What Is Marketplace Integration?
A step-by-step look at how products, stock, prices and orders sync with marketplaces directly from inside the e-commerce platform, with no middleware program.
Aurora YazılımEditorial team
6 min read
Marketplace integration is the system that connects your stores on marketplaces such as Trendyol (Turkey's largest marketplace), Hepsiburada, N11 and Amazon to your own management panel. Products, prices and stock are sent from one place; orders land in the panel and shipping details go back to the marketplace. That makes stock synchronization automatic and saves you from logging into every marketplace panel separately.
What Does Marketplace Integration Do?
A business selling on several marketplaces without integration logs into each channel's panel separately. It uploads a new product to each one by one, updates the price in each panel when it changes, and manually reduces the stock on the other channels when a product sells. As the number of products and orders grows, this takes one employee's entire day and mistakes are unavoidable.
Marketplace integration gathers these tasks into one hub. Product information is entered once and sent to the channels you choose. When a sale happens on one channel, stock drops everywhere on its own. Orders are collected in a single list, and the invoicing and shipping process runs from the same screen.
If you are still weighing whether to sell on a marketplace or on your own site, our post on marketplace vs. your own website will make the decision easier. In this article we focus on how the integration works.
How Does the Integration Work Technically?
Marketplaces offer programming interfaces called APIs so that sellers can connect their own systems. Through this interface, the integration software sends products to the marketplace, updates stock and prices, pulls in new orders and reports back the order status.
To set up the connection, the seller enters the API credentials obtained from the marketplace's seller panel into their own management panel. These credentials are like a password; they must be stored securely and shared only with authorized people. Once the connection is made, data exchange happens automatically at set intervals or the moment an event occurs.
- The product is defined once in the management panel.
- You choose which marketplaces the product will be sold on.
- Categories and attributes are mapped to the marketplace's structure.
- The product, price and stock are sent to the marketplace.
- An order placed on the marketplace lands in the panel, and stock is updated on every channel.
- Shipping and invoice details are sent back to the marketplace.
Why Is Stock Sync Critical?
The problem sellers on marketplaces run into most often is the same product being sold on two channels at once while only one is left in stock. One of the orders then has to be cancelled; marketplaces can reflect seller-caused cancellations in the performance score, and customer satisfaction suffers.
Stock synchronization means stock being updated on all channels at the same moment for every sale, cancellation and return. A delay in synchronization raises the risk of overselling, especially during campaign periods. That is why how often, and on which events, the integration updates stock is one of the first questions to ask when choosing.
Pricing Rules and Profit Margin
Every marketplace has a different commission rate, shipping terms and campaign structure. Selling the same product at the same price on every channel can erode profit on some of them. That is why a good integration lets you define a marketplace-specific price rule: for example, raising the price by a set percentage on one channel.
Another important safeguard is the minimum profit margin. A product that would fall below your set margin after commission and shipping is not listed. That way, even during campaign periods, you avoid the surprise of discovering at month-end that you have been selling at a loss.
| Rule | What it does |
|---|---|
| Marketplace-specific pricing | Reflects the commission difference in the price |
| Minimum profit margin | Prevents selling at a loss |
| Product selection by channel | Lists each product only on the suitable channel |
| Safety stock | Reduces the risk of overselling |
Category and Attribute Mapping
Every marketplace has its own category tree and mandatory product attributes. For a T-shirt, one marketplace may require fabric type, collar type and fit, while another asks for different fields. Listing a product in the right category with complete attributes directly affects how findable it is in marketplace search.
The integration lets you do this mapping once: you pair your own categories with the marketplace's categories and your own attributes with the marketplace's attribute fields. Later products are transferred automatically under the same rule. Getting the mapping right from the start saves you from correcting hundreds of products one by one later.
Marketplaces update their category structures and mandatory fields from time to time. When that happens, the mapping has to be updated too; otherwise new products may be rejected. The team providing the integration keeping track of these changes prevents a seller's listings from being closed without their noticing.
Middleware or Direct Integration?
A marketplace connection can be set up in two ways. In the first, a separate integration program sits between your e-commerce site and the marketplaces; this program is a different company's product, requires a separate subscription and has its own panel. In the second, the connections are built directly into the e-commerce platform.
A middleware program can be a solution when multiple systems need to be connected to each other, but every extra link means a new point of failure, a new cost and a new support contact. When a problem occurs, finding out whether it is on the site, in the program or at the marketplace takes time.
In Aurora Smart E-Commerce, no middleware integration program is used: connections to Trendyol, Hepsiburada, N11, Amazon, Çiçeksepeti, idefix, Pazarama and PttAVM come ready inside the same panel, and there is no extra fee per marketplace. You can find the details on our marketplace integration page, and all the payment, shipping, e-invoice and advertising connections on our integrations page.
Order, Shipping, Invoice and Accounting Flow
The value of marketplace integration becomes clear in the steps after an order arrives. When the order lands in the panel, a shipment is created, the label is printed and the tracking number is sent back to the marketplace. Shipping integration, which automates these steps, also makes it easier to meet the marketplaces' hand-over-to-carrier deadlines.
On the invoice side, an e-invoice or e-archive invoice (Turkey’s electronic invoicing formats) is issued depending on the buyer's status. Keeping invoice, VAT and stock records for sales from all channels in order makes your accountant's job easier at month-end; we describe this side on our accounting integration page. For tax matters, always check current legislation and your accountant.
- Orders from all channels in a single list
- Bulk shipping labels and automatic tracking
- Invoices with the document type selected automatically
- Stock automatically restored on returns and cancellations
Before You Start the Integration
Smooth integration depends largely on how orderly your product data is. If barcodes, stock codes, variant structure and images are kept tidy from the start, products transfer to the marketplace without errors. If you are opening a store on Trendyol for the first time, our selling on Trendyol guide covers the first steps; for an example specific to small producers, see our post on marketplace sales for local producers.
- A unique barcode and stock code for every product and variant
- Image size and background that comply with marketplace rules
- Commission and shipping cost calculation by channel
- API credentials obtained from the marketplace seller panel
Frequently Asked Questions
01Do I need my own website for marketplace integration?
No; you can send your products from the panel to marketplaces only and open your own site later. Still, having a store in the same panel gives you the chance to win marketplace customers over to your own channel over time.
02Can I sell a product on only some marketplaces?
Yes; you decide which product is listed on which channel. You can sell one product on just two marketplaces and another on all of them. It is healthiest to choose channels based on the product's profit margin and target customer.
03Do marketplace commissions change with the integration?
No; commission rates are set by each marketplace's own rules and the integration does not change them. The integration makes it easier to reflect the commission difference in your price and avoid selling at a loss.
04Can my existing marketplace products be transferred to the panel?
In most cases, products already live on the marketplace can be matched by barcode or stock code and linked to the panel. For the matching to be reliable, every product must have a unique code. If code inconsistencies are cleaned up before the transfer, the process goes much faster.
Marketplace integration frees multi-channel selling from manual work by managing products, stock, prices and orders from a single hub. You can look at our marketplace integration solution, in which eight marketplaces work in the same panel with no middleware program, and all of our e-commerce solutions.
