About Our APIs

The BigCommerce suite of APIs empowers you to create apps, automate store processes, and build headless ecommerce solutions.

If you're new to building BigCommerce apps, we recommend that you start by exploring the App Marketplace (opens in a new tab) to get a feel for what's possible.

When you're ready to play with our APIs, check out the API Request Quick Start.

Available APIs

BigCommerce has several APIs that let you manage store data, authenticate customers, make client-side queries for product information, and more.

REST Store Management APIs

BigCommerce's Store Management and Payment APIs (for example, the Catalog API) allow you to manage transactions, modify store data, and act as store administrator. Example use cases include the following:

• Add and update products in a store
• Update a customer's order and change the order status
• Create a coupon
• Manage a customer's store account details

REST Storefront API

The REST Storefront API lets you manage customer carts, checkouts, and order information client-side. Example use cases include the following:

• Add an item with JavaScript to a shopper's cart from a Stencil storefront
• Programmatically retrieve and display information to a customer about their recent order
• Update the billing address of a checkout
• Clear a customer's current cart

GraphQL Storefront API

BigCommerce's GraphQL Storefront API lets you query and mutate products, customers, and carts, then launch a checkout on a headless storefront as well as from a native storefront's frontend. Example use cases include the following:

• Add additional product data to a Stencil storefront
• Access customer data on the frontend of a site
• Manage shopper's carts on a headless storefront
• Fetch category and brand details from a store's frontend

Customer Login API

The Customer Login API lets you programmatically sign customers in to a BigCommerce storefront. Example use cases include the following:

• Sign customers in to a BigCommerce store from a third-party account or a headless storefront
• Enable login using credentials other than email and password, such as a phone number
• Integrate a BigCommerce store with an SSO provider

Current Customer API

BigCommerce's Current Customer API lets you determine which customer is logged in to a storefront during a session.

• Confirm a customer's identity in the browser
• Validate a customer's identity to display specific information to them from an external app

API authentication and context

Make BigCommerce API requests in the context of the storefront, BigCommerce API server, or app server. Each of the following APIs listings links to its section of our Authentication and Example Requests article, which contains the base URL of the API in question.

Available store resources

Anatomy of REST Store Management APIs

The following sections describe the configuration of well-formed requests and responses to and from BigCommerce-hosted REST APIs.

Media types

A media type is the format of the request or response body. BigCommerce APIs accept requests and send responses in JSON. Encode requests using the UTF-8 character set; other character sets can have unpredictable results.

Requests

For more information about required request headers, consult the API reference for the endpoint or graph you want to use.

Standard request headers

BigCommerce-specific request headers

Request content type

When performing a request that contains a body, specify the type of content you are sending with the Content-Type header. This typically applies to PUT and POST requests.

Request structure

The body of a JSON request is an object containing a set of key-value pairs. A simple representation of a product object is:

{
 "id": 5,
 "name": "iPod",
 "description": "A portable MP3 music player."
}

Responses

Response headers

HTTP response header names are case-insensitive; see the HTTP specification on field names (opens in a new tab) for more information. For example, your application may receive x-rate-limit-requests-left rather than X-Rate-Limit-Requests-Left, so plan your implementation accordingly. Most open source HTTP clients treat headers with the appropriate case insensitivity.

Standard response headers

BigCommerce-specific response headers

Response content type

When requesting a resource that returns a body, specify the type of content you want to receive with the Accept header. Alternatively, you can supply an extension to the resource you're requesting.

The priorities with which you can process these methods are:

• Accept header high-priority types (eg. Accept: application/json) extensions on the resource (e.g. customers.json).
• Accept header low priority types (priorities less than 1, e.g. Accept: application/json;q=0.9)

Response structure

Responses are structured similarly to requests. If a request returns a single object, then the response will contain a single object containing the fields for that resource.

GET https://api.bigcommerce.com/stores/{{store_hash}}/v3/catalog/categories/{{category_id}}

{
  "data": {
    "id": 39,
    "parent_id": 19,
    "name": "Bath",
    "description": "",
    "views": 0,
    "sort_order": 0,
    "page_title": "",
    "meta_keywords": [
      ""
    ],
    "meta_description": "",
    "layout_file": "category.html",
    "image_url": "",
    "is_visible": true,
    "search_keywords": "",
    "default_product_sort": "use_store_settings",
    "custom_url": {
      "url": "/garden/bath/",
      "is_customized": false
    }
  },
  "meta": {}
}

Support

Developer community

The developer community is a great place to get help from other developers who work on the BigCommerce platform. If you have BigCommerce-specific questions, this online forum is the best place to ask. It's also an excellent place for beginners to get assistance.

BigCommerce at Stack Overflow

Are you a more experienced developer or have a programming language-specific question? Stack Overflow (opens in a new tab) is a good place to ask questions and get help. The developer community is the best place to get answers about the BigCommerce platform.

Resources

• Developer Community
• Terms of Service (opens in a new tab)
• BigCommerce on Stack Overflow (opens in a new tab)