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• For ItemSearch requests that do use the BrowseNode parameter, results are sorted by BestSeller
ranking
Finding Items to Buy
Topics
•
Search Operations (p. 84)
•
Items You Cannot Buy (p. 84)
•
Items Sold by Merchants (p. 86)
•
Common ItemSearch Parameters (p. 88)
•
Power Searches (p. 91)
•
Using Search Bins to Find Items (p. 95)
•
Finding Items Using Browse Nodes (p. 101)
In the previous chapter, you learned how Amazon groups and catalogs items for sale. In the following
sections, you learn how to use Product Advertising API operations to find those items.
Search Operations
The following table describes the Product Advertising API operations that find items.
Operation
ItemSearch
BrowseNodeLookup
If you do not know whether an item is for sale by a merchant or seller, search first using ItemSearch for
two reasons:
• Most of the items sold on Amazon are sold by merchants.
• Sellers often list their items for sale in Amazon's marketplace as well as in their own stores. Anything
sold in the marketplace can be found by ItemSearch .
Items You Cannot Buy
You might assume that any item returned by one of the search operations is for sale. This, however, is
not the case. Some items, such as Variation parents and Collection parents, are never for sale. Before
presenting items to customers, you must make sure the items can be purchased.
Product Advertising API provides several ways to determine if an item can be purchased, for example,
ItemSearch has an Availability parameter, which specifies whether an item is available for purchase.
The best way, however, to determine whether or not an item can really be purchased is by using one of
the following response groups in a request:
•
Offers Response Group (p. 256)
•
OfferFull Response Group (p. 252)
Product Advertising API Developer Guide
Finding Items to Buy
Description
To find items sold by merchants and sellers. This operation is the one used most
often to find items for sale.
To find items associated with browse nodes by navigating through the browse
node hierarchy. This operation does not return items directly, only the browsenodes
associated with items.
API Version 2011-08-01
84
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Table of Contents
Troubleshooting
