Find target products on 1688.com, automatically filter accessories and wrong models, and track listing changes over time.

This Actor is designed for sourcing teams, e-commerce sellers, brands, market researchers, and supply-chain analysts who need more than a raw 1688 search scraper.

Instead of returning every search result as-is, the Actor helps identify listings that are actually relevant to a specific brand, model, and product type.

What does this Actor do?

The Actor performs the following workflow:

1. Searches 1688 using your Chinese search keyword.
2. Collects available product listings.
3. Deduplicates listings by Offer ID.
4. Classifies search results by relevance.
5. Filters common accessories and unrelated products.
6. Detects overly broad model aliases.
7. Saves monitoring history between runs.
8. Detects changes over time.
9. Outputs structured records to an Apify Dataset.

It can be used for:

• Product discovery on 1688
• China sourcing research
• Brand and model monitoring
• Competitor listing monitoring
• Supplier discovery
• Price monitoring
• New listing discovery
• Marketplace research
• Product availability monitoring

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Why not use a normal 1688 scraper?

A normal search scraper usually works like this:

keyword
→ search results
→ raw JSON

This Actor adds an intelligence layer:

brand + model + product type
            ↓
       1688 search
            ↓
   relevance classification
            ↓
filter accessories / wrong models
            ↓
      monitoring history
            ↓
   change detection events

This can reduce the amount of manual work required to review noisy marketplace search results.

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Main features

Target-based product discovery

Define the product you actually want to monitor using:

• Search keyword
• Brand and brand aliases
• Target model and model aliases
• Product type keywords

The Actor then evaluates each search result against the target.

Accessory filtering

1688 search results frequently contain protective cases, cables, adapters, connectors, replacement parts, ear pads, storage bags, stands, and other accessories.

The Actor combines your own exclusion keywords with built-in generic accessory rules.

Model alias protection

Short model aliases can create false positives.

For example:

Target:
WH-1000XM5

Unsafe alias:
XM5

The short alias XM5 may also appear in other products such as WF-1000XM5.

The Actor can automatically ignore overly broad secondary aliases while preserving the main target model.

Persistent monitoring history

Repeated runs can reuse previous monitoring state.

This makes it possible to detect changes instead of treating every run as a completely new scrape.

Change detection

The Actor can generate events such as:

• NEW_TO_US
• LISTING_PRICE_CHANGED
• TITLE_CHANGED
• MATCH_TYPE_CHANGED
• POSSIBLY_REMOVED
• SEARCH_REAPPEARED

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Input

The easiest way to use the Actor is through the Apify Console input form.

1688 Search keyword

The actual keyword sent to 1688 search.

For best results, use a Chinese brand name or product description together with the model when possible.

Example:

索尼 WH-1000XM5

Brand / brand aliases

Brand names that may appear in listing titles.

Separate aliases with /, |, commas, semicolons, or new lines.

Example:

Sony/索尼

Target model / model aliases

The main model and optional aliases.

Example:

WH-1000XM5/XM5

The Actor may automatically ignore secondary aliases that are considered too broad. The first model is treated as the primary model and is preserved.

Product type keywords

Words describing the actual product type.

Example:

headphones/耳机/头戴式耳机

These help distinguish the target product from other products that contain the same model text.

Accessory / exclusion keywords

Optional words that identify products you do not want to monitor.

Example:

耳机套/保护套/收纳包/数据线/转接头

The Actor also includes generic accessory filters automatically.

Variant keywords

Optional terms that may describe legitimate variants of the target product.

Example:

国行/海外版/商业版

Wrong product-type keywords

Words indicating that a listing belongs to a conflicting product type.

These can help reduce false matches when the same model family appears in multiple product categories.

Detail-page verification

Detail-page verification is currently not enabled in the public cloud MVP.

The current version primarily uses 1688 search results for discovery and monitoring.

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Example input

{
  "searchKeyword": "索尼 WH-1000XM5",
  "brand": "Sony/索尼",
  "model": "WH-1000XM5/XM5",
  "productKeywords": "headphones/耳机/头戴式耳机",
  "accessoryKeywords": "耳机套/耳罩/保护套/保护壳/收纳包/数据线/转接头",
  "variantKeywords": "国行/海外版",
  "productConflictKeywords": "蓝牙音箱/麦克风",
  "enableDetailCheck": false
}

---

Classification

Search results may be classified as:

• EXACT — strong match for the target model and product.
• VARIANT — relevant variation of the target product.
• RELATED — potentially relevant but not the strongest exact match.
• ACCESSORY — accessory, replacement component, cable, adapter, storage item, etc.
• WRONG_MODEL — same or similar family but a conflicting model.
• UNRELATED — insufficient match to the target.

---

Output

The Actor stores results in the default Apify Dataset.

There are three main record types:

listing
event
run_summary

Listing record

A listing record represents a product currently accepted into the monitoring target.

Example:

{
  "recordType": "listing",
  "targetName": "Sony WH-1000XM5",
  "platform": "1688",
  "offerId": "1067032517840",
  "title": "Sony WH-1000XM5 Premium Wireless Over-Ear Headphones",
  "displayPrice": 263.62,
  "sellerName": "Supplier name",
  "matchType": "EXACT",
  "matchScore": 100
}

Typical fields include:

• recordType
• targetName
• platform
• offerId
• title
• url
• displayPrice
• tierMinPrice
• sellerName
• matchType
• matchScore
• needsReview
• matchReason
• runId
• capturedAt

Event record

An event represents a change detected between monitoring runs.

Run summary

Each run also produces a summary record containing run status, totals, event counts, current target status, matcher profile version, run ID, and capture timestamp.

---

Event meanings

NEW_TO_US

The listing was discovered by this monitoring target for the first time.

NEW_TO_US does not mean that the product was newly published on 1688. It only means:

First seen by this monitor.

LISTING_PRICE_CHANGED

The displayed listing/search price changed compared with the previous recorded state.

This does not necessarily represent the price of every SKU or quantity tier.

TITLE_CHANGED

The listing title changed.

MATCH_TYPE_CHANGED

The relevance classification changed.

POSSIBLY_REMOVED

A previously monitored listing did not appear in the current search result set.

This does not confirm that the listing has been removed from 1688.

Search ranking and marketplace result composition can change between runs.

Therefore POSSIBLY_REMOVED means:

Not found in the current monitored search result set.

It does not mean:

Confirmed removed from 1688.

SEARCH_REAPPEARED

A previously missing listing appeared again in the monitored search results.

---

Important monitoring semantics

Search visibility is not listing availability

1688 search rankings can change.

A product can disappear from the current search result set while its detail page remains active.

For that reason, the Actor separates search visibility from confirmed listing availability.

The cloud MVP currently focuses on search visibility monitoring.

---

Example: filtering noisy 1688 search results

During testing with:

Sony WH-1000XM5

a search returned 60 candidate listings.

The matcher classified them approximately as:

ACCESSORY       46
EXACT            1
RELATED          7
UNRELATED        6

Only the high-confidence target listing was accepted into the final monitored listing set.

This illustrates the main purpose of the Actor:

reduce noisy raw marketplace results into a smaller, more relevant monitoring set.

Results will vary depending on the search keyword, product category, seller titles, and current 1688 search results.

---

Monitoring over time

For meaningful monitoring, run the same target repeatedly.

Typical workflow:

Run 1
→ establish initial listings

Run 2
→ compare with previous state

Run 3+
→ continue detecting changes

You can use Apify Tasks and Schedules to automate recurring runs.

---

Recommended usage

For better matching quality:

1. Use a specific Chinese search keyword.
2. Put the full model first.
3. Avoid overly generic model aliases.
4. Add clear product-type keywords.
5. Add known category-specific accessories when needed.
6. Reuse the same input for recurring monitoring.

Good:

索尼 WH-1000XM5
Sony/索尼
WH-1000XM5
headphones/耳机/头戴式耳机

Less precise:

Sony
XM5
electronics

---

Known limitations

This Actor is an MVP and currently has the following limitations:

• Official support is currently focused on 1688.
• Marketplace search rankings can change between runs.
• POSSIBLY_REMOVED is not a confirmed delisting signal.
• Cloud detail-page verification is currently disabled.
• Matching uses deterministic classification rules rather than a large language model.
• Complex industrial model families may require more specialized model rules.
• Marketplace titles can contain unusual abbreviations, spelling variations, or SEO keyword stuffing.
• 1688 website or API behavior may change over time.

---

Pricing

The current price is shown directly on the Actor's Apify Store page.

The Actor uses cloud resources and may use residential proxy traffic while accessing 1688.

Actual run cost depends on runtime, proxy traffic, number of runs, and platform resource consumption.

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API and automation

Because this is an Apify Actor, it can be integrated with:

• Apify API
• Apify Tasks
• Apify Schedules
• Webhooks
• External automation workflows

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Data and responsible use

This Actor processes publicly accessible marketplace information available during the run.

Users are responsible for using the Actor and resulting data in accordance with applicable laws, marketplace terms, contractual obligations, and their own compliance requirements.

Do not use the Actor to attempt to bypass authentication or access non-public account information.

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Support

If you encounter a result that appears incorrectly classified, useful information to provide includes:

Search keyword
Brand
Target model
Offer ID
Listing title
Expected classification
Actual classification

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Current scope

Current supported marketplace:

1688.com

Planned improvements may include:

• Detail-page verification
• Additional alert integrations
• More monitoring automation
• Additional Chinese marketplaces

Future features will be prioritized based on real user demand.