Last updated - November 29, 2021
Managing an e-commerce website can be difficult and expensive. However, thanks to APIs and widgets, life becomes a lot easier for those managing these platforms. With that in mind, here are 8 types of APIs that you must have on your e-commerce platform.
#1 Payment Gateway API
From handling customer data to keeping transactions and the whole system secured, the gateways take care of it all. Stripe and WooCommerce are two of the more popular choices in this regard. These widgets and APIs are easy to install and can be used for both hard-coded websites, as well as CMS-based websites.
#2 Weather API
Having a weather API is beneficial for multiple reasons. It will do your visitors a good service by informing them about the latest weather forecasts. Modern weather APIs are designed to stay minimalist. So with the combination of a simple icon and number, the API will tell visitors whether it is sunny, rainy, cloudy, or if there is a chance of a thunderstorm or any other adverse weather condition.
For more advanced functionalities, try Tomorrow.io, which is Tomorrow’s weather API. It is designed to provide you with the latest weather data, and give you smart suggestions thanks to something it calls “weather intelligence.” Customers can check the API and be aware of the weather conditions for the coming days. They can then plan their purchase and delivery accordingly.
#3 Product Information and Catalog API
With such types of API, it becomes a lot easier to set up your products on your website. Within just 2 minutes, you can add thousands of new products, update the catalog, make modifications to product descriptions, and so on. Such APIs make things very convenient for everyone, especially those running online stores.
#4 Search Feature
Given that you are going to have thousands of products listed on your platform, you must have a search feature API that will allow customers to look for their desired products easily. Along with a plain search, you should keep an option for advanced or filtered search results. Using an API will make this a lot easier.
You simply need to specify the parameters you want in your search option, and the API will take care of the rest. The API will run the search request throughout the entire website, fetching you results that match your product or have similar keywords.
#5 Cart API
Apart from helping customers get all their products into a single list, the cart also allows them to utilize various coupons and discount vouchers available to them. The cart API is also responsible for collecting valuable information like delivery address, date, time, and also lets users select the mode of payment. It then connects the cart to the payment gateway so that users can carry on with the payment.
#6 Price Comparison API
Although not an absolute necessity, having a price comparison API will not hurt. What it does is give your customers the chance to compare prices between a wide range of products, and then come to a decision on which one to buy. A lot of customers find such APIs very useful, so you should consider having one set up on your website.
#7 Marketing API
One of the main purposes of the marketing API is to collect user email addresses and then help you with email marketing. The email addresses are collected at the time they sign up for your platform. You can then use the API or widget to schedule various offers or campaigns for your customers and have them delivered to their email addresses accordingly.
#8 Recommendation Engine
These APIs are vital to any e-commerce business. The recommender API keeps track of what a customer is buying and what they are frequently searching for and then tries to establish a buying pattern for them. It also fetches the cookies from the customer’s browser to create a more efficient model of what they are searching for and buying online.
Afterward, the API starts to understand what the customer might be interested in, and then provides them with product suggestions. It is because of this recommender engine that you find your suggestions list so accurate.
For your e-commerce website, you should seriously consider integrating at least five or six of the aforementioned APIs. By doing so, you can enhance the user experience, as well as manage the platform a lot better.
