# idealo Shop Price Report - Competitor Price Position (`devcolton/idealo-shop-price-report`) Actor

- **URL**: https://apify.com/devcolton/idealo-shop-price-report.md
- **Developed by:** [Colton](https://apify.com/devcolton) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

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

## 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

## idealo Shop Price Report — Competitor Price Position for Any Shop

**idealo Shop Price Report** shows where a shop's prices stand against **every competitor on idealo.de or idealo.at**. Enter a shop name and the categories it sells in. The Actor checks the best-placed products in those categories, compares every shop's offer **including shipping**, and returns a ready-to-share **HTML report** plus the same numbers as data.

It answers the questions a pricing or marketplace manager asks every week:

- On how many products are we the **cheapest offer**?
- What's our **average price rank**, and how far are we from first place?
- Which products are **a few euros away from the top spot**?
- Where is our price **far above the market** (outdated price, stock problem)?
- **Which competitors undercut us** most often?

### What can this Actor do?

- 📊 **Price-position report per shop:** cheapest count, average rank, rank distribution, median gap to the best price.
- 🎯 **Quick wins:** products where a cut of 2% or €5 would make you the cheapest offer on idealo.
- ⚠️ **Largest gaps:** products where your price is furthest above the market.
- 🥊 **Top undercutters:** the shops that beat your price most often.
- 🗺️ **Market overview:** every shop in the analyzed categories ranked by price position. Use it to find competitors or prospects.
- 🌐 **German or English report**, for idealo.de and idealo.at.

### How to use idealo Shop Price Report

1. Click **Try for free** and sign in (new Apify accounts get free monthly credit).
2. Enter one or more **shops** as they appear on idealo (`galaxus.de`, `jacob.de`, `alternate.de`).
3. Enter **categories or search terms** the shop sells in (`kaffeevollautomat`, `saugroboter`, `fernseher`).
4. Click **Start**. Open the **report link** in the output, or download the data.

Schedule it weekly to track how your price position changes.

### Input example

```json
{
  "shops": ["galaxus.de", "jacob.de"],
  "categories": ["kaffeevollautomat", "saugroboter"],
  "market": "DE",
  "productsPerCategory": 72,
  "language": "en"
}
```

### Output example

```json
{
  "type": "shop-report",
  "shop": "galaxus.de",
  "reportUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/.../records/report-galaxus-de",
  "productsListed": 34,
  "cheapestOn": 0,
  "averageRank": 7.6,
  "medianGapToBestPct": 7.5,
  "rankDistribution": {"2-3": 3, "4-10": 22, "11+": 9},
  "withinReach": [
    {"product": "Philips EP0824/00", "yourPrice": 261.17, "bestPrice": 260.96, "differenceEur": 0.21, "cheapestShop": "computeruniverse.net"}
  ],
  "largestGaps": [
    {"product": "Siemens EQ900 plus", "yourPrice": 2049.0, "bestPrice": 1333.0, "gapPct": 54.0, "rank": 11, "of": 14}
  ],
  "topUndercutters": [{"shop": "eBay", "products": 15}, {"shop": "alza.de", "products": 10}]
}
```

The **HTML report** has KPI tiles, a rank-distribution bar, the quick-win and largest-gap tables and the undercutter chart. Send it to a colleague or client as is.

### How much does it cost?

**$1.00 per shop report** and **$0.50 for the market overview** (optional). Proxies are included and there's no start fee. A run covering 2 categories × 36 products (about 1,000 shop offers) takes under a minute.

### Tips and limits

- Use the shop name **exactly as idealo shows it**; domains like `galaxus.de` work best. If the shop has no offers in the analyzed products, you get an error row and no charge.
- Pick categories where the shop actually sells. More categories and more products per category give a fuller picture.
- Each shop's **lowest offer per product** is compared, including shipping.
- Need the raw offers instead? Use the [idealo Scraper](https://apify.com/DevColton/idealo-price-comparison-scraper).

### Other Actors by DevColton

| Actor | What it does |
|---|---|
| [LinkedIn Jobs Scraper](https://apify.com/DevColton/linkedin-jobs-scraper) | LinkedIn jobs without login, with salaries parsed for most US jobs |
| [Google Trends Explorer](https://apify.com/DevColton/google-trends-explorer) | Interest over time, by region and related queries for any keyword |
| [iStock & Getty Images Scraper](https://apify.com/DevColton/istock-getty-images-scraper) | Stock photo search results and keyword research |
| [Dreamstime Scraper](https://apify.com/DevColton/dreamstime-scraper) | Stock images with download counts, keywords and best sellers |
| [Seek, Jobstreet & JobsDB Jobs Scraper](https://apify.com/DevColton/seek-jobstreet-jobsdb-scraper) | Jobs from 8 Asia-Pacific countries with salaries and applicant counts |
| [Envato Market Scraper](https://apify.com/DevColton/envato-market-scraper) | ThemeForest and CodeCanyon items with sales, prices and ratings |
| [Tori, FINN, Blocket & DBA Scraper](https://apify.com/DevColton/tori-finn-blocket-dba-scraper) | Second-hand listings from Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark |
| [IKEA Products & Prices Scraper](https://apify.com/DevColton/ikea-products-prices-scraper) | IKEA prices in 41 countries, compared in USD |
| [idealo Scraper](https://apify.com/DevColton/idealo-price-comparison-scraper) | Prices and every shop's offer on idealo.de and idealo.at |
| [Coles & Woolworths Scraper](https://apify.com/DevColton/coles-woolworths-scraper) | Australian supermarket prices, specials and unit prices |
| [Career Site Jobs Scraper](https://apify.com/DevColton/ats-career-sites-jobs-scraper) | Jobs from Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workday and SmartRecruiters career pages |
| [Bayt Jobs Scraper](https://apify.com/DevColton/bayt-jobs-scraper) | Jobs in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Middle East |

### FAQ

#### Is it legal to scrape this data?

This Actor collects only publicly available data that anyone can see in a browser without logging in. It doesn't access accounts or private data. You're responsible for how you use the data: check the website's terms and the laws that apply to you, especially if you store personal information.

#### Can I use it with the API, Python, Google Sheets or Zapier?

Yes. You can start runs and fetch results through the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2) or the official [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python) and [JavaScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js) clients, and send results to Google Sheets, Zapier, Make, n8n or a webhook.

#### Can I run it on a schedule?

Yes. In Apify Console, open **Schedules** to run it hourly, daily or weekly, and get the new data automatically.

#### Something isn't working, or I need a feature

Open an issue in the **Issues** tab. Issues get a quick reply, and feature requests are welcome. Custom scraping work is also possible; mention it in an issue.

# Actor input Schema

## `shops` (type: `array`):

Shop names or domains as shown on idealo, e.g. 'galaxus.de' or 'jacob.de'. One report per shop. Leave empty to get only the market overview.

## `categories` (type: `array`):

idealo search terms that cover the shop's range, e.g. 'kaffeevollautomat', 'saugroboter', 'fernseher'. The top products for each term are analyzed.

## `market` (type: `string`):

idealo.de (Germany) or idealo.at (Austria).

## `productsPerCategory` (type: `integer`):

How many of the best-placed products to check per search term (36 per idealo page). More products give a fuller picture but take longer.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Language of the HTML report.

## `includeMarketOverview` (type: `boolean`):

Adds one row ranking every shop by listings, cheapest positions and products within 2% (or €5) of the best price. Useful for finding competitors.

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

Parallel offer-page requests.

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

Datacenter proxies usually work; the Actor switches to residential automatically if idealo blocks them.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "shops": [
    "galaxus.de"
  ],
  "categories": [
    "kaffeevollautomat"
  ],
  "market": "DE",
  "productsPerCategory": 36,
  "language": "de",
  "includeMarketOverview": true,
  "maxConcurrency": 4,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One row per shop report (with a link to the HTML report) plus the market overview.

# 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 = {
    "shops": [
        "galaxus.de"
    ],
    "categories": [
        "kaffeevollautomat"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("devcolton/idealo-shop-price-report").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 = {
    "shops": ["galaxus.de"],
    "categories": ["kaffeevollautomat"],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("devcolton/idealo-shop-price-report").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 '{
  "shops": [
    "galaxus.de"
  ],
  "categories": [
    "kaffeevollautomat"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call devcolton/idealo-shop-price-report --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,devcolton/idealo-shop-price-report"
        }
    }
}
```

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/HWheugUHN85zLSdWO/builds/6TxGRD8xXIKrKpfy9/openapi.json