eBay recently announced the release of their eBay Express Shopping Cart APIs. Two new functions allow developers to create and update the contents of a shopping cart containing eBay Express items.

“Developers can use the new shopping cart APIs i.e., GetCart and SetCart to provide eBay Express shopping cart functionality off eBay and redirect to eBay at checkout time.”

The API is affiliate-enabled allowing affiliates (via CJ) to earn a commission; from my perspective the API would not make sense otherwise.

At first glance the API appears to be similiar to the remote shopping cart feature Amazon Web Services has provided for some time. Depending on the scenario it seems that it can be good or bad. Allowing the user to stay on your own site for longer is beneficial. This API might also work well for third-party software applications. However, it may also be confusing to some users as to what “cart” they are adding to, and who is actually selling the goods. Based on past experience with the Amazon API, I’d use caution when proceeding with this API and definitely measure conversion results.

[tags]ebay, ebay express, ebay api, ebay express api, shopping[/tags]