How humans and servers work together: A simple guide to REST APIs

Two years ago, I wasn't doing much with REST APIs, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes an interesting way to bulk-improve your website. You can think of it as a semi-automated workflow, where you can, for instance, use a script to load certain data, generate reports, or enrich content. It's also possible to load draft orders and automatically map them to the email address linked to the GCLID (for offline conversion tracking). There are many ways to use the REST API.

What is a REST API

APIs like REST have changed how apps on your computer communicate with servers (the backend systems). This post will explain what RESTful APIs are, how they work, and why they’re so important.

Today’s web is like a network of services that need to talk to each other, and RESTful APIs are the tools that help make that communication possible. Instead of being just connections, think of these APIs as translators that help servers understand each other.

They provide a simple way to organize the exchange of information and make sure all the pieces work together smoothly, creating an efficient system.

In case of Shopify, the REST Admin API lets you access nearly all resources of Shopify (customers, products, orders, metafields, shipping and fulfillment, inventory, etc). In this scenario, I will use only the “product” functions of the API. This covers the following objects:

1. Collect
2. CustomCollection
3. Product
4. Product Image
5. Product Variant
6. SmartCollection

Add or adjust product data

The Shopify REST API is a powerful tool that enables you to efficiently manage various aspects of your online store. You can adjust metafields to store custom information like product specifications or expiry dates, enhancing the data associated with your products, customers, and orders. The API also allows you to update product descriptions programmatically, making it easy to keep content fresh and engaging without manually editing each item in your admin dashboard.

You can use external data, rewrite it with OpenAI or another tool, and ensure the structure matches the existing structure in the meta-field objects. Then, with a Python script that connects to the REST API, you can push it to all products.

Additionally, the API facilitates quick adjustments to product prices, which is especially useful for promotions, supplier cost changes, or managing large inventories. Performing bulk edits becomes seamless, as you can update numerous items simultaneously by sending multiple requests or utilizing batch operations—such as applying discounts across a category or updating inventory levels.

Integrating data from spreadsheets like CSV or Excel files further streamlines this process, allowing you to add or update products, adjust prices, and modify descriptions without manual data entry, thereby maintaining consistency and simplifying the management of large datasets.

The Shopify REST Admin API's CustomCollection resource allows you to create, modify, and manage custom collections in a Shopify store. Custom collections group products without automated rules, meaning merchants manually add or remove products.

The API provides endpoints for creating, updating, deleting, and retrieving these collections, supporting fields like title, body HTML, and product associations. The resource also includes metadata capabilities, publication management, and other customizations.

Possible use cases

Here are a few scenarios where you might use the Shopify REST API in combination with Triple Whale:

• Customer journey analytics: Pull Shopify order and customer data, then use an attribution tool like Triple Whale to analyze customer journeys and purchase behavior across channels.
• Profit/loss tracking: Sync Shopify’s financial and order data for real-time profit and loss reporting, including COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) and other financial metrics.
• Attribution: Integrate marketing data from Shopify (like referral traffic, marketing sources) with attribution models to better understand how marketing efforts impact revenue.

Optimizing product meta fields and descriptions

Meta fields allow merchants to store custom data for products, which can be used for various purposes, such as adding additional product details that are not part of Shopify’s default product schema.

How to Update Meta Fields in Bulk via REST API:

1. Identify the products: Start by fetching all products using the REST API endpoint GET /admin/api/2024-04/products.json.
2. Batch update products: Once you have the list of products, you can loop through them and update the meta fields using PUT /admin/api/2024-04/products/{product_id}.json for each product.
3. Dynamic content: You can include custom logic here to populate the meta fields dynamically based on product tags, collections, or even external data sources.

Dynamic Pricing with REST API

You can also apply dynamic pricing strategies based on market trends, inventory levels, or customer behavior by updating product prices in bulk. A common approach is to use the REST API to fetch all products, run a price calculation algorithm, and then update each product with new prices.

For example, if you wanted to apply a 10% discount to all products within a specific collection, you would:

1. Fetch all products in that collection.
2. Calculate the new price (original price - 10%). Based on competitor prices and/or keywords with a custom search engine (cse.google.com ).
3. Update each product’s price using the REST API.

Tips for Using the Shopify REST API

AI-powered dynamic pricing

• REST API for Shopify Products: You can use the Shopify REST API to fetch product details (e.g., GET /admin/api/2024-04/products.json) and update prices (e.g., PUT /admin/api/2024-04/products/{product_id}.json).
• API for competitor data: Scraping competitors' pricing data or using APIs lets you pull competitor prices. These can be combined with Shopify's API to adjust your own prices dynamically.
• A/B testing prices: Use the Shopify API to create different product variants with varying prices and track customer response via the API, analyzing which price points lead to better conversions.

2. Inventory-driven pricing

• Inventory-based dynamic pricing: Shopify's REST API allows you to check inventory levels (e.g., GET /admin/api/2023-07/inventory_levels.json) and adjust prices accordingly, based on stock levels (e.g., creating rules to discount high-stock items).
• Automated flash sales: You can use Shopify's API to schedule or trigger time-limited discounts by bulk updating product prices, creating special collections for discounted items.

3. Smart marketing automation

• Personalized offers via email/SMS: Integrate Shopify's API with email marketing tools (e.g., Mailchimp or Klaviyo) using their REST APIs to automate sending personalized offers when prices drop or sales start.
• Abandoned cart recovery: Use Shopify’s abandoned checkout API (GET /admin/api/2023-07/checkouts/abandoned_checkouts.json) to trigger marketing automation platforms with dynamic discounts for users who abandoned their cart.
• Geo-targeted campaigns: Using a combination of Shopify’s API and a geolocation service API, you can create region-specific promotions, adjusting prices or offers based on the customer’s location.

4. Real-time competitive monitoring

• Competitor price monitoring: Use external scraping or APIs to monitor competitor prices (Amazon Product Advertising API, Google Shopping API). Integrate these with Shopify’s API to adjust prices in real time based on competitor pricing.
• Price optimization via AI: After pulling market data through an API, you can use AI-powered algorithms to recommend price adjustments and apply them using the Shopify API.

5. Bulk operations (product and pricing updates)

• Bulk product updates: Shopify’s REST API supports bulk updates to products, allowing you to change titles, descriptions, prices, and other attributes for multiple products in one request.
• Bulk pricing rules: You can automate bulk price adjustments (e.g., discounting entire collections) by fetching all products in a collection (GET /admin/api/2023-07/collections/{collection_id}/products.json), applying the price change logic, and updating prices via the API.

6. Customer segmentation and pricing

• VIP pricing: Use Shopify’s customer segmentation API to tag and identify loyal or high-value customers. You can then create personalized offers or apply custom discount codes via the API based on customer segment data.
• Dynamic discount codes: Shopify’s Discount API (POST /admin/api/2023-07/price_rules.json) allows you to create personalized discount codes for specific customer segments, which can be automatically applied at checkout.

7. Analytics for smart marketing

• Behavioral targeting: Shopify’s analytics APIs allow you to gather data on customer behavior and product performance, helping you adjust pricing and marketing strategies. Combine this with external APIs like Google Analytics to automate marketing based on user behavior.
• Customer lifetime value (CLV): Use the Shopify API to track customer purchase history and calculate CLV, then tailor pricing or promotions for high-value customers.

8. API-driven marketing integrations

• Google Shopping sync: Use Shopify’s API to update your Google Shopping product feed with real-time price changes, ensuring consistency across marketing channels.
• Dynamic ads pricing: Sync product prices with advertising platforms (e.g., Facebook Ads, Google Ads) using their APIs to reflect updated prices dynamically in your ads.

9. Cross-channel pricing

• Omni-channel pricing sync: Shopify’s API ensures that prices across your online store, physical store, and other sales channels (like Instagram or Facebook) stay in sync by fetching and updating prices across platforms.
• Channel-specific pricing: Use Shopify’s API to implement channel-specific discounts. For example, create different price rules for customers shopping via a particular channel (like Instagram or an app) using Shopify’s Discount API.

10. Time-sensitive promotions

• Scheduled price changes: Use the Shopify API to schedule automated price changes for events like flash sales, holiday discounts, or product launches. For instance, you can set price rules via the API to automatically activate at certain times.
• Event-based pricing: Combine Shopify’s API with external APIs (like Google Calendar or holiday/event APIs) to adjust prices based on upcoming events, like Black Friday or product anniversaries.

11. Price elasticity testing

• Elasticity testing automation: Through the Shopify API, you can create multiple price points for products and monitor how customers respond in terms of conversion rates. Adjust prices dynamically based on the demand, testing optimal pricing strategies.
• Real-time feedback loops: Combine Shopify's API with an analytics service to adjust prices automatically based on real-time feedback from sales data and customer behavior.