Staples Product Ratings & Review Summary Scraper

Monitor Staples product reputation without manually opening every product page.

This Apify Actor turns Staples product URLs or item numbers into structured rating snapshots: aggregate rating, total reviews, Q&A count, every 1–5-star bucket, and Staples' review-derived AI summary when one is available.

Use the dataset in spreadsheets, dashboards, alerts, catalog systems, or scheduled brand-monitoring workflows.

V1 extracts review intelligence and aggregate metrics. It does not extract individual customer review text.

What does Staples Product Ratings & Review Summary Scraper do?

The Actor accepts one or many Staples products and returns one current snapshot per product.

It extracts:

• 🆔 Staples item and part numbers
• 🏷️ Product name and brand
• ⭐ Aggregate rating
• 💬 Total review count
• ❓ Product Q&A count
• 📊 Review counts and percentages for ratings 1 through 5
• 🧠 Staples' review-derived AI summary, when present
• 🔗 Canonical Staples product URL
• 🕒 Exact extraction timestamp

The Actor uses a first-party Staples JSON surface rather than rendering a browser page, making normal runs fast and lightweight.

Who is it for?

Ecommerce brands

Track whether product sentiment is improving or deteriorating across the Staples catalog.

Office-supply vendors

Monitor rating distributions for your products and competing SKUs on a schedule.

Product and reputation analysts

Collect consistent KPI snapshots for dashboards, weekly reports, and anomaly alerts.

Catalog teams

Enrich internal item records with public rating totals, Q&A activity, and canonical URLs.

Researchers

Compare review concentration across stars without manually transcribing product-page widgets.

Why use this Staples reviews scraper?

Manual review monitoring is repetitive and difficult to compare over time.

The Actor provides:

• Structured data instead of copied page text
• Batch processing for up to 1,000 products per run
• SKU resolution from bare Staples item numbers
• Scheduling through standard Apify tasks
• Per-product resilience so one unavailable item does not stop a valid batch
• Timestamped snapshots suitable for trend monitoring
• Exports to JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, and other Apify dataset formats

What data can I extract from Staples products?

Field	Type	Description
status	string	ok for a product record or error for an optional failure record
itemNumber	string	Staples item identifier
staplesPartNumber	string or null	Staples part number returned by the product API
manufacturerPartNumber	string or null	Manufacturer part number when available
name	string	Product name
brand	string or null	Product brand
canonicalUrl	string	Canonical Staples product URL
sourceUrl	string	URL or item number supplied in input
rating	number or null	Current aggregate rating
reviewCount	integer	Current total number of reviews
questionAnswerCount	integer	Current product Q&A count
ratingDistribution	array	1–5-star buckets with count and percentage
aiReviewSummary	string or null	Staples-provided review-derived summary; never synthesized
scrapedAt	string	UTC ISO 8601 extraction time
error	string	Failure explanation on optional error rows

Nullable fields stay nullable when Staples does not provide them.

How do I scrape Staples product ratings?

1. Open the Actor input page.
2. Paste one or more full Staples product URLs.
3. Optionally add bare numeric Staples item numbers.
4. Keep the default concurrency for a normal batch.
5. Click Start.
6. Open the default dataset when the run finishes.
7. Export the results or connect an integration.

The prefilled example uses one product and normally completes well under two minutes.

Input

A simple URL run:

{
  "productUrls": [
    "https://www.staples.com/epson-ecotank-photo-et-8550-wireless-wide-format-color-all-in-one-inkjet-printer-c11cj21201/product_24503591"
  ]
}

A bare item-number run:

{
  "productUrls": [],
  "skus": ["24503591"]
}

A mixed monitoring batch:

{
  "productUrls": [
    "https://www.staples.com/epson-ecotank-photo-et-8550-wireless-wide-format-color-all-in-one-inkjet-printer-c11cj21201/product_24503591"
  ],
  "skus": ["24488589"],
  "maxConcurrency": 2,
  "maxRetries": 2,
  "includeErrorRecords": true
}

Input options

productUrls

Full staples.com product URLs.

Other domains and non-product Staples pages are rejected rather than guessed.

skus

Numeric Staples item numbers between 5 and 12 digits.

The Actor resolves each item number to its canonical product path before extraction.

maxConcurrency

Number of products fetched at once.

Default: 5.

Allowed range: 1 to 20.

Use a lower value if a very large scheduled batch encounters rate limiting.

maxRetries

Number of retries for transient network, rate-limit, or server failures.

Default: 2.

Allowed range: 0 to 5.

includeErrorRecords

When enabled, failed products produce a free diagnostic row while valid products continue.

Error rows are not charged as successful product results.

proxyConfiguration

Local runs try direct HTTP first and use the configured proxy on retries. Cloud runs use the configured proxy immediately because Staples drops requests from cloud datacenter egress.

The default US residential Apify Proxy setting is recommended. Proxy rotation remains bounded by the retry limit.

Output example

{
  "status": "ok",
  "itemNumber": "24503591",
  "staplesPartNumber": "24503591",
  "manufacturerPartNumber": "9472524",
  "name": "Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 Wireless Color Inkjet Printer, All-In-One Supertank, Print, Scan, Copy (9472524)",
  "brand": "Epson",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://www.staples.com/epson-ecotank-photo-et-8550-wireless-wide-format-color-all-in-one-inkjet-printer-c11cj21201/product_24503591",
  "sourceUrl": "24503591",
  "rating": 4.39,
  "reviewCount": 512,
  "questionAnswerCount": 41,
  "ratingDistribution": [
    { "rating": 1, "reviewCount": 42, "reviewPercent": 8 },
    { "rating": 2, "reviewCount": 15, "reviewPercent": 3 },
    { "rating": 3, "reviewCount": 20, "reviewPercent": 4 },
    { "rating": 4, "reviewCount": 57, "reviewPercent": 11 },
    { "rating": 5, "reviewCount": 378, "reviewPercent": 74 }
  ],
  "aiReviewSummary": "The Epson ET-8550 printer is praised for its excellent photo print quality...",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-18T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Values change as Staples receives new ratings, questions, or product updates.

Understanding the rating distribution

Each entry in ratingDistribution contains:

• rating: star value from 1 to 5
• reviewCount: reviews in that bucket
• reviewPercent: Staples' displayed percentage for that bucket

The array is sorted from 1 star to 5 stars.

Do not assume rounded percentages always total exactly 100.

About the AI review summary

aiReviewSummary is review-derived prose supplied by Staples.

The Actor does not generate, rewrite, or infer this text.

Products with too few reviews may not have a summary; those records return null.

Treat the summary as a quick signal and use the distribution and count fields for quantitative analysis.

How much does it cost to scrape Staples product ratings?

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing:

• A $0.005 one-time fee starts each run.
• One product-result event is charged per successfully extracted product.
• Error rows are free.
• Subscription tiers receive decreasing per-product prices.

Apify tier	Price per successful product
FREE	$0.0028688
BRONZE	$0.0024946
SILVER	$0.0019458
GOLD	$0.0014968
PLATINUM	$0.00099786
DIAMOND	$0.0006985

The Apify Console shows the active tier and estimated maximum charge before you start a run.

Keep related products in one batch to avoid paying the start fee repeatedly.

Monitoring Staples ratings over time

Create an Apify task with a stable list of URLs or item numbers.

Schedule it daily, weekly, or monthly.

Send each resulting dataset to:

• Google Sheets for a lightweight tracker
• a webhook for alert processing
• cloud storage for historical snapshots
• a database or BI tool for trends

Compare rating, reviewCount, and each star bucket between timestamps.

Tips for reliable runs

• Prefer full product URLs when they are already available in your catalog.
• Use item numbers when your source system stores Staples IDs only.
• Deduplicate inputs; the Actor also deduplicates the same item within one run.
• Keep the default concurrency for small and medium batches.
• Schedule batches instead of manually repeating runs.
• Keep error rows enabled while validating a new catalog list.
• Retry unavailable items later rather than interpreting a network error as zero reviews.

Error handling

Invalid domains and malformed product URLs fail closed.

A mixed batch continues after individual failures.

If every requested product fails, the run exits with a non-zero status so automations can detect the failure.

Common error rows include the original input, parsed item number when known, timestamp, and a concise message.

Integrations

Google Sheets

Append scheduled snapshots and chart review-count or rating changes by item number.

Webhooks

Trigger an alert when downstream logic detects a rating drop or a surge in low-star review counts.

Make and Zapier

Start the Actor from an automation, wait for completion, and route dataset records into catalog or reporting tools.

Cloud storage

Export dated JSON or CSV files to preserve historical product reputation snapshots.

Apify API

Start runs and retrieve datasets from your own application or data pipeline.

API usage with JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/staples-product-ratings-review-summary-scraper').call({
  skus: ['24503591'],
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

API usage with Python

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(os.environ['APIFY_TOKEN'])
run = client.actor('automation-lab/staples-product-ratings-review-summary-scraper').call(
    run_input={'skus': ['24503591']}
)
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items)

API usage with cURL

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~staples-product-ratings-review-summary-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"skus":["24503591"]}'

Retrieve dataset items after the run succeeds:

$curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/DATASET_ID/items?clean=true&format=json"

Use with Apify MCP

Connect the Actor to AI assistants through Apify MCP at:

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/staples-product-ratings-review-summary-scraper

Claude Code setup

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/staples-product-ratings-review-summary-scraper"

Claude Desktop setup

Add this to the mcpServers object in the Claude Desktop configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify-staples-ratings": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/staples-product-ratings-review-summary-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Cursor setup

Add the same mcpServers JSON to Cursor's MCP settings and enable apify-staples-ratings.

VS Code setup

Open the MCP configuration in VS Code, add the HTTP server URL above, and start the server from the MCP servers view.

Example prompts

Claude Code:

Run the Staples product ratings scraper for item 24503591 and summarize the 1–5-star distribution.

Example Claude Desktop prompt:

Monitor these Staples product URLs and compare their rating, review count, and Q&A count in a table.

Example Cursor or VS Code prompt:

Extract Staples item 24503591 and flag any star bucket that represents more than 20 percent of reviews.

The AI assistant can start a run and inspect the resulting dataset through the configured Actor tool.

Scheduling and notifications

Save your input as an Apify task.

Choose a schedule appropriate for how quickly the product category changes.

Use a webhook on run success to process new snapshots.

Use a webhook on run failure to notify an operator when all products fail.

Avoid treating missing summaries as failures; they are legitimately absent on some products.

Limitations

• Only public staples.com product records are supported.
• The source endpoint is undocumented and may change.
• Individual review text, reviewer profiles, and review dates are not included in v1.
• The AI review summary can be absent.
• Deleted, redirected, restricted, or unavailable products may return error rows.
• Ratings and counts reflect Staples at extraction time.
• The Actor does not infer missing values.

Is scraping Staples legal?

This Actor extracts publicly accessible product rating metadata.

Web scraping laws and contract terms vary by jurisdiction and use case.

You are responsible for ensuring that your use complies with applicable laws, Staples' terms, intellectual-property rights, and organizational policies.

Avoid collecting unnecessary personal data, do not attempt to bypass authentication, and use conservative request rates.

This documentation is not legal advice.

Troubleshooting

Why did my URL return an error?

Confirm that the host is staples.com and the path ends in /product_<item number>.

Search pages, category pages, and URLs from other Staples country sites are not product inputs.

Why is aiReviewSummary null?

Staples does not provide a review-derived summary for every product, especially products with little review history.

The Actor intentionally does not synthesize one.

Why did the whole run fail?

The Actor fails the run when no product can be extracted.

Review logs and optional error rows for invalid inputs, unavailable item numbers, or a temporary Staples response issue.

Why are percentages not exactly 100?

Staples returns rounded percentages for each star bucket.

Small rounding differences are expected.

Frequently asked questions

Can I submit both URLs and item numbers?

Yes. The Actor combines both lists and deduplicates repeated item numbers.

Does it scrape individual reviews?

No. V1 focuses on aggregate review intelligence and Staples' available summary.

Can I run it on a schedule?

Yes. Save the input as a task and attach an Apify schedule.

Are failed products charged?

No product-result event is charged for an error row.

How many products can one run accept?

Up to 1,000 combined URL and item-number inputs.

Does it require a proxy or login?

It requires no login. Local runs use anonymous first-party JSON directly; cloud runs use the default US residential Apify Proxy because Staples drops datacenter egress.

Related scrapers

Use these Automation Lab actors for review intelligence on other major retailers:

• Amazon Reviews Scraper
• Walmart Reviews Scraper

Choose this Actor specifically when the products and review KPIs come from Staples.

Data quality principles

The Actor preserves source values instead of inventing missing data.

It returns numeric counts as numbers, timestamps in UTC, and canonical absolute URLs.

It charges only after a successful product record is saved.

It exposes complete extraction failure through a non-zero run status.

These properties make the dataset suitable for repeatable monitoring and automated downstream checks.

Start monitoring Staples product reviews

Add a product URL or item number, run the prefilled example, and inspect the dataset.

Then save a task and schedule the same input to build a rating history for the products your team cares about.