How Loops Partners works

Loops connects merchants to the channels they sell on: delivery apps, marketplaces and e-commerce platforms. The Loops Partner API gives your system access to that network for the merchants who choose to connect to you.

 Your system                   Loops                            Channels
 (POS, ERP, tool)                                               (delivery apps, marketplaces)

   ┌────────┐   Partner API   ┌──────────────────────┐   ┌──── Channel A
   │  You   │ ◀─────────────▶ │  normalize · route   │ ◀─┼──── Channel B
   └────────┘   webhooks      │  merchant consent    │   └──── Channel C
                              └──────────────────────┘

The pieces

Application : Your integration. It has a client ID and secret, the scopes Loops approved for it, and your webhook endpoints. Sandbox and production each have their own application.

Merchant : A business that uses Loops (mer_…). A merchant has brands and locations (loc_…), which are its branches or stores.

Channel connection : A location’s link to one channel account (chc_…). The merchant manages these in Loops. You can read them, so you know where a location’s orders come from.

Connection : The merchant’s approval for your application (con_…). It says which locations you may access and with which scopes. The merchant can change or revoke it at any time.

Order : An order from any channel, in one channel-neutral format (ord_…). It keeps the channel’s own order number as channel_ref.

Event : A record of something that happened, such as order.created. Events are sent to your webhook endpoints and stay listable for 30 days.

How a typical integration works

1. You get approved and receive sandbox credentials.
2. A merchant connects to you. They approve your access and choose their locations. You receive a connection.created event with their merchant ID and your own reference for them.
3. You sync existing data. List the merchant’s locations and recent orders.
4. You stay in sync. Webhooks deliver new orders and status changes as they happen.
5. You recover from downtime. If your endpoint was unavailable, list events after the last one you processed.

What’s available today

The developer preview covers reading data:

• locations and their channel connections;
• orders, with full detail and incremental sync;
• order events by webhook;
• the Events API.

Writing back to Loops is on the roadmap: accepting and rejecting orders, menus, availability and hours. See What’s coming.