eBay Web Services Overview
Learn about eBay Web Services products.
The eBay platform offers an unprecedented opportunity to build a new eBay business or expand your current business, reach new customers, and create a potential new stream of revenue. Leverage the resources of the eBay Developers Program to tap into eBay's marketplace of over 200 million users with tools and services that meet the diverse needs of buyers and sellers on eBay.
Shopping, Trading, and Research-focused Web Services
eBay Web Services enable third-party developers to create innovative solutions that tap into the power of eBay. Developers can build custom applications, tools, and services that leverage the eBay marketplace in new ways in the areas of selling, searching, buying, user, and post-transaction processing.
Recommended eBay Web Services by Functional Area
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Application Type |
Shopping |
Trading |
Research |
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Search and Browse |
x |
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Item Details |
x |
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User Profile and Reputation |
x |
x |
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Buying Application |
x |
x |
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User Buying and Selling Status |
x |
x |
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Affiliates |
x |
x |
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Selling |
|
x |
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Checkout |
|
x |
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Sales Fulfillment |
|
x |
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User Messaging and CRM |
|
x |
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Feedback Management |
|
x |
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Historical Prices |
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x |
eBay Web Services are grouped by eBay functional areas:
eBay Shopping Web Services
eBay Shopping Web Services offers access to public read-only data such as searching for items, products, eBay member profiles, popular eBay Items and popular searches. eBay Shopping Web Services are:
- Lightweight—Optimized performance and response size for client technologies
- Search and Buying focused functionality
- Buyer view of eBay data
- Easy to Use—No Token, HTTP GET and POST Protocols
eBay Trading Web Services
eBay Trading Web Services offer authenticated access to private eBay data to enable automation and innovation in the areas of listing items, retrieving seller sales status, managing post-transaction fulfillment, and managing private eBay user information such as My eBay and Feedback details. eBay Trading Web Services are:
- Data Rich—Enable access to a rich eBay data set
- Secure—Require User Authentication (token) and HTTPS access for all API calls
- Seller view of eBay data
- Selling and Transaction focused—Support listing items, sales process, transaction management
Research Web Services for eBay (powered by DataUnison)
These links take you to the DataUnison site »
Research Web Services for eBay let you retrieve historical eBay data. Research Web Services for eBay include:
- Price Research API: Free for non-commercial use up to 1,000 calls a month
- Advanced Research API: Available for license from DataUnison »
The free Price Research API offers:
- 30 days of data
- Historical pricing by keyword
- Variable date range
- Optional daily statistics
- Ideal for widgets or other affiliate tools
Which Web Service should I use?
You should choose the Web Service that offers the functionality required by your application. The Shopping API supports search and shopping use cases, where as the Trading API supports authenticated calls which enable listing items on eBay, and retrieving private transactional and user-related information. The Price Research API can be used with the Shopping API to show historical pricing trends in items users are shopping for.
For example, if you are building a browser-based search widget, you will want to explore the lightweight Shopping API. If you are building a listing management application, you will want to explore our secure Trading API. See the Shopping, Trading, and Research pages for details on the protocols, formats and access mechanisms for each service.
