# Shopify Competitor Monitor: Products, Prices & Stock Changes (`feeng/shopify-competitor-intelligence-monitor`) Actor

📊 Track Shopify competitors daily. Detect product launches, price cuts, discounts, availability, theme and app changes, and catalog trends in one intelligence report.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/feeng/shopify-competitor-intelligence-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [Daniel S.](https://apify.com/feeng) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Marketing, Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $20.00 / 1,000 successful store snapshots

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md):

```bash
npm install apify-client
```

In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md):

```bash
pip install apify-client
```

In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md):

````bash
# MacOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash
# Windows
irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex
```bash

In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md).

If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).


# README

## Shopify Competitor Monitor: Products, Prices & Stock Changes

Track Shopify competitors daily. Detect product launches, removals, price and sale changes, availability moves, technology changes, and catalog trends across scheduled runs. 📊

It is fully self-contained: it does not call another Apify Actor, require a Shopify API key, or depend on an external data provider.

### What it does 🔎

For each Shopify store, the Actor reads the public `/products.json` storefront endpoint, normalizes products and variants, then saves a catalog baseline in a named Apify key-value store. On the next run it compares the newest snapshot to that baseline.

Each dataset item includes flat, filterable columns and complete nested evidence. Use the `overview`, `changes`, `catalog`, `technology`, and `allData` dataset views.

- 🏪 Store identity and source metadata
- 🧾 Product, variant, price, discount, and availability summary
- ✨ New and removed products
- 💸 Price, sale-state, and availability changes
- 📦 Discount and stock-pressure signals
- 🧩 Public Shopify theme, marketing app, support, subscription, review, and tracking detection
- 🔁 Theme, app, and tracking changes between snapshots
- 📈 Catalog trend points and daily velocity estimates
- 🎯 A 0-100 change-intensity score and recommended actions

The run also saves `REPORT.html`, `REPORT_SUMMARY.json`, `OUTPUT.json`, `OUTPUT.csv`, and `ERRORS.json` to the key-value store. Failed stores are not written to the paid dataset. Standard Apify dataset exports support JSON, CSV, Excel, and API workflows.

### Input ⚙️

```json
{
  "stores": ["https://www.allbirds.com"],
  "maxProductsPerStore": 250,
  "compareWithPrevious": true,
  "saveSnapshot": true,
  "historyDays": 90,
  "includeTechStack": true,
  "includeHtmlReport": true
}
````

Use full store homepages or domains. A first run creates the baseline; schedule the Actor daily to observe product, pricing, stock, theme, app, and tracking deltas.

### Output example 📊

```json
{
  "storeName": "Example Store",
  "status": "ok",
  "catalog": {
    "productCount": 143,
    "discountedProductCount": 32,
    "availableProductCount": 121,
    "medianPrice": 49
  },
  "delta": {
    "newProductCount": 4,
    "priceChangeCount": 7,
    "availabilityChangeCount": 9
  },
  "analysis": {
    "changeIntensity": 77,
    "confidence": "high"
  },
  "technology": {
    "theme": { "name": "Dawn" },
    "detectedApps": [{ "name": "Klaviyo", "category": "Email and SMS" }]
  }
}
```

### Running locally 💻

```bash
npm install
apify run -p examples/input.json
```

Or set `INPUT.json` in the local Apify storage and run `npm start`.

### Running on Apify ☁️

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console.
2. Add one or more Shopify store URLs.
3. Keep `saveSnapshot` enabled.
4. Run it once for a baseline, then create a daily schedule.
5. Download the dataset or use `REPORT.html` for a client-ready overview.

### Store positioning 🚀

**Title:** Shopify Competitor Monitor: Products, Prices & Stock Changes

**Short description:** 📊 Track Shopify competitors daily. Detect new products, price cuts, discounts, sold-out variants, apps, theme changes, and catalog moves in one actionable report per store.

**SEO tags:** Shopify competitor monitor, Shopify price tracker, Shopify product launch tracker, Shopify stock monitor, Shopify app detector, Shopify theme detector, e-commerce intelligence, DTC research.

### Pricing 💵

The Store price is **$0.002 per run plus $0.02 per successful store snapshot**. Failed stores are written to `ERRORS.json` and are not charged as results. This keeps small daily monitors affordable while covering catalog extraction, history, technology analysis, and reporting.

### Limitations

- It can only monitor stores that expose Shopify's public storefront product endpoint.
- `maxProductsPerStore` is a hard limit; when the catalog exceeds it, the output is explicitly marked as partial.
- Product availability is public storefront availability, not unit inventory or sales volume.
- Respect each website's terms and applicable law when using collected data.

# Actor input Schema

## `stores` (type: `array`):

Store homepages or domains to monitor. The Actor reads public Shopify storefront endpoints directly.

## `maxProductsPerStore` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap for products fetched from each store. Use 250 for a fast daily pulse or a higher number for deeper catalog analysis.

## `compareWithPrevious` (type: `boolean`):

Compare this catalog snapshot with the latest saved snapshot for the same store.

## `saveSnapshot` (type: `boolean`):

Save this run so the next scheduled run can identify changes and trends.

## `historyDays` (type: `integer`):

Number of daily summary points retained for trend reporting. Full catalog data is retained only for the newest comparison baseline.

## `includeProducts` (type: `boolean`):

Include normalized product records in each dataset item. Turn off for lightweight daily monitoring.

## `maxProductsInOutput` (type: `integer`):

Cap product records included in output while retaining the full fetched snapshot for change detection.

## `includeHtmlReport` (type: `boolean`):

Save a visual competitor report as REPORT.html in the run key-value store.

## `includeTechStack` (type: `boolean`):

Detect public Shopify theme, common marketing apps, reviews, support, subscriptions, and tracking signals. Changes are compared between runs.

## `fetchTimeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

Maximum duration of a single store request.

## `retryCount` (type: `integer`):

Retries transient request failures before returning an error for the store.

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

Optional Apify Proxy configuration. The Actor attempts public endpoints directly first and uses the selected proxy when configured.

## `snapshotStoreName` (type: `string`):

Named key-value store used to preserve snapshots between scheduled runs.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "stores": [
    "https://www.allbirds.com"
  ],
  "maxProductsPerStore": 250,
  "compareWithPrevious": true,
  "saveSnapshot": true,
  "historyDays": 90,
  "includeProducts": true,
  "maxProductsInOutput": 250,
  "includeHtmlReport": true,
  "includeTechStack": true,
  "fetchTimeoutSecs": 30,
  "retryCount": 2,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  },
  "snapshotStoreName": "shopify-competitor-intelligence-history"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `storeIntelligence` (type: `string`):

No description

## `catalogChanges` (type: `string`):

No description

## `productsAndPricing` (type: `string`):

No description

## `technology` (type: `string`):

No description

## `allData` (type: `string`):

No description

## `htmlReport` (type: `string`):

No description

## `csvExport` (type: `string`):

No description

## `jsonExport` (type: `string`):

No description

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

No description

## `errors` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "stores": [
        "https://www.allbirds.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("feeng/shopify-competitor-intelligence-monitor").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 = { "stores": ["https://www.allbirds.com"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("feeng/shopify-competitor-intelligence-monitor").call(run_input=run_input)

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

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

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "stores": [
    "https://www.allbirds.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call feeng/shopify-competitor-intelligence-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=feeng/shopify-competitor-intelligence-monitor",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "Shopify Competitor Monitor: Products, Prices & Stock Changes",
        "description": "📊 Track Shopify competitors daily. Detect product launches, price cuts, discounts, availability, theme and app changes, and catalog trends in one intelligence report.",
        "version": "0.1",
        "x-build-id": "zwdCSaTBmBs5Use7d"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/feeng~shopify-competitor-intelligence-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-feeng-shopify-competitor-intelligence-monitor",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/feeng~shopify-competitor-intelligence-monitor/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-feeng-shopify-competitor-intelligence-monitor",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK",
                        "content": {
                            "application/json": {
                                "schema": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/feeng~shopify-competitor-intelligence-monitor/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-feeng-shopify-competitor-intelligence-monitor",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "components": {
        "schemas": {
            "inputSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "required": [
                    "stores"
                ],
                "properties": {
                    "stores": {
                        "title": "Shopify stores",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "Store homepages or domains to monitor. The Actor reads public Shopify storefront endpoints directly.",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        }
                    },
                    "maxProductsPerStore": {
                        "title": "Maximum products per store",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "maximum": 2000,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Hard cap for products fetched from each store. Use 250 for a fast daily pulse or a higher number for deeper catalog analysis.",
                        "default": 250
                    },
                    "compareWithPrevious": {
                        "title": "Compare with previous run",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "description": "Compare this catalog snapshot with the latest saved snapshot for the same store.",
                        "default": true
                    },
                    "saveSnapshot": {
                        "title": "Save snapshot",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "description": "Save this run so the next scheduled run can identify changes and trends.",
                        "default": true
                    },
                    "historyDays": {
                        "title": "History days",
                        "minimum": 2,
                        "maximum": 365,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Number of daily summary points retained for trend reporting. Full catalog data is retained only for the newest comparison baseline.",
                        "default": 90
                    },
                    "includeProducts": {
                        "title": "Include product records",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "description": "Include normalized product records in each dataset item. Turn off for lightweight daily monitoring.",
                        "default": true
                    },
                    "maxProductsInOutput": {
                        "title": "Maximum products in output",
                        "minimum": 0,
                        "maximum": 2000,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Cap product records included in output while retaining the full fetched snapshot for change detection.",
                        "default": 250
                    },
                    "includeHtmlReport": {
                        "title": "Generate HTML report",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "description": "Save a visual competitor report as REPORT.html in the run key-value store.",
                        "default": true
                    },
                    "includeTechStack": {
                        "title": "Detect theme, apps, and tracking",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "description": "Detect public Shopify theme, common marketing apps, reviews, support, subscriptions, and tracking signals. Changes are compared between runs.",
                        "default": true
                    },
                    "fetchTimeoutSecs": {
                        "title": "Request timeout in seconds",
                        "minimum": 5,
                        "maximum": 120,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Maximum duration of a single store request.",
                        "default": 30
                    },
                    "retryCount": {
                        "title": "Retries per request",
                        "minimum": 0,
                        "maximum": 5,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Retries transient request failures before returning an error for the store.",
                        "default": 2
                    },
                    "proxyConfiguration": {
                        "title": "Proxy configuration",
                        "type": "object",
                        "description": "Optional Apify Proxy configuration. The Actor attempts public endpoints directly first and uses the selected proxy when configured.",
                        "default": {
                            "useApifyProxy": true
                        }
                    },
                    "snapshotStoreName": {
                        "title": "Snapshot store name",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Named key-value store used to preserve snapshots between scheduled runs.",
                        "default": "shopify-competitor-intelligence-history"
                    }
                }
            },
            "runsResponseSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "data": {
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": {
                            "id": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "actId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "userId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "startedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "finishedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "status": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "READY"
                            },
                            "meta": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "origin": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "API"
                                    },
                                    "userAgent": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "stats": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "inputBodyLen": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2000
                                    },
                                    "rebootCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "restartCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "resurrectCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "computeUnits": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "options": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "build": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "latest"
                                    },
                                    "timeoutSecs": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 300
                                    },
                                    "memoryMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1024
                                    },
                                    "diskMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2048
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "buildId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultKeyValueStoreId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultDatasetId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultRequestQueueId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "buildNumber": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "1.0.0"
                            },
                            "containerUrl": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "usage": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "usageTotalUsd": {
                                "type": "number",
                                "example": 0.00005
                            },
                            "usageUsd": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "number",
                                        "example": 0.00005
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```