Toolstation Product Scraper

Scrape Toolstation UK product catalog data for prices, brands, reviews, images, specifications, and monitoring workflows.

What does Toolstation Product Scraper do?

Toolstation Product Scraper extracts public Toolstation UK product catalog data from search results and product pages.

It is designed for price monitoring, assortment tracking, supplier research, and ecommerce analytics.

The actor runs HTTP-first and does not require a Toolstation account.

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog
• Output: structured Apify dataset
• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring

Who is it for?

🛒 Ecommerce analysts can monitor prices and promotions across Toolstation categories.

🏗️ Procurement teams can compare trade product availability and brands.

📊 Market researchers can build repeatable Toolstation product datasets.

🔔 Price-monitoring teams can schedule the actor to detect catalog changes.

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog
• Output: structured Apify dataset
• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring

Why use this Toolstation scraper?

Toolstation pages are convenient for humans but not structured for repeated analysis.

This actor turns search results and product pages into clean dataset rows.

You get product IDs, titles, prices, brands, reviews, image URLs, and optional specifications.

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog
• Output: structured Apify dataset
• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring

Data fields

The output includes productId, sku, title, brand, productUrl, imageUrl, currentPrice, wasPrice, netPrice, currency, priceText, rating, reviewCount, availability, fastTrackAvailable, description, breadcrumbs, specifications, source, rank, and scrapedAt.

Search mode gives fast catalog coverage.

Detail mode adds richer product-page fields.

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog
• Output: structured Apify dataset
• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring

How much does it cost to scrape Toolstation products?

The actor uses pay-per-event pricing with a small start event and a per-product result event.

Use low maxItems values for tests, then increase the limit for production monitoring.

Final tiered pricing is calculated from cloud run costs before QA handoff.

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog
• Output: structured Apify dataset
• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring

How to scrape Toolstation search results

1. Add one or more search phrases to searchQueries.

2. Set maxItems to the total number of product records you need.

3. Keep includeDetails off for the fastest search run.

4. Run the actor and export JSON, CSV, Excel, or API data from the dataset.

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog
• Output: structured Apify dataset
• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring

How to scrape Toolstation product pages

1. Add Toolstation product URLs to startUrls.

2. Enable includeDetails.

3. The actor reads the page SSR data and extracts descriptions and specs.

4. Combine direct product URLs with search queries when needed.

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog
• Output: structured Apify dataset
• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring

Input options

searchQueries accepts terms such as drill, copper pipe, paint roller, work trousers, or pressure washer.

startUrls accepts Toolstation search URLs and product URLs.

maxItems controls spend and runtime.

includeDetails fetches product pages for richer data.

includeUnavailable controls whether products with no catalog availability or fast-track signal are kept. Leave it enabled for full catalog monitoring; disable it when you only want rows with an availability signal.

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog
• Output: structured Apify dataset
• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring

Output example

A typical row contains sku AI893, title, Ryobi brand, product URL, image URL, £67.98 current price, £84.98 was price, review count, rating, and scrape timestamp.

Detail rows may include specifications such as voltage, battery type, manufacturer ID, and manuals.

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog
• Output: structured Apify dataset
• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring

Tips for reliable monitoring

Use stable search phrases that match your buying categories.

Schedule daily or weekly runs for price history.

Keep includeDetails disabled for broad catalog scans.

Enable includeDetails for small SKU watchlists.

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog
• Output: structured Apify dataset
• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring

Integrations

Connect datasets to Google Sheets for procurement dashboards.

Export CSV files into BI tools for price index reports.

Use Apify webhooks to alert when scheduled runs finish.

Call the actor from a pricing pipeline that compares Toolstation against other UK retailers.

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog
• Output: structured Apify dataset
• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring

API usage

Node.js: use apify-client to call automation-lab/toolstation-product-scraper with searchQueries and maxItems.

Python: use ApifyClient and pass the same JSON input.

cURL: POST to the Apify actor run endpoint with your token and JSON body.

Node.js API example

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/toolstation-product-scraper').call({
  searchQueries: ['drill'],
  maxItems: 20,
  includeDetails: false,
});
console.log(run.defaultDatasetId);

Python API example

from apify_client import ApifyClient
import os

client = ApifyClient(os.environ['APIFY_TOKEN'])
run = client.actor('automation-lab/toolstation-product-scraper').call(run_input={
    'searchQueries': ['drill'],
    'maxItems': 20,
    'includeDetails': False,
})
print(run['defaultDatasetId'])

cURL API example

curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~toolstation-product-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"searchQueries":["drill"],"maxItems":20,"includeDetails":false}'

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog
• Output: structured Apify dataset
• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring

MCP usage

Use the Apify MCP server URL with ?tools=automation-lab/toolstation-product-scraper.

Claude Desktop or Claude Code can then run Toolstation extraction as a tool.

Example prompt: scrape Toolstation drills and summarize brands under £100.

Claude Code MCP setup

$claude mcp add apify https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/toolstation-product-scraper

Claude Desktop MCP JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/toolstation-product-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Example MCP prompts:

• Scrape Toolstation drills and return the cheapest products under £100.

• Monitor Toolstation copper pipe prices and summarize brand coverage.

• Extract this Toolstation product URL with specifications.

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog

• Output: structured Apify dataset

• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring

Legality and responsible use

The actor extracts publicly available product catalog information.

Respect Toolstation terms, avoid excessive run frequency, and do not use scraped data for prohibited purposes.

Personal account data is not required or collected.

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog
• Output: structured Apify dataset
• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring

Related scrapers

Related automation-lab actors include ecommerce product scrapers, price monitors, and retailer catalog extractors.

Use this actor when the source is specifically Toolstation UK.

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog
• Output: structured Apify dataset
• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring

FAQ

Q: Do I need a Toolstation login? A: No, the actor uses public catalog pages and public search data.

Q: Can it scrape local branch stock? A: Branch stock is postcode-specific; this MVP captures catalog availability and fast-track signals only.

Q: Why is includeDetails slower? A: It fetches each product page to extract richer SSR product data.

Q: Can I monitor prices over time? A: Yes, schedule repeated runs and compare datasets.

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog
• Output: structured Apify dataset
• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring

Troubleshooting

If a search produces no results, test the same phrase on Toolstation manually and reduce filters.

If detail extraction is slow, lower maxItems or disable includeDetails.

If you need a new output field, check whether it appears in product-page specifications.

• Source: Toolstation UK public catalog
• Output: structured Apify dataset
• Best for: repeatable ecommerce monitoring