Shopping.com Partners Resource Center Developer Blog
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I've been hearing a lot of confusion around products and offers as defined by SDC. I'll try to explain the difference here, as well as the role of each within the SDC catalog...
The concept of a product within SDC is an entity sort of like a 'shell' around a group of offers, allowing comparison of offers for identical items from different stores. This shell also acts as an anchor to which we can attach things like reviews, specs, images, etc.
SDC has three types of categories based around this 'product' entity. Those where all offers are associated w/ products, or "productized" (e.g. Digital Cameras), those where some offers are associated with products, while others are not, or "soft productized" (e.g. Shoes), and those where no offers are associated with products, or "non-productized" (e.g. Clothing).
Productized categories generally contain items with unique IDs (UPCs, MPNs, etc.) where it is very simple to match each offer to a product. Soft Productized categories generally contain items which may not have unique IDs, yet many stores sell the same exact thing, and so some softer matching rules are needed (which aren't always able to match every offer to a product.) Non-productized categories generally contain items which are mainly sold by a single store, so products are not necessary, as each one would only have a single offer.
In general, I recommed you think of every category as soft productized or 'hybrid', as it is the superset of the other two (the API was designed with this philosophy.) However, if you really want to distinguish between the three, the API provides a 'contentType' element for each returned category, indicating the mix of products and offers ('products', 'offers', or 'hybrid'.)
API IP Address Update
UPDATE: Please note the following instructions differ from a previous post.
Shopping.com will be separating US and EU API traffic to separate datacenters next week. In order to do this, we will need partners to update the domains/IPs to which they are sending traffic.
API2 Users currently sending traffic to 'api.shopping.com':
We are requesting that all users with sites targeting US and Australian markets begin sending traffic to 'usb.api.shopping.com' instead. Similarly all users with sites targeting European markets begin sending traffic to 'api.i18n.shopping.com'.
API3 Users:
We are requesting that all users with sites targeting US/Australian markets send their traffic to 'publisher.usb.api.shopping.com'. All users with sites targeting European markets are requested to send their traffic to 'publisher.usa.api.shopping.com'.
Shopping.com will be updating the 'api.shopping.com' and 'publisher.api.shopping.com' domains on April 14th, at which time you may see a significant performance degradation if you have not made the above change. Please make sure to also clear any DNS caches or update hard-coded DNS host files if necessary.
Thanks,
The Shopping.com Partner Team
Partner Account Center- Report Delays
Hi Partners,
The Partner Account Center is currently experiencing data backlog. Please note that while you will still have access to your account, reports will not be current but PAC reports will be retroactively updated by Thursday morning.
We apologize for the inconvenience and we thank you for your patience. If you have any questions, please contact partnersus@shopping.com.
Regards,
Shopping.com Partners Management
Top Products in January 2009 is now posted!
January 2009 top product list is now posted! Use this information to see what's hot on Shopping.com and use this knowledge to optimize your campaigns!
http://developer.shopping.com/page/jan09topproducts
2008 Holiday Pricing
With the holiday season is approaching, Shopping.com anticipates an increase in traffic and sales. One of Shopping.com's on-going efforts is to maintain our performance-based pricing model ensuring merchant selection while remaining competitive within the industry.
Here are the details of our holiday pricing changes which will be in place from November 15th to December 31st :
- We will apply a 15% decrease to the standard CPCs in over 25 categories including GPS devices, MP3 players, video games, flat panel televisions and musical instruments. To see the full list categories affected by the decrease, click here.
- Shopping.com is not raising the standard CPCs for over 160 categories including all other electronics, computers and video game categories. To see the full list of categories with no CPC changes, click here.
- An increase of 20% will be applied to other categories like Clothing, Home and Garden, Kids and Family, Jewelry and Watches--an increase that we believe is extremely competitive in the comparison shopping industry. For a full list of categories affected, click here.
Let us know if you have any questions about these changes!
Thanks,
Shopping.com Partner Team
Search by Offer ID - Another Reason to Migrate to API v3!
That's right... Search by Offer ID is now available in API v3! You can now recall not only individual products, but specific offers as well, allowing you to provide bookmarking or wishlist functionality for your users, or create cross-category promotional listings. More information on how to use this new feature can be found here.
Stay tuned - more of the features you have been requesting will be available soon!
API Version 3 is now launched!
We are excited to announce that API version 3 is now available to the Shopping.com Partner Network!
API version 3 offers a faster response time, unified schema, a java SDK and clear technical documentation. Here's 7 more reason to switch to the new API version 3 today.
Partners currently using API version 2 will have 12 months to migrate to the new API platform. Migration must be completed by September 2009.
Migration Instructions for existing partners:
- You can visit the product suite within PAC to find your API 3 key and get started. Contact your Account Manager for technical support and a new tracking ID to use with API 3. Online documentation is readily available on the Resource Center Documentation tab. Please visit the API version 3 migration page for more information.
What's different?
- Linkin ID' is now called 'Tracking ID'.
- API Key and Tracking ID must be used simultaneously in each API query. The Key provides access to the API, while the Tracking ID enables you to get credit for your traffic. You may visit API Key FAQ to learn more about API Key.
- We have changed the name of Subparameter tracking to SubTracking. In API2, it was necessary to add a parameter ('OP') directly to the offer URLs to enable subparameter tracking. You can now simply add the parameter 'subTrackingId' to your API query URLs, and the value will be automatically added to all offer URLs in the response.
- API technical documentations are now online for easy access. Additional API version 3 FAQ are now also available.
- Partners are encouraged to use the sandbox URL for testing: http://sandbox.api.shopping.com/publisher/3.0/rest/GeneralSearch?apiKey=authorized-key&trackingId=7000610. Once your site is ready for production, AU and US partners should use the domain 'publisher.usb.api.shopping.com', while EU partners should use 'publisher.usa.shopping.com'.
- Stay tuned for additional API features that will be added in the coming months. In order to take advantage of these new features, you must be on API version 3!
Product Image Availability
The Shopping.com catalog team has been in the process of replacing a number of product images since yesterday (09/09/2008). Product images which are being replaced may be temporarily unavailable. Overall, 20% of the product images will be replaced over the next 24 to 36 hours. During this time, you should see measured improvements in coverage roughly every 8 hours.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
The Shopping.com Partner Team
eBay Developers Conference Update
The Shopping.com Partner Team attended the eBay Developers Conference last week. Ryan Dugan, our Partner Network Manager gave a presentation on Monetizing Publisher Traffic with Shopping.com and Paul Pantera, our API Technical Lead presented on the Technical Integration of API 3. We got great feedback on both sessions! Check out more details on Ryan's presentation and get updates on all of the conference sessions and keynotes on the eBay Developer Blog.
7 Great Reasons to Switch to the New Shopping.com API v.3
The new Shopping.com API version 3 (beta) went into production. Not sure if you should switch now? Here are 7 reasons why.
1. Unified Schema
In the previous version (2), you have to deal with different XML schema for search responses. In the new version, you only have to deal with 1 (yes, one!) unified schema for everything. While Einstein failed to discover the grand unified theory until he died, our engineers managed to design the Unified XML Schema for all of Shopping.com API search responses, whether they return categories only, products only, offers only, or any combination thereof.
2. No More Multiple Calls
That's right, folks. Whereas in API v.2 you need to make follow up calls to get merchant offers, detail specifications, or product reviews, in API v.3 it is as easy as setting the optional parameters to true. In these cases, you just need to say showProductOffers=true, showProductSpecs=true, or showProductReviews=true, and the offers, specs, or reviews will be returned. Your wish is our command.
3. Efficient Sorting in Keyword Search
More on the multiple call theme. In API v.2, you cannot specify a sort option ahead of time when doing a keyword based query. This is because our search engine may return products only, products and offers, or offers only. Each has different sort options, and you can only sort them by making a follow-up API call. In API 3, you can name your sort options with the first query. We'll understand, and return the results sorted, as your wish. Promise.
4. Easy-to-understand parameters We know you love befid, sam, tp, sf, np, nm, and all those API2 terms. Just kidding. We renamed the parameters so that they are more transparent, so that your engineers can remember them, so that new developers can learn and understand them more quickly. And errors due to misunderstanding will be a thing of the past.
Got Java? We got SDK. If you speak Java objects, this one's for you. An SDK with a library of Java classes and methods has been created, so that you don't have to write your own class definitions, construct your own REST query URLs, or write your own parser. Look at the sample code to learn. Write an SDCQueryObject, name the options, submit, and zoom. We give you the Java objects: sealed, parsed, delivered, they're yours.
6. Technical Documentation
You wanted transparency. We've spelled it out for you. You wanted education. We've written books for you. Please check out the documentation for XML Schema, Use Cases, and REST Option Reference.
7. SOAP and REST
SOAP, REST, which one is top, which one is best? Wash the dirt you throw each other with SOAP. And give the debate a REST. We got your backs. We support both. (Note: The SOAP interface is currently not working. The issue is being addressed.)
Interested? Need help? Please contact your account managers to get your API 3 Key issued today! We're eager to please.
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