# Ethoca Alerts for Merchants and Merchant Partners
source: https://developer.mastercard.com/ethoca-alerts-for-merchants/documentation/index.md

## Overview {#overview}

Ethoca Alerts™ is a collaborative tool that brings merchants (and merchant partners), acquirers, and issuers together to share fraud and dispute data, which enables a faster dispute resolution process that reduces the need for chargebacks altogether.

The Ethoca Alerts for Merchants API includes two important services:

* **Alerts Push (Outbound API)**

  The Alerts Push API is a webhook that lets merchants and merchant partners receive alerts if they're on the Ethoca network.
* **Alerts Outcome (Inbound API)**

  The Alerts Outcome endpoint lets merchants and merchant partners provide necessary outcome and feedback (such as `REFUNDED` and `NOT_SETTLED` messages) via an update that is made available to card issuers so that they know not to raise a chargeback.

## How It Works {#how-it-works}

* You, the merchant or merchant partner, expose a RESTful web service that can receive an HTTPS POST request. You onboard to the Alerts platform and register your webhook endpoint.
* An issuer sends an alert about a problem transaction to the Alerts platform.
* We process and match the alert, and then push it to your registered endpoint.
* You send an acknowledgement response to us with the status of "success" and we pass that on to the issuer.
* You then send the outcome of the alert through the Alerts for Merchants Outcome API, which we pass on to the issuer.
* We also send an acknowledgement back to you that the outcome was received and that the alert was successfully updated with the outcome.

Diagram how-it-works

## Next Steps {#next-steps}

* Review the [API Basics](https://developer.mastercard.com/ethoca-alerts-for-merchants/documentation/api-basics/index.md) to learn about requirements for connecting to the Alerts for Merchants API.
* Run through our [Tutorials](https://developer.mastercard.com/ethoca-alerts-for-merchants/documentation/tutorials-and-guides/index.md) if you'd like to quickly connect and start testing in a sandbox environment.
* Look over the [API Reference](https://developer.mastercard.com/ethoca-alerts-for-merchants/documentation/api-reference/index.md) information for details about the fields and values relevant to your specific needs.