With ECS, you can build a remote shopping cart, add items to the cart, and provide a link for customers to complete their transaction on the Amazon Web site. However, to do so, you must create software that uses the SOAP or REST requests, which requires programming skills and usually a server to host the application. As an alternative to using the Web services, Amazon provides a way to manipulate a customer's Amazon shopping cart using HTML forms.
There are two forms available for you to use:
The Add to Cart form allows you to add any number of items to a customer’s Amazon shopping cart, which also sends a customer to the Amazon Web site.
Note:
There is no direct way for a customer to get back to your site after getting sent to the Amazon site. To improve a customer's experience on your site, you may want to note this on your site or provide a way to get back to your site (using a new window, for example).The parameters are optional, but you must specify at least one of the following parameters: ASIN, ExchangeId (along with the SellerID and ASIN), or OfferListingId.
Add more than one items to the customer's cart by appending each set of parameters with a period, then a unique identifier, which establishes a relationship between the parameters (for example, "ASIN.1=[An ASIN]&Quantity.1=1&ASIN.2=[Another ASIN]&Quantity.2=12").
The Add to Cart form works with all locales. Send the Add to Cart form data to one of the following URLs:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aws/cart/add.html http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/aws/cart/add.html http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aws/cart/add.html http://www.amazon.de/gp/aws/cart/add.html
Input Parameters for the Add to Cart Form
| Parameter | Description | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| ASIN.x | Specifies one or more product ASINs to add, where x is a unique identifier. | Optional |
| ExchangeId.x | Specifies one or more products using the exchange ID, where x is a unique identifier. Exchange IDs are available for every item offered by a third-party seller. | Optional |
| OfferListingId.x | An alternative way to specify one or more product offer listings from third-party sellers, where x is a unique identifier. | Optional |
| Quantity.x | Specifies the amount of a certain product to add to the cart, where x matches an ASIN, OfferListingId, or ExchangeId parameter. | Required |
| SellerId.x | Use the SellerId parameter to ensure that the customer purchases the product from a particular seller, where x matches an ASIN, OfferListingId, or ExchangeId parameter. | Optional |
| SubscriptionId | Your subscription ID. You may want to specify this as a hidden parameter. | Required |
| AssociateTag | Your associate tag. You may want to specify this as a hidden parameter. | Optional |
Example HTML for the Add to Cart Form
<form method="GET" action="http://www.amazon.com/gp/aws/cart/add.html"> <input type="hidden" name="SubscriptionId" value="Subscription ID" /><br/> <input type="hidden" name="AssociateTag" value="Associate Tag" /><br/> <p>One Product<br/> ASIN:<input type="text" name="ASIN.1"/><br/> OfferListingId:<input type="text" name="OfferListingId.1"/><br/> Quantity:<input type="text" name="Quantity.1"/><br/> ExchangeId:<input type="text" name="ExchangeId.1"/><br/> SellerId:<input type="text" name="SellerId.1"/><br/> <p>Another Product<br/> ASIN:<input type="text" name="ASIN.2"/><br/> OfferListingId:<input type="text" name="OfferListingId.2"/><br/> Quantity:<input type="text" name="Quantity.2"/><br/> ExchangeId:<input type="text" name="ExchangeId.2"/><br/> SellerId:<input type="text" name="SellerId.2"/><br/> </p> <input type="submit" name="add" value="add" /> </form>
The Buy Now form is for zShops owners. Use the Buy Now form to send customers directly to the Amazon Web site to purchase an item. The Buy Now form lets you add an image and return URL to the purchase pages on the Amazon site.
The Buy Now form allows the customer to enter the appropriate handling and shipping fee, so be sure to explain this somewhere in your application.
Send the Buy Now form data to the following URL:
http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/dt/cbop/order-checkout/
Input Parameters for the Buy Now Form
| Parameter | Description | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| purchase-navbar | An image that is added to the top of the purchase pages. This allows you to associate the look and feel of your site with the purchase pages on the Amazon Web site. | Required |
| purchase-store-name | The name of your site, which is listed under the navbar image. | Required |
| purchase-return-url | The link URL that is activated when a user clicks on the navbar image. | Required |
| purchase-exchange-id | The item sold by a third-party seller. | Required |
| purchase-quantity | The amount of a particular item to purchase. | Required |
| purchase-storefront-name | Name of the storefront that is selling the product | Required |
Example HTML for the Buy Now Form
<form action="http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/dt/cbop/order-checkout/" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="purchase-navbar" value="https://www.mysite.com/navbar.gif"/>
<input type="hidden" name="purchase-store-name" value="My Storefront Name"/>
<input type="hidden" name="purchase-return-url" value="http://www.mysite.com"/>
<input type="hidden" name="purchase-exchange-id" value="[An exchange ID]"/>
<input type="text" name="purchase-quantity" value="1" size="2"/>
<br><input type="hidden" name="purchase-storefront-name" value="thestorefrontname"/>
<input type="image"
src="http://images.amazon.com/images/G/04/buttons/buy-now-from-seller-with-payments.gif"
width="170" height="29" border="0"/>
</form>