Getting Amrod API access approved
An Amrod account and Amrod API access are two different things. This is how to get the second one, and what goes wrong on the way.
If you sell Amrod product and you want it on your own website, you need the API. Reading it is the only way to keep thousands of prices and stock figures current without somebody retyping them. This page covers how to get access, because that is the step most people get stuck on.
An account and API access are not the same thing
Amrod is trade only. Its own site says it does not supply end users and supplies registered and approved resellers. So the first requirement is an Amrod reseller account, which involves an application, documents, vetting and a once-off administration fee.
Having that account does not give you the API. API access is a separate permission granted against your account, and you have to ask for it. Plenty of resellers discover this after a developer has already told them the credentials are wrong.
How to request it
Amrod publishes an API access request form. At the time of writing it sits at content.amrod.co.za/new-api-access-request, and the documentation is at newapidocs.amrod.co.za.
The form asks who will be using the access. It allows for an external developer, which matters if somebody else is building your site: you can name them without handing over your own trade login.
Three things are worth putting in the request.
- Say what you are building. A website carrying your own catalogue is an ordinary request. Saying so avoids a round of questions.
- Name your developer if you have one, so the credentials and the technical questions can go straight to them.
There is only one login, and that matters
Amrod does not issue a separate set of credentials for automated access. The username, password and customer code your website uses to read the catalogue are the same ones a person uses to sign in to Amrod's own site.
That has a consequence worth understanding before you connect anything.
If somebody in your office changes that password, your website stops updating. It does not break loudly. The site carries on showing the prices and stock it last pulled, and everything looks completely normal until a customer orders something that went out of stock a week ago, or you quote at a price that has since changed.
Because there is no separate service account to isolate, this cannot be designed away. Two habits deal with it instead.
- Treat a password change as something the website needs to know about. Whoever changes it should tell whoever runs your site the same day.
- Make sure a failed connection raises an alert. The failure is silent by nature, so somebody has to be told by the system rather than by a customer.
The three refusals, and what each one means
When a login fails, the response tells you which of three things is wrong. Reading it correctly saves a lot of time.
| What it says | What it means | Who fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| The user was not found | The username does not exist as typed | You, or Amrod if you have never been given one |
| The password or customer code is incorrect | The username exists, but the password or the customer code does not match. The customer code is a separate field and is easy to get wrong | You |
| API access is not enabled on the account | Everything you typed is correct. The account simply does not have API permission | Amrod, and only Amrod |
The third one is the important one. Nothing you or your developer changes will fix it. If you see it, stop debugging and go back to Amrod.
What access gives you, and what it does not
The API is read only. It publishes products, prices, stock, categories, brands and branding information.
It does not take orders. There is no endpoint that places an order with Amrod. Whatever your website does, somebody on your side still places the order with Amrod the way they do now. Any proposal that suggests otherwise has not read the documentation.
Two consequences follow, and they shape what a sensible website looks like.
- The website's job is to capture a complete, correctly priced order and hand it to a person in a form they can act on in seconds. Not to automate fulfilment, because it cannot.
- Because branded work is priced by print position and by quantity band, a quote is usually a better fit than a checkout. Why splitting an order across colours costs your customer more covers the arithmetic.
The prices you receive are your prices
Amrod places resellers on a loyalty ladder, and where you sit on it sets what you pay. The API returns the prices for the account that is calling, so two resellers running identical websites see different cost prices.
So your website should apply your margin to your own cost, rather than to a price list published for somebody else. How Amrod pricing tiers work goes into it.
Once you have it
You will have three pieces of information: a username, a password and a customer code. All three go together, and all three should be treated as banking credentials, because anyone holding them can see your buying prices.
Give them to whoever is building your site directly. They belong on a server, in a file that is not reachable from the web, and never in an email thread that gets forwarded.
The next question is usually what to do with the data once it arrives, which turns out to be less obvious than it looks: every endpoint returns the entire dataset, the largest is around 55 MB, and there is no way to ask for one product. The Amrod API, in practice covers what that means for a real website.
Questions people ask
Does Amrod charge for API access?
We have found no published fee for API access itself. Amrod does charge a once-off administration fee when a reseller account is first registered, and it does not publish that amount either. Ask them directly.
Can I use the API without an Amrod account?
No. The API returns prices for the account that calls it, so it has no meaning without one. Amrod supplies registered and approved resellers only.
Why does my login work on the Amrod website but not on the API?
API access is granted separately from the trade account. If the credentials are right and the API still refuses them, access has not been enabled on that account, and only Amrod can enable it.
How long does approval take?
Amrod does not publish a turnaround time, and we will not invent one. Ask when you submit the request.
Written by CatalogueConnect.
CatalogueConnect builds websites for Amrod resellers, connected to the reseller's own account and pricing rules. See what is included or view pricing.
Last checked 8 September 2026. Amrod can change its API and its terms without telling us, so confirm anything that matters to a decision. Sources and limits.