Substitutes API

Never lose a sale to 'out of stock' again.

The Prodx Substitutes API returns ranked alternatives for any product in your catalog. Each substitute includes a degree score (how close the match is), quantity adjustment (so a 24oz replaces a 24oz, not a 6oz), and attribute tags showing exactly why it’s a match. No more random suggestions. No more lost sales.

See It In Action

View Documentation

Why Out-of-Stock Alternatives Usually Fail

When a shopper's item is unavailable, most platforms either show nothing or suggest weak substitutes. The order shrinks. The retailer loses.

Irrelevant Alternatives

Category-level replacements ignore shopper preference, pack size, and product context.

Wrong Quantity

A 24oz replacement is not equivalent to a 6oz item. Trust breaks quickly when the value is off.

No Explanation

If the shopper cannot see why a substitute is recommended, acceptance rates drop.

How Prodx Makes Substitution Smarter

Prodx combines category-level similarity, quantity standardization, and attribute matching so substitutes are relevant, quantity-aware, and ready for real-time use across PDP, cart, and fulfillment flows.

Returns up to 100 substitutes ranked with a degree score from 0–100.
Factors in shopper preference, brand, size, type, and quantity equivalence.
Adds match tags so the UI can explain why the substitute is being shown.
Supports dynamic merchandising such as prioritizing private label or past purchases.
Allows category-specific substitution logic instead of one static global rule.

Measurable Impact

Retailers using Prodx Substitutes retain orders that would otherwise shrink or cancel. Ranked alternatives with quantity-adjusted matches mean shoppers accept substitutions at significantly higher rates than random or category-based fallbacks.

Higher

Substitution acceptance

Ranked, quantity-aware alternatives outperform random fallbacks.

Fewer

Bad replacement complaints

Shoppers can see the match logic and trust the outcome.

Stronger

Order retention

Retailers preserve revenue that would otherwise be lost to shrink or cancellation.

How a Top-10 Grocer Increased Search Conversion by 35%

See how a leading grocery retailer significantly increased conversion with Clean Data Infrastructure.

Read the Full Story

Technical Specifications

Every Prodx API is designed for real-world retail environments — high volume, low latency, and continuous data updates. From authentication to uptime guarantees, everything is engineered to integrate cleanly and scale with your business.

Response Format

JSON

Authentication

API key (provided at onboarding)

Rate Limits

Configured per retailer at contract level

Hosting

Prodx-managed cloud infrastructure

Latency

Sub-200ms typical response times

Availability

99.9% + uptime SLA

Data Refresh

Continuous. Product data updates propagate within minutes of catalog changes.

Integration

RESTful API. Standard HTTPS. No SDKs required.

Onboarding

Three weeks typical. Send us your product feed, we handle the rest.

Support

Dedicated account team. Direct engineering access for integration questions.

GET /v1/substitutes?catalogId=GEN_CATALOG&productId=960038380
&count=100
{
  "substitutesProducts": [
    {
      "productId": "960050655",
      "degree": 92,
      "quantity": 1,
      "tags": ["BRAND", "ORGANIC", "WHOLE_GRAIN", "SLICED"]
    },
    {
      "productId": "196050883",
      "degree": 85,
      "quantity": 1.12,
      "tags": ["ORGANIC", "WHOLE_GRAIN", "SLICED"]
    },
    {
      "productId": "960469440",
      "degree": 78,
      "quantity": 1.12,
      "tags": ["WHOLE_GRAIN", "SLICED"]
    }
  ],
  "substitutesRequest": {
    "catalogId": "GEN_CATALOG",
    "productId": "960038380",
    "count": 100
  }
}

Ready to see what the Substitutes API can do with your catalog?

Send us your product feed and we'll show you results in weeks.

Book a Demo

Explore All APIs

The data infrastructure everything runs on.

Product data infrastructure for America's leading grocery retailers.

hello@prodx.com

Built on Prodx

Company

Get Started

How It Works

Book a Demo