be dependable and expert,
and that is not easy to find and hard to allocate if
they are a part of your product team.
How API2Cart Helps
Having dealt with hundreds of integrations, our team
have learnt the pain points that various web and
mobile applications face. With these in mind, we
crafted our unified API that lets your product
communicate with clients’ stores, be they based
on Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, or any other
shopping cart that we support.
Speaking the language of benefits, API2Cart
offers you to do the following:
Enhance Your
Functionality Faster
Our unified API eliminates the need to develop
separate integration for each platform. Integrate
once, get the data required from the platforms
needed.
Expand your market
share dramatically
Win more clients by having access to data from
stores built on the shopping cart they use. Each
integration means another thousands of users
need you.
Reduce cost,
save time
You connect to dozens of platforms via one
integration. It’s months of expensive development
work avoided.
Save human
resources
Concentrate on what matters for your business.
We take care of platform updates.
Speaking the language of tech, API2Cart lets you do
the following:
integrate your product with more than
30 shopping carts via one API
add stores to join the 50k+ stores
successfully connected by other clients
of ours
avoid the necessity to maintain each
connection separately
Let us know if you have any questions.
We’ll be happy to discuss them in any form you like.
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