What’s new in the bol seller API V3 version?

The largest e-commerce brand in the Netherlands and one of the most prominent European marketplaces, the bol marketplace has recently launched the bol.com. retailer API V3. This change has come considering the tedious processes of addition and changes in the previous API version. The new seller API will make a difference for the sellers. How is the bol seller API V3 different from the bol seller API V2? How does it ease selling on bol along with lightening the burden on the bol servers? Does it affect the bol.com sellers? What’s new for the bol sellers in the API V3? How does it empower the sellers? And how can integration services providers help you in migrating from the V2 to V3.

In this blog, we will assess all the latest and altered features from the sellers’ aspect.
Well, here are a few already existing features that had some changes in the new API v.3

Process Status on bol seller API V3

Any request made on the API V3 will forward to the downstream service. What’s new here is the addition of categories to the request made on API. The application will fall into any of the four categories:

1. Pending
2. Success
3. Failure
4. Timeout

Pending

In case of unavailability of the downstream service due to server issue, the seller request will become pending.

Success

Requests made in a proper format that abides by the API rules of bol.com will become a successful request.

Failure

In case of an unexpected response, bol.com will retry the request again after five minutes for five times. Failing after the fifth attempt will result in request failure.

Time out

Any request that remains pending for a long time will itself be categorized into time out.
Sellers must also note that the lifetime of process status is one month. No process status older than one month can be requested.

Any of the following details can help in fetching the Process Status-

• Process status ID
• Identity ID/Event Type

Authentication on bol seller API V3

Seller authentication is a three-step process in the new API version of the bol.com marketplace.

Step 1: API Client Credentials

You can gather the API client credentials from the seller dashboard of bol.com API V3.

Step 2: Requesting Bearer Token

The API credentials gathered from the seller dashboard can be used to request the Bearer Token from the OAuth server. How to make the bearer token request.-
Basic Authorization Header
HTTP Post Body

Step 3: Using Bearer Token in bol seller API Request

The seller can use the retrieved Bearer Token while creating a request on the API. Authorization Header and Bearer Token is sent along with the sellers demand while creating an application on the seller API.

Offers

The most significant change in bol API V3 is that it does not allow bulk offer updates like the previous versions. Bulk Updates means making changes in the price, discounts, specifications and other major factors with a single request. The seller can now make only one upgrade at a time. This is because of the following reasons.-

• • Bulk updates were heavier for the internal infrastructure of the bol.com servers(bol.com’s cloud storage and processors), so the request and processing time was too long.
    In the older version, bol.com was not able to explicitly provide feedback on each of the creation/updates/deletions of offers. It was a fire-and-forget variety. A request made by a seller for creation/updates/deletions of offers would either be successful or not. And the seller wouldn’t understand where the problem actually happened. But in the newer version, these processes are made comfortable to carry out in singles.
  • The bol.com marketplace wanted to separate the endpoints for different updates. For example,- The offers and specifications are not updated very frequently, but stock and price updates happen often. Making one change and filling in all the other details similar to old was making the process tedious and confusing.

  • Partner Demand

  • Partners like CedCommerce, who provide integration solutions for different services, demanded this change. It makes the processing time-saving for them when they want to update one detail only(like the inventory stock update).
  • API V1 and V2 did not provide means to check your request status. The bol.com API V3 has involved an asynchronous feedback flow for multiple offer related requests. This will allow a step-wise check of the processing request of offers. You can now get to know where actually your request has reached till now.
  • The bol API V3 re-introduces the offer ID, it was present in the V1 but not in V2. The offer ID is created at the time of creation of offer and is important for updating and deleting offers.
    For the sellers who have active offers and are planning to migrate to V3, can use the V3 offer export for an initial load.
  • Some retailers delete the old offers to create new ones. And that becomes heavy for bol.com and repetitive for sellers, but now this is not needed. The seller can simply retrieve the offer ID and make amendments to the old offer, rather than going through a time-consuming process of offer deletion/creation. At the same time, this will also make it easier for the bol.com to work on minimum amendments in the previous offers, rather than working on the processing of a whole new offer.
  • Unlike the bol.com API V2, the API V3 doesn’t allow the “Upsert” request, that was previously available in the V2. Upsert was a Update+Create offer request which will no longer be available in bol API V3.
  • The format of “Create Offer Request” has also changed from the V2. The new offer will directly show in the catalogue after creation. Activation of the offer can be reviewed by the seller to check its availability to the customers.
    

    There are two categories of the “Create Offer Request” results.-

    1. >202 (Accepted)
    2. >400 (Bad Request) if the request doesn’t meet the API specifications.

• The bol API V3 is for the systems which can work on updating specific parts of an offer, rather than bulk updates. The bol.com servers find the process of delete-create very expensive and time-consuming. Therefore it is an attempt to make individual changes to the previously present offers.
• The “Upsert” request in V2 allowed the inclusion of up to 50 offers in the offer request. But the new version allows only one change at a time. Each detail update request, i.e., price, stock, discount, and delivery options need processing with a single application.

Condition

Previously only two conditions were involved in categorizing the product, New and Second Hand. In the bol API V3, “Condition Comment” and “Condition Category” are the two new sub-categories added. The seller can now define a second-hand product as, “As new” and in “Good” condition.

Offer Export

The bol.com developers have introduced a new option for generating the offer IDs in the bol API V3. So the “Offer Export” section has got some new changes to soothe the process of offer ID generation. Now the primary function of “Offer Export” is to generate the offer id’s in bulk.

You might like- Complete guide to sell on bol.com

Some new feature additions in the bol marketplace API V3 are set to make selling easy.

Managed by Retailer: New Stock Function of bol seller API V3

The “Managed By Retailer” field is a new addition in the stock functions that will be available in the bol API V3. With this option, the retailer can himself update the stock after the shipping of an open order.

Volume Discount: New Feature of bol seller API V3

Volume discount is a new feature available in bol API V3. This feature gives an option to the sellers to lower the selling price if the customer wants to buy more than one product. The function does not allow a maximum of four products on one order. This feature is called “Bundle Price”.

Product Content: New Feature of bol seller API V3

The new bol.com API gives power in the hands of the seller. Till now, there was no option of adding the product information via the API. The new API version offers the possibility of uploading the product information.

Insights(Beta): New Feature of bol seller API V3

The new bol API version contains “Insights”. “Insights” gives you the following options-

Product Visits

The number of customer visits on the product page when the offer shows in the buy box for a requested period.

Buy Box Percentage

Percentage of customer visits on the product page where your offer is visible in the buy box for a requested period.

Sales Forecast

This endpoint will help the sellers to estimate the sales expectations on the bol.com platform.

Partner Performance: New Feature of bol seller API V3

The bol API V3 contains a new feature named “Partner Performance Indicator”. This feature meets the expectations of the customers of bol.com. For this, bol.com reviews the performance of sellers regularly and depicts it on the “Seller Performance Dashboard” weekly.

The new bol API V3 has a lot to offer to the sellers. Several new features are there, while the old ones added with some new additions. But some features are similar to the ones on bol API V2 and not new changes have been made in them. The “Invoice” section and “Cancellations” have nothing new to offer to the sellers. The “Fulfillment By Bol” or the bol.com’s shipping and fulfilment have no new developments. “Returns” again has nothing new to offer in the third version, but bol.com plans to bring changes in the “Returns” section in the API V4, i.e., the bol API V4.

How can we help you?

CedCommerce, a third-party integration services solution provider will help you with all the above-discussed changes in the latest seller API of the bol marketplace. Our 24*7 assistance is an added advantage. We are up with all the help and support for our clients via messengers(Skype and Whatsapp). You can sell on the bol marketplace through various platforms like Prestashop, WooCommerce, Magento and Magento 2.

We can help you to begin your business as an e-commerce retailer on bol.com and other markets. We are also providing our clients with multi-channel selling and many more exciting features right from onboarding to sale.

You might like- Complete guide to sell on bol.com