Describe the business event before choosing an API
A B2B checkout can involve agreed prices, purchase orders, approval limits and payment terms. Start with one workflow and name the systems involved. For example: an approved buyer places an order, the finance system records it, and the warehouse returns fulfilment status to the customer portal.
This article describes a planning example, not a completed client project. The same preparation applies to CRM, payment and booking integrations: identify the event, the authoritative data and what a successful handoff means.
Prepare an integration brief
- Systems and access: name the platform, account plan, API version, documentation and sandbox. Confirm the intended endpoints and permissions are available.
- Data ownership: decide which system owns customer identity, price, stock, order status and payment state. Supply representative records with personal data removed.
- Mapping: define shared identifiers, required fields, currency, tax handling and time zones. Record what an unmatched product or customer should do.
- Exceptions: include cancellation, partial fulfilment, failed payment, a changed price and an unavailable downstream system.
- Operations: decide who reviews failures, can replay a transfer and approves a correction.
Assume notifications may repeat or arrive late
Webhook processing needs a clear retry and duplicate-handling policy. As one concrete platform example, Stripe documents signature verification, duplicate events and asynchronous handling in its webhook guide. A payment notification should be authenticated and processed according to the provider's contract. Other platforms have their own delivery and retry rules; verify them individually.
Acceptance example: submit a sandbox order, deliver its event twice, then temporarily disable the receiving system. Verify that the order is created once, the failed transfer is visible and replay can recover it. Also check that a customer cannot view another company's pricing or orders.
Agree what the first release includes
A realistic first scope might support one order type, one warehouse and a defined set of states. Separate historical data migration, supplier onboarding and unusual pricing rules if they need additional investigation. Agree what is manual initially and how the team will measure whether the integration reduces work.
The handover should include field mappings, setup instructions, monitoring, a replay procedure and named ownership of platform upgrades. Maintenance terms depend on the systems and the agreed engagement. Explore API development and integration, workflow automation and ecommerce development.
