The eBay Buy API suite enables you to create a complete conversion-centric mobile or desktop experience that enables your shoppers to check out 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.

 

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

  • The Browse API delivers shoppers’ keyword and category search criteria
  • The Feed API curates, mirrors, and updates inventory
  • The Marketing API cross-promotes and upsells
  • The Order API closes the sale right where it started

 

 

Let’s dive a bit deeper and explore each API:

 

The Browse API

This API provides your visitors with exactly what they want, and converts them based on specific keyword and category searches, which boosts their likelihood of making a purchase.

 

This API’s optimized search results are further refined by:

  • Product aspects such as Brand and Color (enabling you to surface histograms)
  • Buying options
  • Conditions
  • Listing format
  • Price range
  • UPC value
  • eBay Product ID (EPID)
  • Global Trade Item Number (GTIN)
  • Location

 

By default, their search displays matching items on eBay. But you could also choose to return additional aspects, buying options, conditions, and categories of the items found.

 

Once the shopper finds what they want, you can use the getItem call to show item details that encourage purchasing, such as:

  • Discounts
  • Product reviews
  • Return policy
  • Seller’s feedback score

 

The Feed API

This API (which requires special permission to access) leverages the depth and breadth of our inventory to create rich shopping experiences with the best of eBay’s billion-plus listings. Leverage the TSV_GZIP feed files of daily, newly-listed eBay marketplace items across all categories, as well as hourly snapshots of items that changed within a specific category and date.

 

This will enable you to:

  • Host an ecommerce platform of live listings
  • Provide offline, custom-curated eBay inventory for your shoppers using any of the 50+ fields returned in the feed files
  • Integrate with the Browse API to get real-time prices, availability, and other information.

 

The list of category IDs for a specific eBay marketplace is available through the Taxonomy API. 

 

Learn more with the Feed API Playbook

 

The Marketing API

This API increases your commissions by injecting product discovery into your site’s experience based on product demand metrics such as “Best Selling,” as well as reviews, context, and where the buyer is in the purchasing process.

 

This API will help you:

  • Highlight the current best-selling products on eBay.
  • Cross-promote additional products that were also bought at the same time by previous shoppers.
  • Show 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. 

 

The Order API

This API helps your buyers checkout faster through an uninterrupted, seamless shopping experience.

 

This API enables:

  • Secure checkouts for eBay guests with credit cards
  • Buyers to view order details such as shipment status after their order is placed
  • eBay to handle customer service requests, such as cancellations and refunds

 

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.

 

To access the Order API, you need to submit an application.

 

The Browse, Marketing and Feed APIs are available to explore in sandbox or through the API Explorer today for anyone with an eBay Developer’s account. If you don’t have one yet, you can join the eBay Developer community today. Membership is free, and you can use virtually any programming language to interface with eBay.

 

You can also track API versions and ensure you meet the Buy API eligibility requirements.