# Ethoca Merchant Self Services
source: https://developer.mastercard.com/merchant-self-services/documentation/index.md

## Overview {#overview}

The Ethoca Merchant Self Services API lets you enter your merchant details for your organization, including for all of your submerchants. Using the Merchant Self Services API helps you onboard and integrate your company and all of your submerchants as quickly as possible.

This documentation is for a merchant or merchant partner (referred to as "merchant"), integrating with the [Consumer Clarity Merchant Transaction API](https://developer.mastercard.com/ethoca-consumer-clarity-for-merchants/documentation/) or the [Ethoca Alerts for Merchants API](https://developer.mastercard.com/ethoca-alerts-for-merchants/documentation/), and who has many submerchants or sub-brands that they want to onboard using the Merchant Self Services API.

## Consumer Clarity for Merchants {#consumer-clarity-for-merchants}

The Ethoca Consumer Clarity™ for Merchants products let you provide issuers and cardholders with real-time recognizable information about your company. The data you provide helps reduce both cardholder disputes of transactions they don't recognize and the "first-party misuse" that occurs when a consumer knowingly makes a purchase for goods or services and then disputes it as fraudulent.

Consumer Clarity for Merchants includes these two products:

* The Merchant Transaction API
* The Merchant Self Services API   

You use the Merchant Self Services API to enter your merchant details during integration with the Merchant Transaction API. For more information about the Merchant Transaction API, review our [integration guide](https://static.developer.mastercard.com/content/consumer-clarity/uploads/ethoca-merchant-digital-api-integration-guide.pdf) or contact the [Ethoca Customer Delivery Team](mailto:customerdelivery@ethoca.com).

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

1. A cardholder doesn't recognize a purchase and contacts their issuer for more information, either through their banking application or by speaking with a call center agent.
2. The issuer accesses Ethoca Consumer Clarity to provide more information to the cardholder.
3. Using our Merchant Self Service API, you've provided information about your specific brand, including a clean merchant name and contact information. You also might have used our Merchant Transaction API and provided information specific to the purchase.
4. Merchant and transaction details are displayed in the issuer banking application or to the call center agent. The issuer provides the information to the cardholder and the confusion about the purchase is resolved.

![How the Self Serve API works for Clarity](https://static.developer.mastercard.com/content/merchant-self-services/documentation/img/how-it-works2.png)

## Ethoca Alerts for Merchants {#ethoca-alerts-for-merchants}

Ethoca Alerts for Merchants connects merchants, acquirers and issuers together to share fraud and dispute data, enabling a faster dispute resolution process that reduces the need for chargebacks altogether.

Alerts for Merchants includes these three products:

* The Alerts Outcome API
* The Alerts Push API
* The Merchant Self Services API   

You use the Merchant Self Services API to enter your merchant details during integration with the Alerts for Merchants APIs. For more information about the Alerts for Merchants APIs, contact the [Ethoca Customer Delivery Team](mailto:customerdelivery@ethoca.com).

### How it works {#how-it-works-1}

* 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 acknowledgment back to you that the outcome was received and that the alert was successfully updated with the outcome.

![How the Self Serve API works for Alerts](https://static.developer.mastercard.com/content/merchant-self-services/documentation/img/overall-how-it-works-alerts.png)

## Before You Start {#before-you-start}

Here are some things to keep in mind when considering integrating with Consumer Clarity for Merchants or Ethoca Alerts for Merchants products:

* All merchants must integrate with the **Merchant Transaction API** (for Consumer Clarity) or with the **Alerts for Merchants APIs** (for Ethoca Alerts). Contact the [Ethoca Customer Delivery Team](mailto:customerdelivery@ethoca.com) for more information.
* The Merchant Self Services API isn't required. But, the API is essential if you have multiple submerchants or sub-brands since it lets you enter their contact details during the integration process.

Note: For Consumer Clarity, the order in which you integrate with the Consumer Clarity for Merchants products doesn't matter. But if you haven't already integrated with the Merchant Transaction API, then we recommend that you integrate with the Merchant Self Services API first.

## Next Steps {#next-steps}

* Review the [API Basics](https://developer.mastercard.com/merchant-self-services/documentation/api-basics/index.md) to learn about requirements for connecting to the Merchant Self Services API.
* Run through our [Tutorials](https://developer.mastercard.com/merchant-self-services/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/merchant-self-services/documentation/api-reference/index.md) information for details about the fields and values relevant to your specific needs.