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2 minute read
Welcome!
Welcome to Marketplacer and our range of APIs! We suspect that you want to get coding straight away so we won’t keep you here longer than needed.
What is Marketplacer?
Marketplacer is a SaaS platform used by some of the largest retailers in the world to extend their product offerings - in short we allow you to sell stuff you don’t own.
How does it work?
Marketplacer aggregates products from different Sellers that you can then pull through from Marketplacer and list to sell on your existing eCommerce frontend.
You then place orders back through Marketplacer for fulfilment by the relevant Seller.
Of course there is more to it than that, but that’s probably enough for the moment!
Which API do I use?
That is the main question you probably want an answer to, which depends on who you are, and what you want to do. We’ve provided a handy table below to help you decide.
| Who are you? | What do you want to do? | Which API? |
|---|---|---|
| I am running the marketplace (I am the Operator) | I want to connect Marketplacer into my existing eCommerce platform so that I can list new products for sale | Use the Operator API |
| I am a systems integrator (SI) | I have been asked by the marketplace operator to build an integration into their existing eCommerce frontend | Use the Operator API |
| I am a Seller on the marketplace | I want to automate the listing of my product set onto Marketplacer, as well as obtain and process orders | Use the Seller API |
| I am a Channel Manager | I want to allow my clients to sell on Marketplacer | Use the Seller API |
Building a service?
The table above answers which API. There is one more decision worth making early: how your code authenticates.
If you are building a service or integration — something that runs on a schedule or in the background, rather than a person clicking buttons — authenticate it as an OAuth client rather than with an API key belonging to a user. See OAuth for Services and Integrations.
What about webhooks?
Webhooks are typically used to compliment either an Operator or Seller integration, they provide create, update and destroy event notifications on a wide range of objects within Marketplacer.
You can read more about webhooks here.