Salla API or a Salla store database?
One works inside the stores that install your app. The other tells you which stores exist. They are easy to confuse.
The Salla API gives an app access to the data of stores that have installed it and authorised it. It does not give you a list of all Salla stores. Salla (سلة), the Saudi e-commerce platform, documents its Merchant API at docs.salla.dev: every request is made on behalf of a merchant who has approved your app through OAuth 2.0, and only for the permissions that merchant granted.
A store database answers a different question — which Salla stores exist, and which of them match a segment. As of October 2026, SallaData lists 41,038 verified Salla stores, including the ones that have never heard of your app. Developers usually need the first for their product and the second for finding customers.
What is the Salla Merchant API?
The Merchant API is a set of REST endpoints, under the base URI https://api.salla.dev/admin/v2,
for working with one store's data: orders, products, customers, marketing, store settings, shipments and
more. It is how Salla apps read and change things inside the stores that use them. Apps are registered
through the Salla Partners portal, where the developer
declares which scopes the app needs.
How does an app get access to a store?
Per Salla's authorisation documentation, access works like this:
- The merchant installs the app and approves the scopes it asks for — for example
orders.read_write,products.read_writeorcustomers.read_write. - In Easy Mode, Salla sends the app an
app.store.authorizeevent carrying the access token. Salla's documentation states Easy Mode is the only mode allowed for apps published on the Salla App Store; Custom Mode uses a callback URL instead. - Access tokens are valid for 14 days and can be refreshed (the
offline_accessscope requests a refresh token). - The app “can only access resources that the Merchant has authenticated”, in the documentation's words.
Salla also sends app events such as
app.installed, app.uninstalled and app.subscription.started — all
about stores that have interacted with your app.
Can the Salla API list every Salla store?
Not according to its documentation. We found no endpoint in the Merchant API documentation that lists stores across the platform, and the authorisation model rules it out by design: without a merchant's approval, your app has no token for that store. If your app has 300 installs, the API can tell you about 300 stores.
This is the main source of confusion when people search for a “Salla store database” and land on API documentation. The API is a door into each store that lets you in, not a directory of the building.
What does a Salla store database give you?
A store dataset records the same public fields for every store it has verified, whether or not the store
uses any app. In SallaData that means: store name, website and Salla link, store since, category (one of
21), the store's own menu categories, phone, WhatsApp, email, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat
and X, BNPL providers, commercial registration, freelance licence and VAT numbers where the store publishes
them, plus store status and the date last verified. Every row carries the Salla store_id, so
records can be de-duplicated and joined to later updates.
What it does not have is anything private: no orders, revenue, customers or traffic. Those live behind the API, available only with the merchant's permission.
Who needs which?
| You want to… | Use |
|---|---|
| Sync orders, products or customers for merchants who installed your app | Salla API |
| React when a merchant installs, uninstalls or subscribes | Salla app events (webhooks) |
| Know how many beauty or perfume stores exist on Salla | Store database |
| Build an outreach list of stores that do not use your app yet | Store database |
| Find stores that already offer Tamara or Tabby, or publish a CR number | Store database |
| Read a store's sales or order history | Salla API, with that merchant's authorisation |
How do the two fit together?
For an app developer the typical sequence is: use a store dataset to size the market and find merchants who fit your app; reach them through their published business channels; and once they install, the API takes over for everything inside their store. The dataset covers the top of the funnel, the API covers the product.
SaaS, fintech, logistics and agency teams that never build a Salla app usually need only the dataset — the API offers them nothing until a merchant authorises an app of theirs.
Sources and method
API behaviour is summarised from Salla's developer documentation — overview, authorisation and app events — as read on 24 October 2026. APIs change; check the current documentation before you build. SallaData figures are from the October 2026 build; see the methodology.