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Ask HN: Does an API-only shopping cart exist?

6 points by CoreSet 11y ago

I'm a developer looking to stand up an ecommerce site, but have become frustrated with the available options, all of which seem geared to marketers who are more than happy to pay $30/month for the privilege of never touching code. I want the complete opposite. I want to build an ecommerce site where I have complete control over the front-end code, and it just hooks into some RESTful back-end server somewhere else to process payment, grab shipping info, etc. Are there any solutions for this? Something that would allow me to abstract away a lot of the ecommerce back-end into APIs, without completely giving up front-end control?

sjs382 11y ago
Hrm... A while ago, I worked on a project that is somewhat like what you described in that it's a cart where you have the full ability to use any CMS you want (or none at all) for product listing pages. There wasn't an API, though—most of the cart-specific functionality was done in JS. It's just a different approach to solve your problem. I never finished the project, but it's really close to being ready for launch. I'm interested in discussing it with you further! Shoot me an email (it's in my profile).
mtmail 11y ago
Have a look at https://spreecommerce.com https://spreecommerce.com (https://github.com/spree/spree https://github.com/spree/spree). You'd still have to setup the backend though I think they offer hosting solutions now. Shopify has an extensive API. You'd be able to create your own frontend with or without their shopping cart, with or without their checkout process and with or without third-party whitelabel shipping.
- schappim 11y ago
  We use Shopify's (https://www.shopify.com/?ref=lbit https://www.shopify.com/?ref=lbit) cart as a backend for this site: http://buylittlebits.com.au http://buylittlebits.com.au The entire front end is Vanilla JS + Static HTML (compiled by Middleman) on S3. We upload the site to S3 with S3_Sync (https://github.com/fredjean/middleman-s3_sync https://github.com/fredjean/middleman-s3_sync). We've made a local JS cart and then send then checkout at Shopify. It's blindingly fast. This wouldn't be possible if it weren't for Shopify's cart links. Cart links allow you to craft a URL that contains quantities and product variant IDs. Documentation on cart links is available here: https://docs.shopify.com/manual/configuration/store-customization/page-specific/cart-page/cart-permalinks https://docs.shopify.com/manual/configuration/store-customiz... .
  - imauld 11y ago
    Do you ship internationally? You're FAQ has no FAQ's and I have to say this is a really cool product.
halotrope 11y ago
Would you be willing to pay for this if there was a product that suits your needs or are you looking for a completely free solution? I was using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spree_Commerce https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spree_Commerce when building something similar. The frontend was a custom JS SPA while the backend + API was handled by a rails app that was running spree.
arrmn 11y ago
Theres molitn (https://moltin.com/ https://moltin.com/) from the YC15 batch, I haven't tried maybe it's for you.