8 Ways in which the APIs change the game in Retail and Ecommerce

Omnichannel, marketplace, new digital channels, real-time monitoring, offers based on context… an API platform enables a series of decisive advantages for competitiveness in the retail market and in ecommerces. Get to know some of them and the case of Natura (one of the largest and most innovative companies in Brazil):

New channels and partners

By using an API platform, it is possible to integrate with partners and e-commerce platforms that use APIs, offer their products in the digital channels of these companies and vice versa, or integrate with complementary services such as loyalty, financial, payments, insurance, among others.

Real-time monitoring and actions

With its integrated systems through a complete platform of APIs, you gain real-time monitoring of all the transactions that are being made in each channel (concluded or with errors), which can bring decisive insights for the marketing team and reduce the troubleshooting time of the support teams.

On the other hand, by integrating APIs through mobile technologies, IoT, AI can have the powerful ability to make specific offers according to the context and behavior of customers.

Omnichannel

The APIs allow the services of their internal systems to be entered by different interfaces and devices, enabling the customer’s routine without breaks through different channels (chatbots, ecommerce, apps, physical stores, partners etc.). See also What does it really mean to be Omnichannel?

Marketplaces

The marketplace strategy expands the product offer, reduces the need for stocks and efforts in logistics, which are from other companies. But the integration and monitoring of these companies, with security and agility, without APIs and a Dev Portal may prove unfeasible. With these resources, the integration with these companies can be completed in a few days.

Innovation

With open APIs, developers can easily create apps and business models by using the services and products available in their APIs, not to mention the facility to perform Hackathons, once the teams manage to quickly create their projects and MVPs, by reusing the APIs.

Integration and Promptness

The integration of internal systems with APIs prevents data from being fragmented, outdated, duplicated and allows it to be used by different applications when needed. A complete platform of APIs has various resources to optimize performance such as Caching, Data Transformation, Call Composition, Latency measurement etc.

On the other hand, having its internal services in APIs (which can be private, restricted or open) and available in a Dev Portal (with API catalog, permissions, documentation, examples, sdks, sandbox, trace etc.) allows a self-service integration of the equipment required and reduces the need for action by the support team, with control and monitoring.

Scalability and Security

A complete API management platform manages to apply a series of security mechanisms in the APIs flow (OAuth 2.0, injections, ip filtering, among others) and it is possible to install the platform in the cloud with auto-scaling, so that the platform continues to deal with calls, including a large variation in traffic, such as during Black Friday.

Monetization

In addition to the indirect income for the sale of the products with the use of the APIs, with a complete platform of APIs, it is possible to create different usage plans and monetization strategies of the APIs as Developer pays (pay-as-you-go, transaction fee, freemium etc.), Developer gets paid (rev-share, affiliate), single license or recurring collection, among other models.

Learn how Natura (one of the largest and most innovative companies in Brazil) is working on its API Strategy with the Sensedia API Platform: