eBay Shopping API
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eBay Shopping API
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This document gives you a quick overview of the Shopping API, answers common questions, and points you to other resources where you can learn more.
The eBay Shopping API makes it easy to search for things on eBay. It has been optimized to make it:
For more features of the Shopping API, see eBay Shopping Web Services Benefits.
See the Call Reference.
The eBay Shopping Web Services currently supports these formats:
eBay also offers a JavaScript Toolkit and a Flash Toolkit (coming soon!) to make it easier to work with these formats.
The eBay Shopping Web Services makes it so easy to make a call that you can start retrieving data from eBay in 2 steps!
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If you've never used eBay Web Services, the following sections will help you understand and use the APIs.
eBay APIs let you programmatically do the same things you would do on the eBay web site. With a little programming skill and some creativity you can do these things even faster and better than the eBay site can.
eBay Shopping Web Services is one of the ways that developers can programmatically interact with the eBay website. eBay Shopping Web Services lets you ask eBay for information using just a URL, then get back data in XML, JSON, SOAP, or eBay's simple Name Value format. Apply a stylesheet, and you have just re-created an eBay search without ever going on the eBay site.
This Getting Started Guide focuses on the simplest way to to use the Shopping API: using a URL as input, and getting XML back. However, you can also use SOAP and JSON. For information on other input and output formats you can use with the Shopping API, see Making an API Call.
The Shopping API lets you take the search off of eBay and put it on your own site, or in your own application. You may be able to make the buying experience even better than eBay does, and when users buy something or become eBay members after going through your app, you make money!
Keep reading to learn how!
Here are six popular ways:
If you're a seller, highlight your eBay auctions on other sites, and sell more items.
Make eBay Affiliate commissions by driving new users or bids to eBay.
For more information about the Affiliate Program, see eBay Partner Network.
eBay sellers can now make commissions on their own items. So you can highlight your own auctions on your site, get money from the sale of that item, and get a commission too!
For more information about the Affiliate Program, see eBay Partner Network.
Write a creative application and you can charge users to download your application. You write the app once and get paid for it many times.
Use your API-driven "line into eBay" to offer eBay buyers and sellers assitence in doing things like market research and custom searches.
Why limit yourself to just one revenue stream? Write an app and offer a service add-on. Or throw affiliate revenue into the mix. As long as you comply with Developer Program regulations, you are limited only by your imagination!
If you introduce a new person to eBay, or help them find an item they need, everyone wins! eBay gets a new user or another sale, the user gets a great item, and you get a nice commission.
For more information on the Affiliate Program, including commission payouts, see eBay Partner Network.
Sign up with the eBay Partner Network. When new users go to eBay from your site, you get credit when they become new users or buy items.
For instructions on how to get an Affiliate ID, see How Do I Get an Affiliate ID?
There are a lot of things you can do with the code you get back from eBay. In our examples, we've assumed you're getting back XML. One thing you can do with the XML is apply an XSLT stylesheet and reformat the XML code into HTML.
Raw XML Code
XML Code with Stylesheet Applied
See the W3Schools XSLT Tutorial for information on how to create an XSLT stylesheet.
Create an XSLT stylesheet and add a line to your XML that references it.
Raw XML Response
Raw XML Response Referencing a StyleSheet
See the W3Schools XSLT Tutorial for information on how to create an XSLT stylesheet.
Sometimes you just don't need that much information!
We call eBay's Trading Web Services the "Trading" API because you can list items, get item information, and just generally manage your eBay sales and purchases. But if all you want to do is help people buy things, then the eBay Shopping Web Services may be best for you.
Optimized for buyer shopping and browsing.
Designed to provide robust support for transactional activities.
Yes! You can mix and match calls from each API, as long as you point each call at the right gateway URL for that API. For more details on the features of each API, see the Documentation Center.
Some people may build an app on top of the Shopping API and decide later that they want to add functionality (for example, managing their messages) that's only available in the Trading API. That is not a problem.
For more details on the features of each API, see the Documentation Center.
A eBay Shopping Web Services request is composed of several different pieces:
Call Building Blocks (URL-format input, HTTP Get)
For details on the other input styles, including HTTP Post requests, see Making an API Call.
Join the eBay Developers Program.
Follow the instructions for joining the eBay Partner Network at https://www.ebaypartnernetwork.com.
The Shopping API is optimized to retrieve information from the live eBay site and you can test your application with calls to the live eBay site.
Please refer to the API Call Limits page on the eBay Developers Program site for current default call limits and call limits for applications that have completed the Compatible Application Check, which is a free service that the eBay Developers Program provides to its members.
We offer several different examples of the eBay Shopping API, including:
You can obtain more information about the eBay Shopping Web Services at these locations:
Copyright © 2007–2013 eBay, Inc. All rights reserved. This documentation and the API may only be used in accordance with the eBay Developers Program and API License Agreement.