Merchant matching is not enabled by default. To request access, please contact us at
[email protected].
Overview
Merchant matching lets you search our database and retrieve location and counterparty IDs, powering merchant attribution and rewards use-cases.
You can call the merchant matching endpoint ahead of enrichment time with a merchant name and address, mapping an in-house merchant entry to a Spade counterparty and location ID. Then, when you call the real-time enrichment API, you can compare the IDs in the transaction object to the ones in your database -- instantly recognizing which merchant and location the transaction has occurred at.
Merchant matching can be done in batch or real-time:
- Real-time merchant matching: send single merchant name and location pairs, and receive Spade location and counterparty ID instantly. To learn more, see our real-time merchant matching guide.
- Batch merchant matching: send batches of up to 50,0000 merchant name and location pairs at once for mass matching. Results can be retrieved through webhooks or endpoint polling. To learn more, see our batch merchant matching guide.
Why use merchant matching?
| Challenge | How merchant matching helps solve |
|---|---|
| Raw merchant data from partners is inconsistent, making it hard to normalize -- e.g., “Amazon”, “Amazon #1234”, and “AMAZON.COM 800‑123‑4567” may refer to the same entity. | Merchant matching normalizes every record to a single counterparty and location ID. |
| Name‑only matching leads to false positives (e.g., “Sweetgreen” vs. “Sweetgreens Café”). | Spade scores every match (0–100). You choose your own similarity threshold. |
| Enrichment APIs require an online call for every transaction. | Merchant matching is offline & one‑time. Once you store the Counterparty/Location IDs, you can identify them in every future transaction response instantly. |