An online store is a perfect vehicle for selling your products or services to a broader audience. But, creating an e-commerce website and adding a few levels of interactivity is not enough to make a competitive online store. To stand out in the crowd of countless online stores, you need to have a well-executed plan incorporating APIs that give you complete control over the app’s functionality and user experience.

This article lists some of the best APIs for building an online store. Each of these APIs has unique features suited to different e-commerce use cases, but all will help bring features into your store faster than if you were to build them yourself. Read on to get acquainted with these useful APIs and decide which is right for you!

E-commerce and Payments

First, let’s take a look at some general e-commerce platforms and payment solutions that can be integrated with APIs.

Shopify

If you’re choosing to use Shopify as your eCommerce platform, you can access its API to create an interactive shopping experience that lets customers browse products and view details, as well as purchase items easily with one click. Shopify also allows you to create more personalized product pages that include dynamic content, such as reviews and recommendations, to make your store more attractive to potential buyers.

Stripe

Stripe is a popular payments processing platform that enables businesses to accept and process payments online. The Stripe API allows businesses to process payments by creating and managing charges, refunds, and transfers. Stripe’s API is designed for simplicity, with documentation and examples for many programming languages that make it easy to integrate into your eCommerce store. The developer-friendly service is designed to be easy to access and use, so you can get to work building your site quickly.

PayPal

If you want to accept online payments and avoid building a complicated payment system from scratch, using an API like PayPal’s Standard API will allow you to get started straight away. If you’re selling products, you can integrate PayPal Standard API into your store to let customers pay with their PayPal accounts. If you’re selling services, you can use the PayPal Mass Payment API to accept customer payments and distribute the funds to your bank account at a specified time.

Shopping Cart

Shopify Cart API

The Shopify Cart API is a powerful tool for managing your shopping cart and checkout process. With this API, you can add, remove, and update items in your cart, as well as apply discounts and coupons. You can also manage your shipping and billing information and track your order history. The Shopify Cart API is easy to use and makes shopping on Shopify a breeze.

Amazon Shopping Cart API

The Amazon Shopping Cart API allows developers to programmatically add and remove items from a user’s shopping cart. This can be used to build e-commerce applications or to provide a way for users to manage their shopping carts on your website. The API also allows developers to access Amazon’s shopping cart and checkout systems to create their own shopping and checkout experiences for Amazon customers. The API is built on top of the Amazon Product API and uses the same authentication methods.

Inventory

SellerCloud API

SellerCloud’s Inventory API allows you to manage your inventory levels and stock data directly from your systems and applications in real time. Using the API, you can fetch inventory data for specific products and SKUs, update inventory levels, and track stock movements.

The API is also fully compatible with SellerCloud’s Order Management and Shipping solutions, so you can automatically update inventory levels and stock data when orders are placed or shipped. You can also use the API to create a shopping cart or checkout flow for your customers.

eBay Sell Inventory API

If you’re planning to manage your own inventory, you’ll need to use an API to track stock and manage sales. The eBay Sell Inventory API allows you to access eBay’s inventory management system and sell your products from your own website. The eBay Sell Inventory API lets sellers programmatically manage their inventory on eBay. With this API, sellers can create and update listings, track inventory levels, and view sales reports. The API also provides endpoints for managing orders, managing returns, and managing buyer messages.

Shipping & Delivery Charge Estimates

ShipEngine API

If you want to offer shipping to your customers, you can use an API to access information about shipping rates, locations, and more. The ShipEngine API is an eCommerce shipping API that lets you access real-time rates and information about shipping services, locations, and rates from major shipping companies. You can use the ShipEngine API to create a shipping estimator on your site.

EasyPost API

The EasyPost API is another shipping API that allows you to access data about shipping companies, locations, and rates. You can also use the EasyPost API to create a shipping calculator for your website. These APIs offer a quick way to create an online store with all the necessary functionality. If you want to get your store up and running as quickly as possible, using one of these APIs is a great way to do so.

Final Words

With these above APIs, you can solve many of the features required within an online store, including payment processing, inventory tracking, shipping estimations, and more. Using APIs means you don’t have to reinvent the wheel for common functions.

Choosing the best API for your website can be a difficult task, and our list above is by no means exhaustive. What services are you using to craft your online store? Let us know in the comments below!