Advanced Automation for Online Retailers
Imagine a world where product information is downloaded automatically and orders are created and processed without having to lift a finger. If you’re currently updating your product data and orders by hand, you can understand why the Doba Retailer API was developed. In most cases, updating product data by manipulating CSV files or hand-entering orders is a tedious and tiresome task. Doba understands these problems, which is why we built our API (Application Programming Interface) to simplify the man-hour-intensive tasks related to obtaining product data and processing orders. If you’re living this nightmare right now, the Doba Retailer API can become your dream come true.
The Doba API utilizes industry standard technology including SOAP and XML in an effort to simplify integration and ensure compatibility among software platforms. It allows you to utilize the Doba supply chain platform within your own application. The API includes functions to:
- Search the Doba product catalog
- Obtain detailed product information
- Find shipping and handling charges
- Submit orders
- Fund orders
- Obtain shipment information for orders when they ship
Additional functions enable partners to create retailer accounts or leads and manage the account through the member life cycle.
The Doba API is available in two flavors: one for official Doba business partners (e.g., a web store builders), and another for small- to medium-sized eCommerce companies who already have an established eCommerce business but want to add additional products to their catalog without having to warehouse those products (i.e., you, the Doba-affiliate retailer). Our membership for the second type of API customer is called Doba SMB.
Doba SMB is tailor-made for established retailers who want to automate their business with us. Doba SMB members have access to the Doba API as well as to our advanced data-export system with persistent URL’s. If you’re unfamiliar with them, persistent URL’s allow automated downloading of a CSV or XML file without having to log into the Doba website and request the download manually. The Doba SMB website is specifically designed to manage product data in more flexible ways. With our Warehouse Folder feature, our SMB members can organize products into custom categories that mimic the category structure of their existing stores, making it easier to pull the data into their store.
As explained above, the Doba API provides functions for accessing product information and processing orders, including:
Product API: The Product API allows access to our entire catalog (the Doba catalog), including supplier information, product titles, descriptions, images, pricing, category information and more. Partners can query a merchant’s Watchlists and obtain all products within those Watchlists, and Doba SMB members can query their Warehouse Folders. Inventory updates can also be requested on demand.
Order API: The Order API provides instant access to shipping and order totals for any item or items in the Doba catalog. Simply pass in all items that you want to order along with the shipping address. The Doba API returns an itemized breakdown of item costs, subtotals and shipping totals. Once the merchant confirms an order, it can be submitted to Doba and funded through the API, which in turn ensures that the order is sent to the supplier for fulfillment. Order updates, including status changes and tracking number updates, can also be obtained through the API throughout the order life cycle.
Callbacks: The Doba API is a “pull” system, in which you — the merchant — request data when needed. Although this works great for initial product data imports or creating orders, we still need to get product and order updates from the supplier as soon as the supplier updates it in the Doba platform. Doba solves this problem by “pushing” product and order updates to the merchant as soon as a supplier updates Doba with updates. This allows the merchant to be notified of any updates as soon as they happen rather than waiting for a scheduled update to occur. For callbacks to work, the merchant sets up a URL on their server and saves their URL in their Doba API settings. From then on, whenever a product or order is updated, Doba sends the update to the merchant’s callback URL.
Data Export: Doba’s SMB platform provides merchants with an advanced Data Export system that provides multiple export formats and is easily configured to export all product data requested or only products that have been recently updated by the supplier. Many retailers utilize this feature when working with large amounts of product data because of bandwidth and network latency slow-down that can occur when requesting so much data over an API connection. However, because export profiles can be created for both full product data as well as vital inventory information, exports can be utilized to keep your local product data updated quickly and easily.
So there you have it… a ton of information on our efforts to automate certain functions for online retailers. If you think you might be a good candidate for a Doba SMB membership, please contact Wes Lapioli, Doba SMB Account Consultant, at wlapioli [at] doba [dot] com or visit Doba SMB.
For more information regarding our API, please read our API Documentation or visit the Doba Developer Forum.
