# Amazon Stock & Buy Box Alert (`arched_friend/amazon-buybox-alert`) Actor

Watch the Amazon buy box and stock level on any list of ASINs. Returns who is winning the buy box, who it ships from, the offer count and the stock state for each product, and alerts you the moment the buy box changes hands, the item sells out, or it comes back in stock.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/arched\_friend/amazon-buybox-alert.md
- **Developed by:** [Peach O](https://apify.com/arched_friend) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$10.00 / 1,000 product checkeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Amazon Stock & Buy Box Alert: Know the Moment You Lose the Buy Box

Give it a list of ASINs and it tells you who owns the buy box on each one, who the order ships from, how many other offers exist and whether the item is in stock. Run it again and it tells you what changed: who took the box, what sold out and what came back.

Built for Amazon sellers and brand owners who find out they lost the buy box from a sales dip, days after it happened.

### How it works

```mermaid
flowchart LR
    A["ASINs or product URLs"] --> B["Render each product page<br/>(residential proxy, pinned country)"]
    B --> C["Buy box seller,<br/>ships from, offers, stock"]
    C --> D{"Compare with<br/>last run"}
    D -->|new seller| E["buybox-changed"]
    D -->|now unavailable| F["went out of stock"]
    D -->|now available| G["back in stock"]
    D -->|price moved| H["price-drop / price-rise"]
    E --> I[("Alert rows")]
    F --> I
    G --> I
    H --> I
```

The proxy exit country is pinned to the marketplace you chose. Without that, Amazon localises the buy box to wherever the proxy lands, and a `.com` page comes back showing a European seller at a euro price.

### Built for

- **Amazon sellers** who need to know within hours, not weeks, that a rival took the box
- **Brand owners** watching unauthorised resellers appear on their own ASINs
- **Repricing teams** measuring how often each competitor holds the box
- **Buyers and sourcers** watching for restocks on items that keep selling out

### Input

```json
{
  "asins": ["B0FGJF172R", "B0FGJCYQKK"],
  "marketplace": "US",
  "onlyChanged": true
}
```

| Setting | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| `asins` | Bare ASINs or full Amazon product URLs, mixed freely |
| `marketplace` | Which Amazon site to read: `US`, `UK`, `DE`, `JP` and 11 more |
| `onlyChanged` | Return only buy box changes, stock flips and price moves |
| `onlyThirdPartyBuyBox` | Only listings a third party has taken from Amazon |
| `onlyAmazonBuyBox` | Only listings Amazon itself is selling |
| `onlyOutOfStock` / `onlyLowStock` | Spot rivals who have sold out or are about to |

### Output

```json
{
  "asin": "B0FGJF172R",
  "title": "Zojirushi SM-VH72-AZ GoCafe Insulated Stainless Steel Mug",
  "brand": "Zojirushi",
  "buyBoxSeller": "Pattern Home",
  "buyBoxSellerType": "third-party",
  "shipsFrom": "Amazon",
  "hasBuyBox": true,
  "offerCount": 7,
  "price": 28.99,
  "currency": "$",
  "inStock": true,
  "lowStock": false,
  "previousBuyBoxSeller": "Amazon.com",
  "buyBoxChanged": true,
  "changeType": "buybox-changed",
  "url": "https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FGJF172R",
  "checkedAt": "2026-09-15T18:20:04.881Z"
}
```

`changeType` is the field to filter on. It is one of `buybox-changed`, `went-out-of-stock`, `back-in-stock`, `price-drop`, `price-rise`, `new`, `unchanged` or `first-run`.

### Turn it into an alert

Set `onlyChanged` to true and schedule it hourly on your own ASINs. The first run records who holds each box. Every run after that returns only the listings where something actually moved.

```json
{
  "asins": ["B0FGJF172R", "B0FGJCYQKK", "B0FGJFWHH4"],
  "onlyChanged": true,
  "onlyThirdPartyBuyBox": true
}
```

### Run it as an API

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/arched_friend~amazon-buybox-alert/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "asins": ["B0FGJF172R"],
    "marketplace": "US",
    "onlyChanged": true
  }'
```

### Pricing

You pay $0.01 for each product actually read. Retries are free, and a quiet run costs the same as a noisy one.

| Watching 30 ASINs hourly | Monthly cost |
| --- | --- |
| Checking by hand | not realistically possible |
| Most buy box monitoring suites | $99 to $500 per month |
| This Actor | around $216 per month, or $7 per month once a day |

### Common questions

**Why does a seller show as `third-party` when it is my own brand?** `buyBoxSellerType` describes Amazon versus anyone else, not authorised versus unauthorised. Your own seller account is a third party in Amazon's terms.

**What if there is no buy box at all?** `hasBuyBox` comes back false and `buyBoxSeller` is null, which is itself worth alerting on: a suppressed buy box usually means a pricing or listing problem.

**Does a missing seller trigger a false alert?** No. A buy box change is only reported when both the old and the new seller were actually read, so a page that fails to render the seller row stays quiet.

**Can it list every offer on a listing?** It reports the offer count and the winning seller. Reading the full offer list for every ASIN is a much heavier crawl and a different product.

### Related products

- **Amazon Price Tracker** to follow the price on the same ASINs over time
- **Amazon Deals & Coupon Monitor** to catch coupons and lightning deals
- **eBay Price Tracker** to see what the same product sells for on eBay
- **Multi-Store Stock Alert** to chain Amazon, eBay and Shopify into one feed
- **Shopify Price Tracker** to watch the same brands on their own storefronts

# Actor input Schema

## `asins` (type: `array`):

The products to watch, one per line. A bare ASIN such as B0FGJF172R works, and so does any full Amazon product URL.

## `marketplace` (type: `string`):

Which Amazon site to read the buy box from. Use a country code such as US, UK or DE, or a full domain such as amazon.co.uk.

## `onlyChanged` (type: `boolean`):

Return only buy box changes, stock flips and price moves. Turn this on for scheduled monitoring so each run is a short alert list.

## `onlyInStock` (type: `boolean`):

Keep only products Amazon currently shows as available.

## `onlyOutOfStock` (type: `boolean`):

Keep only products that are currently unavailable. Useful for spotting a rival who has sold out.

## `onlyLowStock` (type: `boolean`):

Keep only products where Amazon warns that just a few are left.

## `onlyThirdPartyBuyBox` (type: `boolean`):

Keep only products where a third-party seller holds the buy box rather than Amazon.

## `onlyAmazonBuyBox` (type: `boolean`):

Keep only products where Amazon itself holds the buy box.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many product pages to load at once. Lower this if you see blocks on a large list.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Amazon blocks datacentre IPs, so this defaults to Apify residential proxy pinned to the marketplace country. Changing it away from residential will cause blocks.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "asins": [
    "B0FGJF172R",
    "B0FGJCYQKK"
  ],
  "marketplace": "US",
  "onlyChanged": false,
  "onlyInStock": false,
  "onlyOutOfStock": false,
  "onlyLowStock": false,
  "onlyThirdPartyBuyBox": false,
  "onlyAmazonBuyBox": false,
  "maxConcurrency": 5,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `products` (type: `string`):

One row per ASIN, with who holds the buy box, who it ships from, the offer count, the stock state and what changed since the last run.

## `runSummary` (type: `string`):

Counts of buy box changes, stock flips and who owns the box across the list, plus any ASINs that could not be read.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "asins": [
        "B0FGJF172R",
        "B0FGJCYQKK"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("arched_friend/amazon-buybox-alert").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "asins": [
        "B0FGJF172R",
        "B0FGJCYQKK",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("arched_friend/amazon-buybox-alert").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "asins": [
    "B0FGJF172R",
    "B0FGJCYQKK"
  ]
}' |
apify call arched_friend/amazon-buybox-alert --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,arched_friend/amazon-buybox-alert"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/LUVRgOwPkRIMibAaw/builds/ifXLzRnGDQT3pvm1x/openapi.json