API2Cart: The Universal Key to Shopping Carts

Our API is meant to be huge time saver. It is like a universal key to multiple doors.

This is an interview with Ruslan Savchyshyn, founder of MagneticOne.

Ruslan takes active part in development of MagneticOne project line and general business strategy. He directs the company to the production of unique innovative solutions and strives to ensure functional leadership in the niche of eCommerce service providers. Ruslan believes that high demands and clear goal setting can lead the company to desirable level of development.

Tell us more about MagneticOne
MagneticOne appeared in early 2001. Initially, it was established as a company providing outsourcing IT services, but after some time the founder decided ­ why not start developing unique products? And that’s when rapid company development started.

Now it is hard to imagine a company without its strong team of technical engineers, support and marketing, all working hard to create unique products. Currently, MagneticOne develops SaaS projects, as it is an innovative niche in eCommerce. We do not want to compete with numerous eCommerce software with common functionality.

We strive to provide innovations and help merchants with the tasks they can’t manage by themselves. Realizing that we do something important and help customers to grow inspires us more than any kind of competition.

What API(s) does MagneticOne offer today?
Recently we have launched a new project which provides unified API for eCommerce carts. It can be used in different fields of eCommerce.
For example, if you deliver re­pricing services you can integrate with platforms you work with via API2Cart, retrieve product prices, and process it with your software.

API2Cart can be extensively used by inventory and order management services, as you can retrieve product, customer and order information from multiple stores using one API, process it and pass back the results.

Providers of mobile and social platforms can use our API not only to retrieve information, but to establish smooth data flow and synchronize catalog updates. No matter what kind of business logic you provide the use of API2Cart will simplify your integration with different shopping platforms and help you get the necessary information effectively.

When did MagneticOne realized that it needed an API?
We are not newcomers in the industry and constantly keep an eye on its development. This helps us notice the problems that eCommerce participants face.

New shopping carts appear every now and then, and the carts which already exist tend to develop new versions. Companies which provide services for several shopping carts have to dynamically react to these changes ­ develop integration methods for every new version, supporting the previous ones, develop support of new platforms.

This requires much efforts from developers, much time.. in short ­that’s not cool. And that’s when we understood how we can help. Having experience with different shopping carts we developed universal API which can be used for integration with 30+ shopping carts and their versions.

Thus, we provided one answer to all integration questions.

What recommendations and tips would you give to a company planning to launch an API?
There are plenty of different API projects so if you want to win a competition you should stand out of the crowd. Don’t copy ­ create. And make it as customer oriented as possible. That’s why you should consider your target audience and analyze its needs.

Also, we constantly monitor the functionality of our API and recommend to do it at all stages of project development. It is important to make sure your API works otherwise ­ why launch it?

Why and how are you using 3scale API Management Platform today?
Currently, we are using 3scale developer portal for customer registration. We are in the process of getting familiar with 3scale CMS and find it convenient to work with.

What we love about the platform is its flexibility so that it can suit any API project requirements. Also a huge benefit of 3scale is the ability to create and manage interactive API documentation in Swagger format. We look forward to use more opportunities provided by 3scale to use its functionality to the fullest.

What benefits have you seen/are you expecting from your API program?
We have previously used API for other projects, however, with the launch of API2Cart we expect to extend our partnership and discover new opportunities of cooperation. We expect to receive interesting suggestions of developing new applications based on our API.

The benefits of our API is that it is flexible to fulfill different business purposes and can be extensively used in eCommerce. Therefore, API2Cart will bring competitive advantage to us and our clients respectively.

What is your vision for your API?
Our API is a key to successful integration with shopping carts. I think there is no need to explain how complicated the process of integration with each specific shopping platform can be, and how beneficial it is to get a universal API for multiple carts.

Our API is meant to be huge time saver. It is like a universal key to multiple doors. You will be able to integrate once, and retrieve all the information you need ­ products, customers and orders ­ from shopping carts you work with. It will also save your efforts, and make business development in general more effective. This is majorly how we see our project ­ not just as a unified API but as a reliable assistant in business growth.