Looking for Your Vendor or Seller Amazon Data? Here's a Breakdown of the Current Amazon APIs for 2023

Amazon's APIs are continuously evolving. This breakdown covers the four primary APIs available to vendors and sellers as of early 2023, addressing common pain points: businesses needing scalable access to vendor or seller data, those automating fulfillment tasks, companies optimizing advertising performance, and organizations tired of manual reporting processes.

1. Selling Partner API (SP-API)

Purpose and Scope

The SP-API represents Amazon's modernized consolidation of marketplace operations. It replaced the legacy Marketplace Web Services (MWS) API in July 2022. The SP-API serves as a modernized suite of REST APIs that unifies authentication and functionality for both sellers and vendors.

Key Features

Approximately 37 different endpoints covering distinct functions
Endpoints include: Catalog Items, FBA Inventory, Feeds, Finances, Orders, Reports, Vendor Orders, and Vendor Shipments
Vendor-specific endpoints now include sales, traffic, inventory, and demand forecasting reports
Important limitation: Most endpoints remain seller-only; vendors have limited access

Access Requirements

Professional Seller Central account ($39.99 monthly)
Developer registration through Seller Central
Amazon Web Services (AWS) account with IAM user configuration
Application creation in Partner Network > Develop Apps section

Use Cases

The API enables automation for order reporting dashboards, real-time listing monitoring, inventory management, buy box monitoring, and purchase order handling.

Challenge: Setup involves multiple platforms and authentication workflows that differ between seller and vendor accounts, making implementation more complex than the legacy MWS process.

2. Amazon Advertising API

Purpose and Scope

This API provides campaign management and performance reporting for all Amazon advertising solutions. Recent enhancements have expanded capabilities significantly, with Amazon emphasizing programmatic access for campaign management and reporting.

Key Features

Data available for Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display campaigns
Recently added endpoints: Partner Opportunities, Test Accounts, Amazon Marketing Stream, Amazon Attribution, Brand Metrics, and Amazon DSP
Upcoming support for Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) for customer journey mapping
Enables both data retrieval and campaign modifications

Access Requirements

Amazon Ads Partner Network membership (no Professional Seller Account required)
Existing advertising account recommended for sandbox testing
Login with Amazon authentication (simpler than SP-API process)
Approval through Partner Network for API access

Use Cases

Campaign budget adjustments, new campaign creation, creative optimization, keyword harvesting, negative keyword management, and scalable reporting and analysis.

Advantage: More stable and easier to implement than SP-API; straightforward authentication processes.

3. Vendor Central API or EDI

Purpose and Scope

These integration solutions specifically serve first-party (1P) vendor relationships, handling purchase order management and fulfillment operations. However, overlapping functionality with SP-API is creating redundancy.

Key Features

EDI and API connections differ in available features
Functions include: Item Inventory, Item Cost, Purchase Orders, Shipment Confirmations, Invoices, Packing Slips, Shipping Labels, and Sales Data
Not all endpoints exist in both EDI and API formats
Covers Retail Procurement and Direct Fulfillment operations

Access Requirements

Active Vendor Central account
Third-party developers need vendor partnership relationships
Limited sandbox capabilities

Strategic Note: The SP-API's expanding vendor functionality may gradually diminish the need for these legacy integrations, though full deprecation seems unlikely given large-scale vendor relationships.

4. Product Advertising API

Purpose and Scope

Designed for Amazon Associates (affiliates) to retrieve product listings for promotion on external websites. Heavily restricted due to misuse for rank-tracking applications.

Key Features

Browse Amazon product catalogs
Retrieve item details and customer reviews
Create shopping carts for affiliate sales
Access seller and product rating information

Access Requirements

Amazon Associates program membership
Registration through Associates console
Free to use with referral fee model

Current Status: Severely limited access; primarily restricted to legitimate affiliate applications.

Critical Considerations

Authentication Complexity: The SP-API requires AWS account setup, making it more demanding than Google or Facebook advertising APIs.

Functional Gaps: Neither Vendor EDI/API nor SP-API currently provides complete feature parity, forcing developers to choose between incomplete solutions.

Development Requirements: Amazon emphasizes that integrating with most APIs requires engineering resources. These aren't solutions for non-technical stakeholders.

Ongoing Evolution: Amazon stated it was transitioning to an "API-first state" at Unboxed 2022, though this promise hasn't fully materialized.

Conclusion

Amazon will undoubtedly add new endpoints and features while deprecating old reports continuously. The landscape changes fast, and staying current requires dedicated effort. MixShift provides simplified access to these complex APIs through our platform - so you get the data you need without having to build and maintain direct integrations yourself.