🛒 Rakuten Advertising API — Merchants, Coupons & Products (BYOC)

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Query the Rakuten Advertising Publisher API for affiliate merchants, active coupons, and product search results. BYOC (Bring Your Own Credentials) — bring your free Rakuten publisher credentials and we proxy queries with 98% margin. ToS-compliant, anti-bot immune (official API).

✨ Features

• 3 query types — productSearch (find products across merchants), coupons (active deals), advertisers (joinable merchants)
• Dual auth modes — OAuth client_credentials grant OR pre-generated access token from Rakuten Developer Portal
• XML response parsing — regex-based extractor (no lxml dependency)
• Multi-network support — same actor queries US, UK, AU, BR, DE Rakuten networks (pass appropriate siteId)
• Auto-pagination for productSearch (up to 1000 records per run)
• NEVER 0 ITEMS guard — fails loud if Rakuten returns empty, never silent SUCCEEDED with no data
• Owner-skip pattern — internal runs (owner) bypass PPE charge

🔑 BYOC setup (one-time, free, ~10 min)

1. Sign up at https://developers.rakutenadvertising.com (or use your existing Publisher account)
2. Applications → Create New App → copy Client ID + Client Secret
3. Find your Site ID in Rakuten Advertising account (7-digit number)
4. Two paths to authenticate:
   • Path A (OAuth): paste clientId + clientSecret + siteId in actor input. Actor does the OAuth client_credentials exchange automatically.
   • Path B (pre-generated token): in Developer Portal click "Generate Token" → paste resulting JWT in accessToken input. Use this if Path A fails with invalid_client (some app states require manual activation).

Limits: free tier provides standard publisher API quotas — typically 1 request/second, 10K/day. Plenty for affiliate research.

📥 Input

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
clientId	string (secret)	Path A	—	OAuth client ID from Applications
clientSecret	string (secret)	Path A	—	OAuth client secret
siteId	string	Yes	—	Your Publisher Site ID (~7 digits)
accessToken	string (secret)	Path B	—	Pre-generated token (skips OAuth)
queryType	enum	Yes	productSearch	productSearch / coupons / advertisers
keyword	string	conditional	—	Search keyword (required for productSearch/coupons)
category	string	No	—	Category filter (where supported)
maxResults	integer	No	100	1-1000

Example input (Path B — pre-generated token, simpler)

{
  "siteId": "4703080",
  "accessToken": "your-token-from-rakuten-portal",
  "queryType": "productSearch",
  "keyword": "running shoes",
  "maxResults": 50
}

Example input (Path A — OAuth flow)

{
  "clientId": "your-rakuten-client-id",
  "clientSecret": "your-rakuten-client-secret",
  "siteId": "4703080",
  "queryType": "coupons",
  "keyword": "fashion",
  "maxResults": 100
}

📤 Output

productSearch records

{
  "queryType": "productSearch",
  "productName": "Nike Air Max 90 - Running Shoe",
  "merchantId": "39247",
  "merchantName": "Nike US",
  "advertiserCategory": "Athletic Apparel",
  "price": "129.99",
  "currency": "USD",
  "salePrice": null,
  "linkUrl": "https://click.linksynergy.com/...",
  "imageUrl": "https://cdn.example.com/...",
  "description": "...",
  "sku": "AIRMAX-90-US-10",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T13:45:00.000Z"
}

coupons records

{
  "queryType": "coupons",
  "offerId": "12345",
  "merchantId": "39247",
  "merchantName": "Nike US",
  "offerText": "20% off Running Shoes",
  "couponCode": "RUN20",
  "startDate": "2026-05-01",
  "endDate": "2026-05-31",
  "linkUrl": "https://click.linksynergy.com/...",
  "categories": ["Apparel"]
}

advertisers records

{
  "queryType": "advertisers",
  "merchantId": "39247",
  "merchantName": "Nike US",
  "applicationStatus": "OPEN",
  "commissionTerms": "8% on sale",
  "categories": ["Apparel", "Sports"],
  "currency": "USD",
  "country": "US"
}

💰 Pricing

Pay-per-event (PPE): only charged when a real record is returned. Zero results → zero charge. Owner-skip pattern ensures internal runs are not charged.

🚀 Use cases

• Affiliate program discovery — find Rakuten merchants you can join (e.g., Nike US, Macy's, Walmart, Booking.com)
• Coupon aggregation — power your coupon site with live Rakuten deals
• Product catalog import — seed your comparison or affiliate site
• Price intelligence — track merchant pricing across Rakuten network
• Compliance research — survey affiliate commission terms across verticals

⚠️ Common errors

Error	Cause	Fix
[RAKUTEN_AUTH] invalid_client	OAuth client not activated	Use Path B (pre-generated token) — paste JWT from Developer Portal
[RAKUTEN_AUTH] HTTP 401	Token expired / wrong scope	Refresh token in Developer Portal
[RAKUTEN_API] HTTP 429	Rate limit (1 req/sec free tier)	Wait 60s and retry
[FAIL] Zero records returned	Filter too narrow / empty results	Try broader keyword or queryType=advertisers

🔒 Privacy & security

Your clientSecret and accessToken are passed directly to api.linksynergy.com over HTTPS. Apify Console marks the fields as isSecret: true so the values are masked in logs and dataset. We never store, log, or proxy them through our servers.

📚 Related actors

• CJ Affiliate Products — Commission Junction API (BYOC)
• Impact.com Affiliate Network — Impact REST API (BYOC)
• Awin Multi-Merchant Affiliate — Awin Publisher API (BYOC)
• ShareASale Publisher (BYOC) — ShareASale Affiliate API (BYOC)

🆕 Changelog

• v1.0 (2026-05-14): Initial release. 3 query types, dual auth (OAuth + pre-generated JWT), XML regex parser, auto-pagination, owner-skip PPE, NEVER 0 ITEMS guard.

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Português

🛒 Rakuten Advertising API — Merchants, Coupons & Products (BYOC)

Consulta a API oficial Rakuten Advertising Publisher para descobrir merchants, cupons ativos e produtos. BYOC (Bring Your Own Credentials) — você traz suas credenciais grátis Rakuten e nós fazemos as queries com margem 98%. ToS-compliant, sem anti-bot (API oficial).

Diferencial vs scraping anti-bot

• Sem 403/429 — API oficial endorsada pelo Rakuten
• Sem proxy residencial caro — API REST direta
• 98% de margem PPE
• Dados estruturados (XML parseado para JSON limpo)

Setup BYOC (uma vez, grátis, ~10 min)

1. Cadastre-se em https://developers.rakutenadvertising.com
2. Applications → Create New App → copie Client ID + Client Secret
3. Anote seu Site ID (~7 dígitos)
4. Dois caminhos de autenticação:
   • Caminho A (OAuth): cole clientId + clientSecret + siteId no input. Actor faz o OAuth automaticamente
   • Caminho B (token pré-gerado): no Developer Portal clique "Generate Token" → cole o JWT no campo accessToken. Use isso se Caminho A falhar com invalid_client

Limites: 1 req/seg, 10K/dia (free tier).

Casos de uso BR/LATAM

• Descobrir programas de afiliados Rakuten que aceitam publishers BR (Booking.com BR, Nike, Macy's etc)
• Importar catálogos de produtos para sites de comparação
• Aggregar cupons ativos para site de cashback
• Pesquisa de comissão por vertical (esporte, moda, viagem) cross-country