HTTP Requests in Action

HTTP requests are a core automation skill. The typical pattern is simple and powerful:

• Trigger from a spreadsheet → fetch data from an external API → use enriched data in later steps.

Imagine you have a Google Sheet with Amazon seller IDs. A seller ID on its own is not very useful, so you query an external API to retrieve real product data such as names, prices, images, and ASINs. This pattern applies anytime you have an identifier and need related data from another system.

What You Need Before Building

Before opening Zapier, identify:

• The goal: fetch product data using a seller ID
• The service: Rainforest API (or a similar Amazon data API)
• Required inputs: seller ID, API key, Amazon domain
• Output: product details returned as JSON

Reading the API Documentation

From the documentation, extract:

• HTTP method: GET;
• Endpoint URL: https://api.rainforestapi.com/request;
• Required parameters: api_key, seller_id, type, amazon_domain;
• Optional parameters: page.

API parameters are key-value pairs and must match the documentation exactly.

Configuring the Request

Set the base URL, then add query parameters:

• api_key: your API key;
• seller_id: mapped from Google Sheets;
• amazon_domain: e.g. amazon.com;
• type: seller_products;
• page: 1.

Add a header to specify the response format: Accept: application/json.

Using the Response Data

Once the request succeeds, Zapier exposes response fields such as:

• Product title;
• ASIN;
• Price;
• Images;
• Ratings.

These fields can be written back to spreadsheets, used in filters, sent to Slack, or routed through Paths.