Is there an Amazon.com API to retrieve product reviews?

Adobe SiteCatalyst (product): What are the pros and cons of using OSC API method v/s JS tagging method?

• This is for Omniture Site Catalyst (OSC) API method v/s JS tagging method... 1. I am looking at *real monetizable value proposition* if I want to switch to using OSC API option. 2. What are the merits and demerits of using the API option? 3. Has anyone/company (ecommerce) made the shift from tagging method to API option? What were your reasons, challenges, outcome of doing so. 4. What is the real cost involved in doing so? 5. Finally what problems should I foresee if chosen to go with the API option

• Answer:

  The first thing to consider is cost of implementation: Page tagging can be done through one simple template change in most eCommerce systems, which means your front-end developers can take care of instrumenting the check out, just like they would do for every other page. Using the Sitecatalyst API, you have backed code that needs to be changed, and this depends on your implementation. Some systems, like for instance have built-in wrappers for the API, which make it much easier to use, but even here you will need to get code written. The second question would be about the upside. If you are getting a lot of orders from non-web channels, either by phone, traditional catalog, or native mobile apps, there is an advantage of re-using the same code for tracking, so that you have consistency between different channels. This means, once you have the API-based tracking in your backed system, it does not matter if you add another channel, and everything will look the same to Sitecatalyst. (Do not forget to include a variable for the channel, so that you can filter and segment later on) Finally, and this should have the lowest impact for your decision-making: You are moving the responsibility to make the tracking call from your visitor's web browser to your backend system. There might be the rare case that the call gets lost depending on browser configuration, but in reality this won't cause a noticeable difference in your data collection.