BigCommerce API: An Expert’s Guide to Enhance Your Store
BigCommerce is known as one of the most trusted eCommerce platforms, offering a wide range of built-in tools that many rivals cannot match. To get the most out of these capabilities, store owners need to fully understand how the BigCommerce API works. This guide from GritGlobal is created to help you do exactly that. We will walk through the essentials of the platform’s API, explain its key functions, and show you how it can unlock more value for your online store. Highlights What is BigCommerce API? An API, short for Application Programming Interface, works like a bridge that lets two different software systems exchange information and perform tasks together. Simply put, it enables separate applications to communicate and function as one. The BigCommerce API is built to let merchants automate workflows and create custom connections within their BigCommerce store. With it, you can handle almost every aspect of store operations, from products and orders to customers, carts, and checkouts. This means businesses gain more control and flexibility to tailor their online stores to unique needs. Beyond that, these APIs also manage store data, customer login processes, and client-side queries for product information. It comes with a large set of endpoints, webhooks, and built-in functions designed to help merchants scale and operate more effectively. Analysts estimate that the API economy could reach approximately $ 14.2 trillion in value by 2027, underscoring the importance of getting your API strategy right. Common Types Of BigCommerce API Calls The BigCommerce API provides different sets of tools designed to manage store data, handle customer authentication, and process client-side queries for product details. For merchants, knowing these types is important whether you want to build custom solutions on your own or work with a developer. Below, we’ve highlighted the main categories of the platform’s API calls that store owners should understand. REST APIs For Store Management REST APIs in BigCommerce are built to automate transactions and update store data programmatically. With these APIs, you can add or edit products, adjust stock levels, create promotional coupons, or manage customer account details. They give you the ability to run your store more smoothly and with less manual effort. GraphQL Storefront API While REST APIs handle the backend side of store operations like products or orders, the GraphQL Storefront API focuses on shaping the front-end shopping experience. It serves as a flexible interface for working with storefront data, giving developers the ability to build headless stores or customize Stencil themes more effectively. In the United States, 86% of CPG dollar sales now come from omnichannel shoppers, which raises the stakes for unified, API powered storefronts. Through the GraphQL Storefront API, developers can pull detailed product catalog information, including advanced options for search, filtering, and sorting. It also supports retrieving product images in different resolutions and accessing customer information such as names, emails, and attributes. Because it uses GraphQL, this API makes it possible to gather data from multiple resources in one request, ensuring faster and more efficient responses. Checkout API The BigCommerce API for checkout lets developers expand and adjust the built-in checkout system. While the default checkout is strong on its own, this API allows you to customize it to fit unique needs or merge it with a fully custom storefront. Forbes notes that the average online shopping cart abandonment rate sits around 70% across dozens of studies, so reducing friction at this step can materially lift conversions. With the Checkout API, you can create personalized checkout flows that cover everything from customer login to shipping calculations and payment handling. It’s especially useful for building flexible solutions across headless stores, mobile apps, or other specialized use cases. Customer Login API For businesses aiming to provide secure sign-in and single sign-on (SSO) options, the Customer Login API is the go-to tool. It gives shoppers the ability to log in with credentials from trusted identity providers or their existing accounts. This API also supports alternative authentication flows. You can set up login methods like phone-based verification, helping customers who prefer simpler access without managing multiple passwords. Current Customer API The Current Customer API is designed to tell signed-in customers apart from guest visitors. It lets you identify which user is active on the storefront during their session. By confirming a customer’s identity in the browser, you can validate them and serve personalized details or data pulled from an external app. Payments API The Payments API in BigCommerce makes it possible to process transactions through integrated payment gateways. Shoppers choose their preferred method and finish checkout. Once the payment is approved, the order is generated through the Order API or Store Management Checkouts API. From there, funds are directed to the connected account, often through providers like PayPal. Bloomberg reported that U.S. online holiday sales reached a record 222.1 billion dollars in 2023, with greater use of buy now, pay later playing a role. So supporting flexible payment options can influence completion rates. Catalog API The Catalog API gives you full control over your store’s products, categories, brands, and bulk pricing rules. It supports CRUD actions (Create, Read, Update, Delete) across catalog data, making it easier to manage product information. With this API, you can update existing items, introduce new variants when launching or upgrading products, and improve how they appear on the storefront. Shipping API The Shipping API allows you to generate shipments directly from orders, including splitting one order into multiple packages if needed. Using BigCommerce’s V2 Shipping API, you can define shipping zones, methods, and carrier links. Once a shipment is created, you can assign the carrier, add tracking details, and link the shipping address ID, ensuring customers stay informed with transparent delivery updates. What BigCommerce API Can Do For Your Store After looking at the main categories of API calls, it’s time to see what the BigCommerce API can actually accomplish. These core functions give you the foundation to design flexible and tailored eCommerce experiences. According to McKinsey’s 2024 B2B Pulse, 71% of B2B companies now
