| Feedback |  |
The Amazon E-Commerce Service Getting Started Guide gives you a brief introduction to Amazon's E-Commerce Service (ECS). The concepts, operations, and functionality introduced in this guide are covered in greater detail in the Amazon E-commerce Service Developer Guide.
This guide is for developers who want a quick introduction to creating ECS-driven applications and websites. This guide presents a very simple, sample application built with ECS operations and implemented in the following computer languages:
Java
PHP
C#
Perl
![[Note]](images/note.png) | Note |
|---|---|
If you are viewing the online version of this guide, you can view the code examples written in one or all of the programming languages. To display the examples in only one programming language, select the language using the Show Language list on the top-right corner of the page. |
ECS is the best way to make money on the Internet. Amazon has spent ten years and hundreds of millions of dollars developing a world-class web service that millions of customers use every day. As a developer, you can build ECS applications that leverage this robust, scalable, and reliable technology. You get access to the data used by www.amazon.com, including the items for sale, customer reviews, seller reviews, and most of the functionality, such as finding items, finding similar items, displaying customer reviews, and product promotions. In short, ECS operations open the doors to Amazon's databases so that you can take advantage of Amazon's sophisticated e-commerce data and functionality. Build your own web store to sell Amazon items or your own.
There are many ways to earn money using ECS-driven websites and applications. One way is to become an ECS Associate. Associates earn commissions by advertising items for sale by Amazon. When the customer decides to purchase an item, the Associate's website links the customer to Amazon for the actual order submission and fulfillment. Associates earn a percentage of the sale.
This guide explains how you can use ECS operations to create such storefronts, in which you enable Internet customers to search for items, see pictures of them, find related items, get customer reviews, and purchase items without stocking or shipping a single item.
Best of all, ECS is free. By signing up to become a ECS developer, you will join the tens of thousands of developers who are already realizing financial gains by creating ECS-driven applications and websites.
This guide is written for developers who want to create e-commerce driven applications and websites. We assume that you are proficient at programming in the computer language of your choice and have had some exposure to web service technologies, such as REST, SOAP, and XML. You can write ECS applications and websites in most modern computer languages.
