How to Develop Successful Dropshipping Software Integration with eCommerce Platforms

Nataliia Kovalchuk
4 min readJun 15, 2021

Software providers in the retail industry need to utilize the best tools in their “arsenal” to offer all of their service capabilities to e-shop owners and outperform their competitors. Dropshipping solutions that want to thrive have a guaranteed way to overcome obstacles and get ahead of the competition: developing integration with eCommerce platforms.

As a dropshipping software, it’s essential to realize that your business is highly dependent upon integrations with multiple eCommerce platforms. This means you have to develop connections between your solution and various shopping platforms like Magento, Amazon, Shopify, WooCommerce, OpenCart, to gain access to all the necessary data that you need to manage your clients’ stores.

Without having access to your customers’ store data, you won’t be able to perform the main functionalities your solution offers. You’ll also be beaten by your competitors, which will be able to provide a superior range of services to your target industry.

Below, we want to get deeper into the actual process of developing a stable integration between your dropshipping software and multiple shopping platforms. We’ll also look at the main benefits you can get out of successful integration, along with the potential pitfalls associated with manual integration.

Why does your Dropshipping System need to be Connected to Shopping Platforms?

A dropshipping solution enables e-merchants to pack and then ship customer orders seamlessly. In the dropshipping model, online store owners partner with wholesale suppliers. Those suppliers are responsible for shipping the orders directly to e-store customers. So the only thing e-merchants should be doing seems to be transferring customer orders and deliveries. E-store owners choose to work with dropshipping businesses to avoid dealing with inventory, shipping, transportation, and order fulfillment.

For a dropshipping software to be able to offer its functionality to the end-users, it needs to be able to work with customer e-store data. They need to have unrestricted access to information concerning orders, products, inventory, and buyer information such as shipping address, email, or phone number.

Dropshipping automation systems are powered by the connection with different stores located on various shopping platforms. In order to be able to work with all of this vast amount of data, these software need to be able to integrate their systems with shopping platforms. This enables them to synchronize orders, product info, and customer data across a wide range of systems and platforms, thus ensuring all orders are shipped within a predefined time frame to the right users.

In the end, the quality of any dropshipping software depends quite a lot on the stability of this system’s integration with shopping platforms.

The Benefits and Pitfalls of Shopping Platform Integration Development

Integrating your dropshipping software with multiple shopping platforms comes with the following benefits:

  • Quick access to all the data your software needs in order to provide all of its main features. It includes e-store info on orders, products, etc.
  • Gain the ability to work with millions of potential clients. The more integrations you perform, the more prospective customers you’ll gain access to.
  • Enjoy the opportunity to expand your market share. With reliable integrations, you can get a shot at becoming a global leader in your own industry. Of course, you can also attack local markets using specific platforms such as Zen Cart, in addition to going global using shopping platforms like Shopify, Magento, or WooCommerce.
  • Boost your profits like never before. More customers and a higher degree of visibility in your market translate into a considerable increase in your company’s profits.

While these benefits all look amazing, you should also be aware of the integration pitfalls you might fall into. Let’s explore some of these below:

  • Just a single connection developed with one shopping platform takes between 4 and 8 weeks. You can do the math by yourself, especially if you’re keen on integrating your dropshipping software with 4–5 shopping platforms.
  • The integration process is quite complex and requires specific skills that only high-quality specialists possess
  • Because each shopping platform has its API architecture and specific code, you need to work with developers who have experience setting up the integration
  • Each integration requires further maintenance and regular updating

How API2Cart Works for Implementing Dropshipping Integration

API2Cart is a modern service that can take the weight of integration off of your shoulders. API2Cart has developed a robust solution that can perform a flawless integration between dropshipping software and 40+ shopping platforms.

API2Cart unified API and API methods enable you as a dropshipping software to retrieve, update, add, delete and sync all of the necessary information so that you can make your business thrive. With API2Cart, you can seamlessly integrate your system with all the leading eCommerce solutions, such as BigCommerce, Magento, Hybris, OpenCart, Amazon, eBay, PrestaShop, or Ecwid.

Using API2Cart, your dropshipping software can do the following:

  • Integrate with countless platforms and gather all the data required to perform your business operations
  • Retrieve customer info, including billing details, name, and shipping address, with the purpose of offering superior dropshipping services
  • Get orders and sync orders on several shopping platforms to satisfy your customers’ needs and offer them the guarantee of a well-performed service

Instead of performing manual integrations and spending tens of thousands of dollars over several months, with API2Cart, you can spend a fraction of that amount and get your integrations with several platforms simultaneously.

It is possible to use API2Cart and all its functionality for 30 days for free. All that is required to do is to register a free account.

Originally published at https://dev.to on June 15, 2021.

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