How to Get Order Data from Various eCommerce Platforms

B2B eCommerce software vendors who want to outcompete their products should improve the functionality of their software before offering it to potential customers — online merchants.

eCommerce software, such as inventory and order management systems, warehouse management systems, shipping management systems, PIM software, multi-channel systems, etc. need to get order data from customer stores to provide fundamental functions of their software.

Client shops are built on various eCommerce platforms such as Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and many others. Thus, to obtain order information from customer stores, software vendors must connect their software to the above eCommerce platforms. The process is called eCommerce API integration, where the APIs of the two systems connect with each other and provide information transfer.

What order information can be obtained from eCommerce platforms

Order data from eCommerce platforms contain various information that you can use for different purposes.

Here is a detailed description of order data available from eCommerce platforms:

1. Customer information — name, surname, ID, email address, phone number, etc.
2. Payment addresses and delivery addresses — postal code, addresses, phone number, city, country, region, company and website (if any).
3. Payment and delivery method.
4. Information about the ordered product — order ID, name, price, quantity, etc.

In addition to the information mentioned above, there are several other parts of the order information that you can obtain from the eCommerce platforms as a result of integration.

With access to order information, eCommerce software vendors can provide the following features to their vendors:

Synchronization of stock levels. Synchronization of stocks in real-time is vital for online shop owners. In addition, such a feature is important for SaaS software vendors to receive order information and synchronize product information across different channels.

Thanks to the order information as well as customer and product info, eCommerce B2B software, such as the marketing automation system, can send personalized emails to its clients. These emails contain novelties, discounts, offers, recommendations, notifications about the leaving of the basket and special prices for the best products.

Send order status messages. Software solutions such as marketing automation can provide basket-leave notifications or chatbots can implement features that allow end-customers to be informed about their orders and successful purchases, track those who left the basket, and so on.

Order data is also used to generate statistics and reports. This feature allows shopping and marketing strategists to analyze customer behavior, product preferences and sales. This analysis is then used to develop a strategy for better results.

To get order data from all shopping platforms on which your customers have created their eCommerce stores, you need to integrate with all of them. However, such integration is often connected with many problems that you will have to overcome.

Problems during integration development

For all SaaS software providers, real-time use of information is important if you want to take advantage of the eCommerce sector. Nevertheless, each eCommerce API platform has its own specific structure, so each integration will have its own set of problems. Integration with only one shopping platform is complex, but it becomes even more complex when many systems are needed. Therefore, many eCommerce software vendors are integrated with only a few shopping carts and marketplaces, resulting in the loss of potential customers.

The development of internal integration with eCommerce platforms is a challenge, some of which are listed below:

• Integration is complicated. Each eCommerce platform has its own API, and each API has a different architecture. For integration with these platforms, it is necessary to understand architecture in advance. Internal integration development requires hiring experienced developers, their adaptation, and training to fulfill the task. Such developers are difficult to find. Imagine what should be done to integrate with several platforms.

In addition, some platforms have their own peculiarities in receiving data. For example, eBay works with different data formats, such as XML or JSON. As a result, it may be not easy to get order data from it.

• Integration is expensive. Establishing one internal integration can cost a whole property. You will have to pay for configuration, infrastructure, development, upgrade, and maintenance (as eСommerce platforms are constantly updating their APIs). Keep this cost on the number of integrations you plan to do.
• Integration takes a lot of time. Integration with one eСommerce platform can take from 8 weeks to 4 months. The developers’ hiring, training, and integration will take most of your time. Waiting for a properly built integration, you can lose thousands of potential customers.
• Integration and upgrade support requires IT professionals or at least one programmer. Otherwise, minor modifications to the integration with eСommerce platform can destabilize the entire process of data availability and editing. You may encounter data loss or the deletion of inaccurate data. In addition, your customers may require changes and unique features.

All these aspects complicate internal relations with eCommerce platforms. Therefore, it is very important to choose the right way to get order data.

The solution to Get Order Data

When it comes to integration with different eСommerce platforms without investing all your time, money, and resources, there is nothing better than a unified API via API2Cart. It allows your eCommerce software to connect to more than 40 shopping platforms at once. This means that you do not need to integrate with each platform separately and spend a lot of resources on it.

All you need is to connect your eCommerce software only with API2Cart, and it integrates your software with all shopping platforms you want to connect to. Add your clients’ stores to your API2Cart account, and API2Cart automatically integrates your software with all of them. So, to get order data from multiple eCommerce platforms such as Amazon, Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, eBay, etc., you only need to connect to API2Cart and do the following methods:

1. order.list
2. order.info
3. webhook for order.add event.

To learn more about the benefits of API2Cart for your business, book a free call today. We also provide a 30-day free trial period so you can see how easy eCommerce integration can be.