In so many businesses, ensuring the best performances requires particular partnering with some others platforms. the business owner may opt for creating applications that ensure the most reliable and effective interactions between the two partners’ platforms. It is like creating the bridge that leads from one to the other and ensures both benefits. The example of the Expressfy application is interesting to study. This application allows connecting the AliExpress platform to another e-commerce platform notably Shopify. The analysis of the functioning of this application and the features it offers, as well as the tasks it handles, should clarify, even a little, the concept of bridges among platforms.
What does creating bridges stand for?
The term creating bridges stands for the creation of applications that permits importing the content from one platform to another, with the possibility of editing the importing content before displaying it on the targeted platform. This process is commonly used when it is about sharing third material on social media platforms or selling third products as your own (dropshipping).
The Expressfy application:
The application principles:
The Expressfy application works as an extension (add-on) that you can choose to install on the Chrome browser. While browsing the AliExpress web store, the extension allows picking products to dropship on your Shopify store. The application requires a valid Shopify account where it should import the picked products.
The tasks of the application:
With the extension installed, an “Add” icon will show on the left side of the screen, prompting you to add the visited product to your store. You can operate some modifications by entering a new name, new price and a custom description for the product.
The application will handle importing the product, the images, and the custom properties you may add and place them properly on your Shopify store.
On the other hand, the application handles the received orders and file them to the AliExpress processing system. Definitely, it works only on the products imported by the application itself.
The components of the application:
The application is made of three main components:
- The importing manager: this component handles the determination of the product URL, the images and the default description; then upload them into a temporary file; then implement them in a particular order on the Shopify store. As a robot, it has to have access to the online store. This component will assign a code (label) to the imported product for further use.
- The built-in editor: This editor allows editing the information related to the product before the importing process. When you type in your data, the importing manager will dismiss the default price and the default description.
- The order handler: The order handler will recognize the products imported using the already assigned label, then will compile the order information and send it directly to the AliExpress company where it will be processed according to the dropshipping principles.
Conclusion:
Knowing the tasks to handle, the freelance web designer Singapore have managed to create the required components that can fulfill the desired tasks. Creating bridges and connecting applications requires the agreement of both parties. The shared benefits should be encouraging to anticipate such steps.