How to Get and Manage Shopping Cart Data
Nowadays, the ability to access shopping cart data is becoming increasingly important for various types of eCommerce software. For example, solutions like WMS, ERP, order and inventory management, shipping management software need to manage shopping cart data to perform their key functions.
To grow your software business in 2021 and reach more online sellers, you need to learn how to get and manage shopping cart data. Below, we’ll show you how to do that using the power of eCommerce API integration, and we’ll show you step-by-step how to seamlessly develop a stable shopping cart data integration with multiple shopping platforms.
Types of Shopping Carts
Before we take a detailed look at the type of data you can get from shopping carts and explore the main aspects of API data integration, let’s know more about the main types of shopping carts. You can find open source and closed source shopping carts.
Some of the open source carts available today are WooCommerce, Magento, OpenCart, X-Cart, or CS-Cart. On the other hand, the closed source cart list includes big platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Lightspeed, and Ecwid.
As for the differences between the two, open source shopping carts use code that is freely available online, while closed source shopping carts use proprietary code that is usually closely guarded. While open source platforms allow anyone to update and copy or modify the code, closed source platforms only allow the original author of the code to access and work with it.
Each type of shopping cart software has its own characteristics. However, open source platforms have key differences from their counterparts. For example, closed source shopping carts tend to be more expensive, but they also offer a higher level of customer support and more features. In addition, closed source platforms have better-written documentation and tend to be more secure because the code is not readily accessible to cybercriminals.
What Kind Of Data Is it Possible To Get from Shopping Carts?
As an eCommerce software solution, it is your responsibility to be able to access the data from your customers’ stores based on various shopping platforms. We are talking about e-store orders, prices, products, customer data, and categories. All this data is necessary for you to provide your functionality to your end customers.
Regardless of what type of eCommerce software you offer, you must have full access to shopping cart data. This allows you to track changes for e-stores’ customers, orders, and products in real-time, import such data into your system, update and delete it.
The access to product data allows multichannel systems to create product listings across different platforms from one place. Marketing automation software uses data about products to send automated emails to eShop customers with discounts, special offers, etc.
The access to order data enables inventory management solutions to update the availability of each product in stock and synchronize inventory levels across various platforms. Shipping management systems use such data to create shipments, generate shipping labels, etc.
Main Aspects of API Data Integration
Having robust API data integrations with numerous eCommerce platforms is an essential part of every eCommerce software business.
API data integration in the eCommerce industry means the process of connecting various software and applications to the shopping carts and marketplaces. With data integration, you can obtain a vast amount of information that will allow your software to perform its functions.
Connecting your system to shopping platform APIs not only allows you to access valuable shopping cart data, but also streamline your processes and better manage information about products, orders, or shipping details. On top of that, API data integration allows you to reach new customers in various other industries and grow your business like never before.
Nevertheless, it is important to be aware of the potential pitfalls of API data integration. Setting up a connection with only a single shopping cart is a very tedious process that takes a lot of time and comes at a high cost on your part. It also requires an ongoing investment of time and money in updating, troubleshooting, optimization, and maintenance.
How to Develop Data Integration with Multiple Shopping Platforms?
The great news is that shopping cart data integration doesn’t have to be complicated, and it definitely doesn’t need to cost tens of thousands of dollars in the long run. You can now cut costs and enjoy a quick integration within just a few days using a special eCommerce platform integration tool.
API2Cart is a unified shopping cart data interface that allows you to connect your software to 40+ shopping carts like Magento, Shopify, WoCommerce, Volusion, etc, and get the data from them. Using API2Cart enables you to save time and costs on integrations and reduce your TCO and enjoy happier and broader clientele.
However, as a high-volume eCommerce software provider, you can get a chance to use API2Cart Enterprise On-Premise Solution. This bespoke solution allows you to benefit from premium customer support, dedicated account manager, and choose the desired platform for using the service like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, etc.
