E-commerce Price Tracker

Automatically track product prices across multiple e-commerce platforms and get notified when prices drop or items go on sale.

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Overview

This Apify Actor monitors product prices on eBay, Walmart, Shopify stores, and other e-commerce platforms. It maintains historical price data, detects price drops, identifies sales, and alerts you when products hit your target price threshold.

Note: This actor does not support Amazon URLs. Amazon has strict anti-scraping measures that make reliable price tracking difficult. We focus on scraper-friendly platforms like eBay, Walmart, and Shopify for consistent results.

Perfect for deal hunters, market researchers, businesses monitoring competitor pricing, and anyone who wants to buy at the best price!

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✨ Key Features

🌐 Multi-Platform Support	Works with eBay, Walmart, Shopify, and generic e-commerce sites
🤖 Smart Detection	Automatically identifies the platform and uses optimized CSS selectors
📊 Price History	Maintains complete historical data across multiple runs
🔔 Price Drop Alerts	Configurable threshold-based notifications when prices decrease
🏷️ Sale Detection	Identifies promotional pricing and sale indicators
⏰ Scheduled Monitoring	Set up automatic daily, hourly, or custom interval checks
💾 Persistent Storage	Price history stored in Apify Key-Value Store survives across runs
🚫 Amazon Not Supported	Amazon URLs are filtered out - use eBay, Walmart, or Shopify instead

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🚀 Quick Start

1. Basic Configuration

{
  "productUrls": [
    "https://www.ebay.com/itm/166772360593",
    "https://www.walmart.com/ip/12662817"
  ],
  "priceThreshold": 5,
  "platform": "auto"
}

2. Run the Actor

Click Start in the Apify Console. The first run establishes baseline prices.

3. Schedule Regular Checks

1. After the first successful run, click Schedule
2. Choose frequency (Daily at 9 AM recommended)
3. Enable notifications (optional)
4. Save schedule

4. Get Notified

On subsequent runs, the actor compares new prices against historical data and alerts you to drops.

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⚙️ Input Configuration

Required Parameters

Optional Parameters

Example Configurations

Track Multiple Products

{
  "productUrls": [
    "https://www.ebay.com/itm/166772360593",
    "https://www.walmart.com/ip/12662817",
    "https://mystore.myshopify.com/products/product-name"
  ],
  "priceThreshold": 10,
  "platform": "auto",
  "useProxy": false
}

High-Frequency Monitoring

{
  "productUrls": ["https://www.ebay.com/itm/PRODUCT_ID"],
  "priceThreshold": 2,
  "checkInterval": "hourly",
  "useProxy": false
}

Budget-Friendly (No Proxy)

{
  "productUrls": [
    "https://www.ebay.com/itm/123456789",
    "https://mystore.myshopify.com/products/item"
  ],
  "priceThreshold": 5,
  "useProxy": false
}

---

📊 Output Data

Dataset Structure

Each tracked product generates a record in the dataset:

{
  "url": "https://www.ebay.com/itm/166772360593",
  "title": "Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)",
  "currentPrice": 189.99,
  "isOnSale": true,
  "platform": "ebay",
  "timestamp": "2026-01-15T10:30:00.000Z",
  "status": "success",
  "priceHistory": [
    {
      "price": 249.99,
      "timestamp": "2026-01-01T09:00:00.000Z",
      "isOnSale": false
    },
    {
      "price": 189.99,
      "timestamp": "2026-01-15T10:30:00.000Z",
      "isOnSale": true
    }
  ],
  "notification": {
    "type": "price_drop",
    "previousPrice": 249.99,
    "currentPrice": 189.99,
    "dropAmount": 60.00,
    "dropPercentage": 24.01,
    "timestamp": "2026-01-15T10:30:00.000Z"
  }
}

Summary Report

Available in Key-Value Store under the key SUMMARY:

{
  "totalAttempts": 4,
  "successful": 3,
  "failed": 1,
  "productsOnSale": 2,
  "priceDrops": 1,
  "avgPrice": 215.50,
  "timestamp": "2026-01-15T10:30:00.000Z"
}

Console Output

Beautiful, human-readable summary in the log:

============================================================
🛍️  E-COMMERCE PRICE TRACKER
============================================================
📦 Tracking 2 product(s)
📊 Threshold: 5%
🌐 Platform: auto
⚠️  Amazon URLs are NOT supported
============================================================

Processing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/166772360593
Platform: ebay
✓ Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Generation) - $189.99 (SALE)
🎉 PRICE DROP: 24.0% ($249.99 → $189.99)

============================================================
📊 SUMMARY
============================================================
✅ Successful: 2/2
❌ Failed: 0
🏷️  On Sale: 1
📉 Price Drops: 1
💰 Avg Price: $199.99
============================================================

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🌐 Supported Platforms

Platform	Status	Proxy Needed	Notes
eBay	✅ Full Support	No	All country sites, very scraper-friendly
Walmart	✅ Full Support	Optional	US store, generally reliable
Shopify	✅ Full Support	No	Any Shopify-powered store
Generic	✅ Full Support	Varies	Most e-commerce sites with standard HTML
Amazon	❌ Not Supported	N/A	Strong anti-bot protection, URLs filtered out

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🔧 How It Works

First Run: Baseline Establishment

1. Actor fetches each product URL
2. Extracts price, title, and sale status
3. Stores data in Key-Value Store as baseline
4. No alerts triggered (nothing to compare against)

Subsequent Runs: Price Monitoring

1. Actor fetches current prices
2. Compares against historical data
3. Calculates price change percentage
4. Triggers alerts if threshold exceeded
5. Updates price history
6. Generates comparison report

Price History Storage

• Each product URL gets a unique key in Key-Value Store
• History includes all prices with timestamps
• Notifications log includes all triggered alerts
• Data persists indefinitely for trend analysis

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⏰ Scheduling & Automation

Recommended Schedules

Use Case	Schedule	Rationale
General shopping	Daily at 9 AM	Catches overnight price changes
Flash sales	Every 6 hours	Monitors time-sensitive deals
Market research	Daily at midnight	Consistent data collection
Black Friday	Hourly	High-frequency deal monitoring
Supplier tracking	Weekly	Cost monitoring for businesses

Cron Expression Examples

0 9 * * *       # Daily at 9 AM
0 */6 * * *     # Every 6 hours
0 0 * * 0       # Weekly on Sunday at midnight
0 */2 * * *     # Every 2 hours
0 9,21 * * *    # Twice daily (9 AM and 9 PM)

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💡 Use Cases

1. Smart Personal Shopping

Track items on your wishlist and buy when prices drop.

{
  "productUrls": [
    "https://www.ebay.com/itm/WISHLIST_ITEM_1",
    "https://www.walmart.com/ip/WISHLIST_ITEM_2"
  ],
  "priceThreshold": 15,
  "useProxy": false
}

2. Competitive Price Intelligence

Monitor competitor pricing for your products.

{
  "productUrls": [
    "https://competitor1.com/similar-product",
    "https://competitor2.com/similar-product"
  ],
  "priceThreshold": 1,
  "checkInterval": "daily"
}

3. Deal Hunting & Blogging

Find the best deals to share with your audience.

{
  "productUrls": [
    "https://www.ebay.com/itm/trending-item-1",
    "https://www.walmart.com/ip/hot-deal-2"
  ],
  "priceThreshold": 10,
  "useProxy": false
}

4. Supply Chain Management

Track supplier and wholesale prices.

{
  "productUrls": [
    "https://supplier1.com/raw-material",
    "https://supplier2.com/raw-material"
  ],
  "priceThreshold": 5,
  "checkInterval": "weekly",
  "useProxy": false
}

5. Market Research

Analyze pricing trends across categories.

{
  "productUrls": [
    "https://www.ebay.com/itm/category-sample-1",
    "https://www.walmart.com/ip/category-sample-2"
  ],
  "priceThreshold": 0,
  "checkInterval": "daily"
}

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🎯 Best Practices

Optimizing Threshold Settings

• 5-10% - Balanced approach for most shopping
• 15-20% - Only major sales and discounts
• 2-3% - Highly competitive markets or frequent price changes
• 0% - Track all changes (generates more data)

URL Management

• Use direct product URLs (not search results)
• Avoid temporary or session-based URLs
• Test URLs in a browser first to ensure they load
• Remove tracking parameters for cleaner data

Proxy Usage

• Optional for most platforms: eBay and Shopify work fine without proxy
• Enable for Walmart: May help with reliability
• Monitor costs: Check proxy usage in billing
• Not needed for Amazon: Amazon URLs are not supported

Performance Tips

• Track 10-50 products per run for optimal performance
• Use specific platform setting if known (faster than auto-detect)
• Group similar products in separate runs
• Balance run frequency with Apify platform costs

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🔗 Integration Examples

Export to Google Sheets

1. Install Google Sheets integration from Apify Store
2. Connect your Google account
3. Map dataset fields to sheet columns
4. Set up automatic export after each run

Slack Notifications

1. Install Slack integration from Apify Store
2. Configure webhook URL
3. Set up condition: "When notification exists"
4. Customize message template

Webhook Integration

Send data to your own API:

// Add to actor code
if (notification) {
    await fetch('https://your-api.com/webhook', {
        method: 'POST',
        headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
        body: JSON.stringify({
            product: productTitle,
            url: url,
            oldPrice: notification.previousPrice,
            newPrice: notification.currentPrice,
            savings: notification.dropAmount
        })
    });
}

Zapier/Make Integration

1. Use Apify's Zapier integration
2. Trigger: "New item in dataset"
3. Filter: "Only if notification exists"
4. Action: Send email, SMS, create task, etc.

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🐛 Troubleshooting

No Price Extracted

No Output in Dataset

Incorrect Prices

No Price Drop Alerts

Rate Limiting / Blocking

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📝 Notes

• Actor respects website robots.txt and rate limits
• Amazon URLs are not supported and will be automatically filtered out
• Price extraction accuracy depends on site HTML structure
• First run establishes baseline; subsequent runs detect changes
• Data stored in Key-Value Store persists across runs
• eBay and Shopify stores typically don't require proxy

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🆘 Support

Having issues? Here's how to get help:

1. Check the Troubleshooting section above
2. Review the actor logs for error details
3. Test with example URLs provided in this README
4. Contact support via Apify Console or email support@apify.com

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📄 License

MIT License - Feel free to modify and extend this actor for your needs.

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Start tracking prices today and never pay full price again! 🎉

Made with ❤️ for deal hunters and smart shoppers everywhere