Magento Connectors Guide: eBay, Amazon, Google
Magento connectors enable the synchronization of data between your eCommerce sites powered by Magento and third-party software. Good to know—but, what is Magento in the first place, and how do connectors come into the picture of your online store?
In this insightful article, we answered the aforementioned questions and more. Read on to gain a better understanding of Magento integration with eBay, Amazon and Google and some of the common Magento extensions that have helped businesses to grow.
What Is Magento?
To fully understand Magento connectors, first, you need to learn about Magento. Magento is an enterprise-level open-source eCommerce platform that mainly caters to larger businesses. The upside of Magento is its powerful ecosystem that comes packed with hundreds of built-in features and a recently introduced state-of-the-art UI/UX interface. For Magento, the ultimate goal is to help businesses gain enough exposure and reach their full potential. With over $100 billion in gross merchandise volume every year, you can be confident that scaling with Magento to meet your business needs will not be a problem.
What Are Magento Connectors
Let’s say, you have a Magento store with 100K+ SKUs and your ultimate goal is to sell all of them on Amazon, Google, and eBay. Here comes the Magento connector. Basically, the software transforms, maps and enriches your store product data to comply with third-party services’ taxonomy and other requirements, then helps to load the updated product information to Amazon, Google, or eBay automatically.
Most Popular Magento Integrations
Magento offers integration support for a wide range of third-party extensions. This flexibility is one of the reasons for its huge popularity in the online business community.
When a third-party app integrates with Magento, the former is able to call the Magento web APIs. That means software such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Product Information Management (PIM), Accounting, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and marketing automation systems out of the box that Magento APIs currently support, will be made available to your online store.
For instance, a Magento integration with a product information management system, such as Gepard, will help you automate the company’s data-related processes. It allows you to increase productivity, as you significantly reduce manual entry of product information, get unique retailer-specific product descriptions, while at the same time ensuring that the data is accurate and adjusted to the required standards. This will also ensure your eCommerce business runs seamlessly. It enhances the communication between your back-office functions and sales teams.
Take a look at some of the best integrations that can help you sell more.
eBay Magento Integration
The Magento eBay integration is a seller-friendly connection between the two platforms, enabling Magento sellers to synchronize their product information with the eBay platform. Ultimately, eBay-Magento significantly simplifies selling for eBay sellers—they can literally list products from Magento on eBay directly. While learning how to sync Magento with eBay might require a bit of coding, the investment is worth it.
Magento Amazon
Magento Amazon Integration enables users to synchronize their product data with Amazon. After you get the third-party service requirements and perform the data mapping, you can sync with the product taxonomy of Amazon. This allows for simplified product submission and configuration on Amazon.com. Furthermore, this integration enables you to synchronize the unique and enriched product descriptions between Amazon and your Magento 2 store without affecting the standard operational functionality. If you are having trouble figuring out how to sync Magento with Amazon, it’s best to find an expert who can help you through the process so you can avoid the common first-timer mistakes.
Magento Google
Popularly known as “Buy on Google Integration for Magento 2,” this tag team helps Magento 2 users to improve their brands and gain revenue from interaction with “Buy on Google” APIs. In other words, it enables the Magento 2 users to sync the product information from their Magento stores with their Google shop, while adjusting to Google shopping requirements. To let this integration run successfully, Magento store owners look to automate product data exchange and syndication. This is where the PIM system makes a difference.
For example, Gepard PIM offers data syndication and validation modules. These features, together with advanced data mapping, enhance product information exchange and guarantee an easy product data flaw. Once the Magento extensions are added, you can synchronize the accurate and validated product descriptions with the extension with just a few clicks.
Magento Walmart
The API integration helps to integrate Magento 2 stores with Walmart. It can be done by creating a synchronization of enriched, accurate and timely updated product descriptions, being assisted by the Walmart API. You can use the Connector API to automate steps that were otherwise done manually through the UI. The extension helps to synchronize product information from Magento stores with Walmart marketplaces. There will be no major changes to the operational functionalities. This will ensure that sellers maintain the same experience of operating their stores.
Top Magento Extensions To Connect eBay
These extensions allow eCommerce businesses to synchronize their store with the eBay marketplace. This will help bring more product visibility across several channels and countries. Let’s take a look at the top three extensions.
eBay Integration Add-on For Magento 2
The Magento 2 eBay integration add-on is used to unite Magento 2 online shops and the eBay sales platform. It allows a bidirectional data exchange between Magento 2 and the eBay platform via API. The extension is responsible for synchronizing prices, orders and billing and pricing information. The eBay Magento 2 integration add-on works on the base of the Improved Import & Export extension, which means the parent module has to be installed first. The add-on has an individual section at the backend where you need to provide the eBay profile information.
Workflow:
1. The connection via API is established by providing your eBay credentials to your Magento 2 store.
2. The specific settings are defined for your eBay products. Another step is the configuration of shipping, payment and return policy options.
3. The way of data updates is set (automatic or manual).
4. The data mapping process happens (in the backend).
The pros of the extension are comprehensive settings, a user-friendly interface, reduced manual involvement, accurate data implementation and a reduction of data errors.
The cons of the extension involve having only six months of technical support and no opportunity to connect to any other retailer or marketplace except the ones offered in the extension.
eBay Connector by Webkul
Want to import and export products between Magento and eBay? This is where the eBay connector comes into the picture. The eBay connector solves the problem of product inventory management on both ends: your Magento store and eBay. It will synchronize orders between eBay and Magento to provide real-time orders and inventory as set by the admin panel settings.
The workflow:
1. Set up eBay API.
2. Install real-time information updates.
3. Revise eBay inventory.
4. Define the return policy, eBay listing options, payment options and shipping details.
5. Set configurations for order synchronization and select import order.
6. Map eBay categories.
7. Import/export products or eBay orders.
The benefits of the extension include flawless import and export of data, automatic management of inventory on both sides and real-time product information updates.
The cons incorporate a requirement for an additional account to use this extension and get eBay Developer Keys, having only three months of included technical support, no trial copy of the extension, only one category can map at a time and no opportunity to connect to any other sales platform except the ones offered in the solution.
eBay Integration By CedCommerce
This eBay integration by CedCommerce aims to synchronize your business listings between your Magento store and eBay sellers or retailers and easily manage eBay orders in your Magento online store.
An administrator can upload the simple types of Magento products on eBay.com. Any time there is a reduction in stock, the admin will receive a notification about such. Also, if a new order is taken from eBay.com, the admin will get a notification too.
The workflow:
1. Registration of eBay selling account.
2. Purchase of an extension, after which you get contacted by a CedCommerce specialist.
3. Verification process and connecting your Magento store to the eBay platform.
4. Product category mapping (many Magento categories can be mapped to a single eBay category).
5. Products uploading.
6. Synchronization of inventory and pricing.
7. Start of the selling process (getting notifications about stocks and orders).
The pros of the integration are communication with the support in real time (without submitting tickets), no hidden fees, fast fixes of module operation issues and possible customization (for extra fees though).
The cons are mainly the high costs of the product, required assistance from a developer for installation and configuration (which takes time and money) and no chance to integrate with any other retailer or marketplace except the ones offered in the solution.
Top Magento Amazon Extensions
Let’s take a look at the top three Magento Amazon extensions. While they offer a wide range of advanced data feed functions and customization options, most of them are limited to generating product feeds, which might be not enough for sellers who want to increase their business and build a successful multichannel strategy.
Advanced Product Feeds
This is an easy, flexible tool that serves the purpose of generating and delivering product feeds to Amazon and other marketplaces. With your product listings on all the major shopping platforms and engines, you will get a higher explosion of your business and bring in more sales. You can automatically generate and transfer your product catalog feeds to those services using the Product Feeds extension. It’s compatible with all major shopping and advertising services, such as Google Shopping. To get started, you have to install the module first, generate your own product feed, and show your catalog to an audience.
The workflow:
1. Installation of the extension.
2. Creation and import of feed templates.
3. Product data feed configuration.
4. Setting up FTP (file transfer protocol) and scheduling task settings.
5. Categories mapping.
6. Data import/export.
7. Extra settings set up.
8. Email notifications set up.
9. Starting Google Analytics campaigns.
The advantages of the Advanced Product Feeds are an easy and hassle-free set up with the prebuilt templates, flexible product feed fields and a variety of customization opportunities, easy customization management and product analytics, support of most shopping comparison engines, and high speed.
The main drawbacks of the extension are the complicated installation process that might require the help of a developer and/or having the professional background to make the most out of all the extension capabilities and no option to integrate with any other retailer or sales platform except the ones offered in the extension.
M2E Pro Amazon,eBay & Walmart Integration
M2E Pro extension is a solution that aims to help businesses list and manage their entire product data catalogs without switching between various clouds. With M2E Pro, you can synchronize all your channels in real-time and dispatch your eBay, Amazon and Walmart order straight from the Magento system. All this can be done within 15 minutes of deploying the M2E Pro. Managing your data from a single source can help you save time, as there is no need to switch from one system or cloud to the other. Additionally, you will get access to all views or stores within a single license structure.
Workflow:
1. The installation process (Deploying Magento V1.x or V2.x).
2. Extension update process (if needed).
3. Magento store registration.
4. Linking Magento backend to Amazon account.
5. Setting up order synchronization rules.
6. Defining the relevant policies and settings.
7. M2E listings creation.
8. Adding existing Magento store listings to the M2E product feed.
9. Listing products on Amazon.
10. Amazon orders management in Magento.
The pros of the extension are real-time inventory control, fully customizable and scalable settings, an opportunity to manage your Magento infrastructure according to your policy requirements and an enhanced marketplace support.
Some of the main cons appearing in users’ reviews include frequently occurring bugs and data errors (however, the support team fixes these quickly) and the installation/deployment process might be complicated without having prior knowledge. Also, there’s no chance to connect to any other sales platform except the ones offered in the solution.
Product Feed By Amasty
Magento 2 Product Feed’s purpose is to equip your Magento store with an agile product feed generator and boost your products at a lower cost, helping your business to grow its revenue. You can build up limitless custom feeds even without technical skills, because the tool already has ready-to-use templates. You can add condition-based attributes to your feeds and create a schedule for automatic feed generation.
Workflow:
1. Installing the extension.
2. Creating product feeds with ready-to-use templates.
3. Setting up feed generation (automated or manual).
4. Configuring product feeds with shopping engines/platforms.
5. Setting up parameters and schedule for feed generation.
6. Tracking and analyzing your sales efficiency with Google Analytics.
The pros of the extension include easy feed customization, flexible attributes modification, analytics campaigns, advanced RSS product feed options and multiple product types support.
The cons include an extra subscription activation to receive the support service, a high cost of additional extensions, occasional bugs that might require the help of support specialists or having technical knowledge on the matter and no possibility to connect to any other marketplace or retailer except the ones offered in the solution package.
How Gepard PIM Can Help Automate DataTransformation & Exchange Between Magento And Any Retailer
Despite the existence of numerous integrations built for the Magento platform to connect with various marketplaces and retailers, there are no opportunities to automate product information management. Also adding to the challenge, eCommerce points of sales have very distinctive requirements for product content. Because of this, brands often struggle to keep up with tedious and repetitive tasks needed to adapt everything manually.
A Gepard-enabled product data syndication can help your business maintain high-quality product information, automate manual data entry and deliver it to diverse marketplaces. Data synchronization is a simple and cost-effective method to optimize your product data flow. The product data is constantly checked and modified so that it’s in the required format, and it’s driven to the relevant marketplaces with the assistance of data mapping techniques to meet the retailers’ needs.
Get in touch with us if you need to set up a Magento connection with any eCommerce platform.