Amazon Categories Actor Documentation

Overview

The Amazon Categories Actor is a web scraping tool deployed on the Apify platform that extracts category information from Amazon's regional websites. This actor scrapes the main navigation categories and their associated URLs from different Amazon country-specific domains.

Features

• Supports 24 different Amazon regional websites
• Extracts category titles and URLs from Amazon's main navigation
• Returns structured JSON data with category information
• Handles country-specific Amazon domains automatically
• Provides comprehensive error handling and logging

Supported Countries

The actor supports the following Amazon regional sites:

Country	ISO Code	Amazon Domain
Australia	au	amazon.com.au
Belgium	be	amazon.com.be
Brazil	br	amazon.com.br
Canada	ca	amazon.ca
China	cn	amazon.cn
Egypt	eg	amazon.eg
France	fr	amazon.fr
Germany	de	amazon.de
India	in	amazon.in
Ireland	ie	amazon.ie
Italy	it	amazon.it
Japan	jp	amazon.co.jp
Mexico	mx	amazon.com.mx
Netherlands	nl	amazon.nl
Poland	pl	amazon.pl
Saudi Arabia	sa	amazon.sa
Singapore	sg	amazon.sg
South Africa	za	amazon.co.za
Spain	es	amazon.es
Sweden	se	amazon.se
Turkey	tr	amazon.com.tr
United Arab Emirates	ae	amazon.ae
United Kingdom	gb	amazon.co.uk
United States	us	amazon.com

Input Schema

The actor accepts the following input parameters:

Required Parameters

• countryIso (string): Two-letter ISO country code for the Amazon regional site
  • Default: "us"
  • Type: String (dropdown selection)
  • Required: Yes
  • Valid Values: See supported countries table above

Input Example

{
  "countryIso": "us"
}

Output Format

The actor returns an array of category objects, where each object contains:

• categories (array): List of category objects with:
  • title (string): The display name of the category
  • url (string): The full URL to the category page
• mainId (string): Internal identifier for the main category section

Output Example

[
  {
    "categories": [
      {
        "title": "All Videos",
        "url": "https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Video/b?node=2858778011&ref_=nav_em__aiv_0_2_2_2"
      },
      {
        "title": "Included with Prime",
        "url": "https://www.amazon.com/s/browse?filterId=OFFER_FILTER%3DPRIME&node=2858778011&ref_=nav_em__aiv_piv_0_2_2_3"
      },
      {
        "title": "Prime Video Channels",
        "url": "https://www.amazon.com/s/browse?filterId=OFFER_FILTER%3DSUBSCRIPTIONS&node=2858778011&ref_=nav_em__nav_sa_aos_0_2_2_4"
      }
    ],
    "mainId": "2"
  },
  {
    "categories": [
      {
        "title": "Amazon Music Unlimited",
        "url": "https://www.amazon.com/music/unlimited?ref_=nav_em__dm_hf_0_2_3_2"
      },
      {
        "title": "Amazon Music Prime",
        "url": "https://www.amazon.com/music/prime?ref_=nav_em__dm_pm_0_2_3_4"
      },
      {
        "title": "CDs & Vinyl",
        "url": "https://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=5174&ref_=nav_em__dm_cds_vinyl_0_2_3_13"
      }
    ],
    "mainId": "3"
  }
]

Usage Instructions

Via Apify Console

1. Navigate to the Amazon Categories Actor in your Apify console
2. Click "Start" to configure the actor
3. Select your desired country from the "Country ISO Code" dropdown
4. Click "Start" to run the actor
5. Monitor the run in the console and download results when complete

Via Apify API

// Using Apify Client
import { ApifyApi } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyApi({
    token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN'
});

const input = {
    countryIso: 'us'
};

const run = await client.actor('THE_ACTOR_ID').call(input);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Via HTTP API

curl -X POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/THE_ACTOR_ID/runs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "countryIso": "us"
  }'

Common Use Cases

1. E-commerce Research: Analyze Amazon's category structure across different markets
2. Market Analysis: Compare product categories between different countries
3. Competitive Intelligence: Monitor changes in Amazon's navigation and category organization
4. Data Integration: Feed category data into business intelligence systems
5. SEO Research: Understand Amazon's category URL structures for optimization

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. Empty Results:

   • Check if the country code is valid
   • Verify Amazon site is accessible in your region

2. Timeout Errors:

   • Amazon might be experiencing high traffic
   • Try running the actor again after a few minutes

3. Invalid URLs in Output:

   • This may indicate changes in Amazon's website structure
   • Contact support if issue persists

Getting Help

• Check the actor run logs for detailed error messages
• Verify input parameters match the required format
• Ensure you have sufficient Apify credits for the run

Technical Details

Dependencies

• Apify SDK: Core framework for building Apify actors
• Axios: HTTP client for making web requests
• Custom Helpers: Internal helper functions for category extraction

Data Storage

• Results are stored in the default dataset
• Additional output is stored as key-value pair with key 'output'
• All data is accessible via Apify API or console

Architecture

The actor follows a simple architecture:

1. Initialize Apify SDK
2. Parse input parameters
3. Call helper function with country ISO code
4. Extract and structure category data
5. Store results in dataset and key-value store
6. Clean up and exit

Best Practices

1. Batch Processing: For multiple countries, run separate instances rather than looping
2. Caching: Cache results if running frequently to reduce API calls
3. Monitoring: Set up monitoring for regular data collection
4. Error Handling: Always check run status before processing results

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Support

If you have any questions or encounter any issues, please consult the Apify documentation or reach out to us through one of the following channels:

• Telegram: @pintoflow
• Email: pintoflowpt@gmail.com
• Apify Platform: You can also contact us directly through this platform.

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