Meet the 4 Core APIs for eBay Partners

eBay’s 4 Core APIs for Advanced Partner Success Custom-Build the Most Conversion-Centric and Scalable Site for Your Audience

What’s Inside Meet the eBay APIs

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Finding API

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Shopping API

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Merchandising API

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Buy APIs

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Meet the eBay APIs: Seamless Integration for Scalable Earning

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With eBay APIs, you can deliver a buying experience so convenient and unique that it will keep your visitors coming back for more.

Customers typically shop directly on the eBay marketplace. But did you know that you can communicate with our database to make your website their preferred shopping destination?

Our APIs are not dependent on the eBay user interface, which means you have the freedom to design the environment you want with the functionality and operations you need for optimal campaign performance. You’ll gain access to eBay’s price and product information for all eBay listings in real-time, and you can further enhance by pairing eBay user data with our powerful automation capabilities.

We have 20 XML, SOAP and RESTful APIs as well as Software Development Kits (SDKs) for Windows, Python and Java. To help you custom-build the most conversion-centric and scalable site for your audience, we’ve narrowed this list down to 4 core APIs that have proven to be the most successful with eBay Partner Network’s marketing partners. In this guide, we’ll take the time to break each of these down and provide deeper insight into how and why you should use them.

The 4 core buyer-focused APIs that we’ll cover are: 1

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Our Finding API, which uses eBay’s next generation search technology to ensure relevant results for visitors browsing eBay through your site.

Our Shopping API that programmatically retrieves detailed information that you would otherwise need to pull manually from eBay.com.

Our Merchandising API, often used to cross-promote and up-sell eBay listings to buyers.

The newest family on the block: our new suite of Buy APIs, which enable your shoppers to checkout and track orders without visiting the eBay site.

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All the APIs have a complete set of documentation, which includes call samples, making it easy to check out the capabilities of specific APIs. Before you can try any APIs, you’ll need to join the eBay Developer community with over 360,000 members from 190 countries and counting. Membership is FREE, and you can use virtually any programming language to interface with eBay. Program in C#, Java, Perl,

Click Here to Join the Developers Program Now

PHP, Visual Basic or another language.

After joining the Developers Program, you will have access the passwordprotected developer portal for members only. This portal provides tools and support that allow you to generate auth tokens, test your application in the Sandbox, use the API Explorer to try out calls, and more, such as the Quick Start Guide that will help you make a call to the LIVE eBay site in under 5 minutes!

If you have any questions in the meantime, we’re here to help.

Reach out to us directly at:

AskEPN@eBay.com 6

Meet the Finding API: Arming Your Site with eBay’s Next Generation Search Technology

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In the introduction to this guide, Meet the

The Finding API is most useful for partners

eBay APIs, we briefly previewed the 4 core

who want to enable their visitors to find

APIs for eBay partners – the Finding, Shopping,

the perfect listing on eBay without leaving

Merchandising and Buy APIs.

their website.

Here, we’ll dive deeper into the first – and perhaps one of the most widely used – API that our partners favor: the Finding API.

●● Search for items based on a keyword

Used by a diverse range of partners, from deal promoters to downloadable tools and shopping comparison sites, the Finding API is powered by eBay’s own next generation search technology. Upon integration, you’ll have programmatic access to useful metadata that will help you create a hyper-relevant retail

or in a specific product ●● Browse through items in a specific category or in an eBay store ●● Filter their results by listing details, such as price, condition, listing type, and more ●● Refine searches by the characteristics of an item (i.e., aspects), such as brand, style, size or color ●● View category and aspect metadata ●● Get keyword recommendations to improve search results

experience for your shoppers.

Here’s one example how an eBay Partner of 10 years, CollectorsWeekly.com, uses the Finding API:

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Additionally, you can display category and

For example, on CollectorsWeekly.com, users

aspect information with this API. For example,

can search in major and sub-categories, such

when you pull through products in the Shoes

as Design > Fine Art > Media > Paintings.

category, you may also display aspects such as Style, Color and Shoe Size. If promoting products in the Digital Cameras category, you might also show the aspects of Product Type, Brand, Megapixels and Optical Zoom.

“Thanks to the Finding API,” adds Collectors Weekly’s General Manager Ben Marks, “our users can also sort eBay auctions by Highest Bid, Ending Soonest, and even Most Watched.”

And when your users are looking for something super specific, they’ll be able to find it quickly on your site. Just like on user-friendly search engines, the search functionality within the Finding API utilizes a keywords field to build a query.

By entering two or three descriptive words about the product they are looking for, your shoppers will simply be able to see the products that are the closest matches.

Similar to our advanced search criteria on ebay.com, your visitors will be able to narrow their searches in a variety of ways.

Sometimes, of course, users aren’t sure what they’re looking for, or they just want to window-shop and scroll through items. With the findItemsByCategory call, users can browse items in specific categories. With findItemsIneBayStores, they can browse items by eBay store.

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The full list of calls for this API include: ●● findItemsByKeywords: Finds items based on keywords. ●● findItemsByCategory: Finds items in a specific category or a list of categories. ●● findItemsAdvanced: Finds items by a keywords and/or a category. Optionally, you can have keyword queries that search the item descriptions, in addition to searching the item title and subtitles. ●● findItemsByProduct: Finds items based upon a product ID, such as an ISBN, UPC, EAN, or ePID. ●● findItemsIneBayStores: Finds all the items in a specific eBay store or can use keywords to search for items in a specific store.

For all the calls listed above, you can refine the results by eBay site, item fields, and aspect filters. You can also add seller, store, unit price, etc, as well as sort and paginate the results. ●● getHistograms: Retrieves category and/or aspect histogram information for the specified category. ●● getSearchKeywordsRecommendation: Finds the most commonly used words on eBay with respect to the keywords. ●● findCompletedItems: Finds items whose listings are completed and are no longer available for sale by a keyword query and/or category.

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Meet the Shopping API: Programmatically Integrate Your App with eBay

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We’re continuing to dissect the ways you can manage your very own piece of eBay’s distributed commerce landscape.

Let’s look under the hood of one of the easiest ways to help shoppers find eBay items off of eBay – the Shopping API. A fast and flexible way to retrieve live eBay data, the Shopping API is perfect for partners whose audience uses their apps or sites to shop eBay. By facilitating programmatic interactions with the eBay marketplace, the eBay Shopping API lets you request information using just a URL, then receive data in XML, JSON, SOAP, or eBay’s simple Name/Value format. It’s simple to authenticate (no token required) and embeds easily into app interfaces.

Long-time eBay partner Watchcount.com uses the Shopping API to provide specific details about a listing that are sometimes difficult to locate on the eBay View Item Page.

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Retrieving data from eBay with the Shopping API is as easy as these two simple steps: 1. Sign up and get an AppID. How do I get an AppID? 2. Click the button to search for popular items on eBay related to

For example, if an app user is looking for Bose headphones: 1. The user enters “Bose headphones” in your cool mobile app.

2. Your app makes a search request for “Bose headphones” using the Shopping API. 3. The eBay service looks for “Bose headphones” and sends the response back to you via the API. 4. Your app displays the search results to the user.

your product(s) of choice.

The Shopping API even enables you to dive deeper and display products in sub-category layers. On WatchCount, users are able to search with a Category drop-down menu to find the products they want:

“Whereas the Finding API is mostly focused on delivering the data for current, active items for sale on eBay,” explains the owner of WatchCount, “the Shopping API is generally geared for a developer needing to obtain background eBay data on items, categories, and more.”

“This can help flesh out the functionality and UI of eBay-enabled website, tool, or app.”

A few different ways partners use the Finding and Shopping APIs together include: ●● Partner Marketing: Connect your users to eBay’s best items and categories via your app’s search functionality and earn a percentage of eBay’s revenue share.

Shoppers can browse eBay’s entire marketplace without ever leaving your site.

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●● Selling: If you’re a seller, highlight your eBay listings on your own website to earn commissions on your own sales funnel. ●● Cross-Promotion: Make money even when your items don’t sell. Choose from the over 1 billion listings on eBay to promote products that your buyers don’t even know they want yet. ●● Subscriptions: Once your app’s value is validated, consider the “freemium” model. It may cost nothing to download, but users can upgrade to a paid subscription with extra features. ●● Offer a Service: Further monetize your API-driven “line into eBay” as a service.

Offer eBay sellers assistance in doing things like market research and custom searches.

See the Shopping API Tutorials for an example of using the Shopping and Finding APIs together.

The calls in the Shopping API include: Call

Summary Searches for stock product descriptions, such as information

FindProducts

about a particular kind of DVD or camera. This call can retrieve up to 200 eBay listings associated with a product.

GetCategoryInfo GeteBayTime GetItemStatus

GetMultipleItems GetShippingCosts GetSingleItem

Gets high-level category information. You can use this call to get details about a category and its children.

Gets the official listing time in GMT. Gets the status for a group of items, including information such as Listing Status and End Time for all items submitted in the request.

Gets much of the information that is visible on a listing’s View Item page on eBay for one or more listings.

Gets shipping costs for an item.

Gets the information that is visible on a listing’s View Item page on eBay for one specific listing.

Gets user information based on the user ID you specify. The

GetUserProfile

response contains detailed information about a user, and you can specify the types of user information you want in the response.

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Meet the Merchandising API: Your Gateway to Higher Revenue per Conversion

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It’s time to uncap your earning potential with the Merchandising API – the simplest way to increase your buyers’ cart sizes.

Once integrated, the Merchandising API

Designed to help you drive more commissions

enables you to cross-sell and up-sell to your

per sale, this API retrieves valuable, dynamic

shoppers by providing them with additional

information about live products and pairs

product recommendations for them to add

them with your buyers’ searches or selection

to their order. It can be used independently,

activities in real-time to make relevant

but when used in combination with the

purchase suggestions. As a result, you can

Finding and Shopping APIs, it can create

deliver a personalized shopping experience

rich, competitive applications.

that simultaneously increases your revenue.

By matching simple inputs, such as a query, an item ID, or a category ID, to user behavior, the Merchandising API returns the following types of merchandise recommendations:

Most watched items

Related category items

Top-selling products

A few different ways eBay partners leverage the Merchandising API: ●● Improving their site experiences: When combined with information from other eBay APIs, Merchandising API data plays an integral part to building complete shopping, buying, or selling applications that elevate the shopping experience for visitors.

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●● Offering the best selection: Our product recommendations enhance the eBay inventory your buyers are already considering in the form of cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. The getRelatedCategoryItems call, for example, does this well by displaying items related to the specified category or item ID of the product your visitor is viewing. ●● Capturing impulse sales: Spark excitement and prompt action among your audience by showing them what other people who viewed the same products are watching with the getMostWatchedItems call.

To also pull in what people are buying or searching for on eBay, you can use the getMerchandisedProducts call of the Buy Marketing API, or the FindPopularItems and FindPopularSearches calls of the Shopping API. ●● Optimizing campaign strategies: The Merchandising API provides data that can help you make the most of eBay’s 1 billion listings. Data about eBay buying habits can inform your decisions about which inventory and price points are best to promote to your buyers. The getMostWatchedItems call provides the current price for the most watched items, which gives you insight into your audience’s spending trends.

The Merchandising API works similarly to other eBay APIs. For example, the Merchandising API uses the same authentication as the Shopping API (you can even use the same AppID). HTTP POST and HTTP GET methods are both supported and work in SOAP, XML, and name-value (NV) formats.

Please note: Not every feature is supported on every eBay site.

See the API documentation for a list of supported sites.

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Meet the Buy APIs: Let Your Visitors Shop, Purchase and Track Orders Without Ever Leaving Your Site

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With our Buy APIs, you can create a complete conversion-centric experience in your app or on your site that enables your shoppers to checkout and track orders without ever visiting eBay.

Once integrated, you become the new point of sale with a streamlined path to conversion. You can present the most pertinent listings, curate inventory for custom user experiences, increase your buyer’s cart size and expedite checkouts.

Used by a diverse range of partners, from deal promoters to downloadable tools and shopping comparison sites, the Finding API is powered by eBay’s own next generation search technology. Upon integration, you’ll have programmatic access to useful metadata that will help you create a hyper-relevant retail experience for your shoppers.

Watch: Buy APIs at Scale

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This suite contains 4 powerful and complementary RESTful APIs that use OAuth authentication, JSON payloads and eBay HTTP headers.

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Meet shoppers’ keyword and category search criteria with the Browse API

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Curate, mirror and update inventory with the Feed API

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Cross-promote and upsell with the Marketing API

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Close the sale right where it started with the Order API

1 Give them exactly what they want with the Browse API. Convert visitors based on their specific keyword and category searches, and boost their likelihood of making a purchase with optimized search results further refined by: ●● Buying options

●● UPC value

●● Conditions

●● eBay Product ID (EPID)

●● Listing format

●● Global Trade Item Number (GTIN)

●● Price range

●● Location

●● Product aspects such as Brand and Color

●● And more!

(enabling you to surface histograms) By default, their search returns matching items on eBay. Yet, in addition to (or instead of) matching items, you can choose to return the aspects, buying options, conditions and categories of the items found.

Once the shopper has found what they want, you can use the getItem call to show the item’s details that encourage purchasing: ●● Discounts

●● Return policy

●● Product reviews

●● Seller’s feedback score 23

Be platform agnostic with the Feed API. Leverage the depth and breadth of our inventory and create rich shopping experiences with the best of eBay’s 1 billion listings. Leverage the TSV_GZIP feed files of daily newly listed eBay marketplace items across all categories and hourly snapshot files of the items that have changed within the hour, for a specific category and date. ●● Host an ecommerce platform of live listings ●● Enable offline, custom-curation of eBay inventory for your shoppers using any of the 50+ fields returned in the feed files ●● Pair with the Browse API to get the real-time price, availability and other information The list of category IDs for a specific eBay marketplace is available through the Taxonomy API. Currently, the Feed API is only available for the ebay.com, ebay.co.uk and ebay.de marketplaces.

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Inspire shoppers to spend more with the Marketing API. This API helps increase your commission per checkout by injecting product discovery into your site’s experience based on product demand metrics, such as Best Selling, as well as reviews, context, or where the buyer is in the purchasing process. ●● Highlight the products that are currently the Best Selling on eBay ●● Cross-promote products that were also purchased and viewed by shoppers who bought those items ●● Upsell by showing product collections based on demand, product ratings and how other eBay shoppers discovered products By introducing your buyers to this inventory, you are prompting them through a step-by-step funnel (Awareness > Comparison > Conversion > Bundling) that will increase your commissions per transaction. You can even build landing page modules with these collections. For more information, see our Buy API requirements.

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4 Execute sales on-site with the Order API. Help your buyers over the finish line faster with a truly uninterrupted, seamless shopping experience. ●● The Order API supports secure checkouts for eBay guests with credit card transactions ●● Your buyers can view order details such as shipment status once the order has been placed ●● Customer service requests, such as cancellations and refunds, will all be handled by eBay In order to process, transmit or store cardholder data, you must comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). See our production eligibility requirements for information about production and PCI compliance.

The Browse, Marketing and Feed APIs are available to explore in sandbox or through the API Explorer today for anyone who has an eBay Developer’s account*.

For the Order API, please submit a quick and simple application here.

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Please Note: eBay is working toward a General Availability (GA) release for the Buy APIs, which are currently in Beta. We want to make sure they are up-to-par for our users before we release them.

Once all changes have been finalized, each API must be rigorously tested for all of the new use cases, such as support for additional marketplaces. We are targeting GA releases for some of the Buy APIs this year, so please watch the eBay Developers Program Blog for announcements.

As outlined in the API launch stages, the GA release is an indication of API maturity and stability.

However, GA release does not mean that these APIs will be fully public, the current production eligibility requirements will continue to apply.

*If you haven’t yet, you can join the eBay Developer community, which includes over 360,000 members from 190 countries and counting. Membership is FREE, and you can use virtually any programming language to interface with eBay. If you’d like to discuss further with a member of the eBay Partnerships team before joining eBay Developers, email us at:

AskEPN@eBay.com 27

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