Does Your E-Commerce Marketplace Have an Embed Strategy?

by Kin Lane on 05/04/2011

Embeddable widgets come in many formats, from JavaScript to iFrames, and are quickly becoming commonplace, especially within e-commerce platforms.

Embeddable objects allow users, especially non-developers to copy and paste content from web sites and embed within other sites, blogs, and social networks.

3D printing and manufacturing platform Shapeways, provides a marketplace for their designers to sell their products, and also provides a set of widgets for users to promote the products they've created and published to their Shapeways shop.

The Shapeways widgets is a classic example of why RESTful APIs are so powerful.

Shapeway employs an iFrame widget where users can enter their shop name, and customize the number of rows and columns, and the height and width of the widget.

These embeddable widgets allow Shapeways shop owners to extend their presence beyond the Shapeways marketplace across the World Wide Web.

Does our e-commerce marketplace have an embed strategy?