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

## Ethoca Alerts for Merchants API overview {#ethoca-alerts-for-merchants-api-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 these important services:

* **Alerts Push (Outbound API)**

  The Alerts Push API is a webhook that lets Direct Merchants / Partners receive alerts if they're on the Ethoca network.
* **Alerts Pull (Inbound API)**

  The Alerts Pull endpoint lets merchant members of the Ethoca network pull Ethoca Alerts and then send an acknowledgement that they received the alerts.
* **Alerts Outcome (Inbound API)**

  The Alerts Outcome endpoint lets Direct Merchants / 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 Push API Works {#how-push-api-works}

* You, the direct merchant or 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-push

## How Pull API Works {#how-pull-api-works}

* You, the direct merchant or partner, onboard to the Alerts platform through the Merchant Self Service API and set the integration method as "PULL"
* An issuer sends an alert about a problem transaction to the Alerts platform, which we process and match.
* You pull the latest alerts using the Pull API `/alerts` endpoint.
* Through the `/alerts/acknowledges` endpoint, you send an acknowledgement that the alert was received, which we pass 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-pull

## Good to Know {#good-to-know}

* **Onboarding Information:** Onboarding starts by creating an account on [Mastercard Developers](https://developer.mastercard.com/) and generating Sandbox project credentials.

* **Testing Information:** We have an [Open Sandbox](https://developer.mastercard.com/ethoca-alerts-for-merchants/documentation/api-reference/index.md) that you can use to test Sandbox calls.

## Next Steps {#next-steps}

Now that you have an understanding of what the service does, review the [Quick Start Guide](https://developer.mastercard.com/ethoca-alerts-for-merchants/documentation/tutorials-and-guides/quick-start-guide/index.md) to quickly get started, or look over the [API Basics](https://developer.mastercard.com/ethoca-alerts-for-merchants/documentation/api-basics/index.md) section for details on authentication and encryption.