Build a Shopping Portal

I sat in on the Build a Shopping Portal session yesterday, led by Sunny Li and Jarrod Schwarz.  It was a great session for people interested in how you can utilize the eBay API and listings to build out a shopping portal for your website.

Sunny emphasized a couple of great tips, including the importance of knowing your buyers and focusing on their individual needs.  We've often seen sites trying to be everything to everyone and their success hasn't been great.  Also, Sunny advised to be bold in your visual design, as shoppers are very visual and are more likely to convert on sites with great design.

Some tips on useful API calls that developers should be using:

• GetSearchResults, using best match sort to make sure the results are most relevant to your query.  Delyn posted on best match sort when it launched
• GetItem
• GetProducts
• GetHalfProduct - coming soon
• Shopping.com API

Jarrod just highlighted TeraPeak's smartBUYER - know that you're getting the best deal on eBay.  This site uses the eBay API to power a shopping portal with eBay listings and historical price information from eBay Market Data.

Sunny also introduced the bidding API (aka the PlaceOffer API call) program that enables developers to power bidding and buying directly on their applications and websites.  This program will be more broadly released in late July and will require developers to submit their application to a vetting process for PlaceOffer access.  For information, please email eBay Developer Relations.

- Rob