Zinc

What is Zinc?

Zinc is an API that handles the full online buying process across thousands of retailers. Developers and AI agents can search live product data, place orders with a price cap, track shipments, and start returns without building separate retailer integrations. It supports Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and many Shopify stores.

Top Features:

• Ordering: send a product URL, address, and price cap to place an order.
• Product data: search prices, stock, ratings, and images across major retailers in real time.
• Tracking: get carrier updates by webhook and generate return labels through the API.

Use Cases:

• Agent shopping: let an AI agent find and buy products without human checkout.
• Procurement: reorder supplies using retailer accounts and pricing you already negotiated.
• Gifting: ship rewards or gifts with custom messages and branded packing slips.

Who Can Use Zinc?

• Developers: build marketplace, rewards, or shopping apps with TypeScript and Python SDKs.
• Agent builders: give agents a tested way to buy from 500 million products.
• Operations teams: automate repeat orders across many retailers and cut manual procurement hours.

Pricing

• Orders ($1 each): pay only when an order goes through, plus the product cost.
• Data API ($0.01 per call): product search and detail requests are billed per API call.
• Volume (contact sales): custom rates for teams placing over 1,000 orders each month.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• One integration: a single API covers search, checkout, tracking, and returns across retailers.
• Safe testing: the sandbox simulates stock-outs, price spikes, and bad addresses at no cost.
• Fair billing: failed orders are not charged, so costs track real completed purchases.

Cons:

• Developer focused: non-technical teams need engineering help to connect the API to workflows.
• Prepaid balance: you top up funds first, and card top-ups carry small fees.
• Cancellations: placed orders are not cancelled for you, so a return is needed.

FAQs:

1) Which retailers does it support?

Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Costco, Etsy, and many Shopify stores.

2) Is there a sandbox?

Yes, test mode is a full sandbox with simulated failure cases.

3) Can AI agents use it?

Yes, agents can mint sandbox keys, connect by MCP, and pay per request.

4) Do I need retailer accounts?

No, orders can use your retailer accounts or accounts the service provides.

5) How does tracking work?

UPS, FedEx, USPS, and DHL updates arrive by webhook and hosted tracking pages.