APIs, RETAIL & ECOMMERCE
Has COVID pushed APIs? the button on APIs Sensedia’s Lucas Tempestini on how the API economy is boosting retail – from payments to packaging – by banishing backlogs and bottlenecks Last month’s COVID-19 vaccine announcements, with pharmaceutical companies tumbling over one another to share their final-stage trial successes, saw the needle jump once more on the pandemic debate. Talk of super-spreaders, epidemiology, and the R-rate was replaced by a new point of focus: distribution – getting hundreds of millions of vials of medicine shipped across the world. Cue supply chain wonks quipping about ‘bottleneck bottlenecks’, the global shortage of medical-grade glass that’s set to hold up the roll-out of life-saving jabs. Experts have identified hundreds of similar distribution pinch points,
Making the connections: APIs can help businesses scale to meet major peaks in demand
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many of which were exposed earlier in the pandemic when supermarket shelves lay bare for weeks on end. In a sense, the handling of the pandemic is being passed on, from the doctors and scientists to logistics experts and end-to-end delivery management teams. As with all big projects, the success of these new actors will depend on how they interact, integrate, and cooperate. On this front, vaccine distributors might take inspiration from the digital-first firms that pulled through during the early months of the pandemic, the likes of Amazon – the pandemic’s biggest winners. Despite global GDP falling by 5.2 per cent this year, Amazon has seen 40 per cent more sales,
eye-watering profits, and a robust reputation for on-time, end-to-end delivery. Why did Amazon keep delivering, where the likes of Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Argos were left scrabbling around desperately for stock? To answer this, you’d need to look at Amazon’s huge market advantage: its expert use of integrated application programming interfaces (APIs), linking the point of sale with real-time demand calculators and concurrent, automated stock-ordering software. Lucas Tempestini is global marketing manager at API management firm Sensedia. He’s seen firsthand how smart API deployment – integrating dozens of crucial software solutions – can help companies scale and adapt during peaks in trade. He sees no difference in approach between the pandemic’s peak in online commerce, and the industry’s usual seasonal surges. “Seasonal peaks are very important for ecommerce in general,” says Tempestini, “yet they can be a double-edged sword. Many retailers are excited to round up revenue for the year, but at the same time they need to be very well-prepared, or they’ll miss out on trade.” Ecommerce sites routinely crash during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, even after months of planning and IT investment. “Preparation is key,” says Tempestini. “To be successful, you need to stress-test all of your architecture – and understand if and when your APIs are going to play a major role in the strategy you’re adopting for seasonal peaks.” APIs are now both well understood and well regarded. A landmark report back in 2017, produced by McKinsey, estimated that the widespread use of APIs would add $1trillion to the global economy by 2022. The following year, open banking helped www.fintechf.com