Retail Shelf Gap Finder

Detect retail shelf gaps from ecommerce category, search, or product pages with availability, price, delivery, assortment, and reseller opportunity signals.

Retail Shelf Gap Finder helps ecommerce teams, brands, and resellers spot where demand may be leaking on public shelf pages. It extracts availability gaps, missing variants, delivery limits, price signals, and competitor pressure so users can decide where to replenish, pitch, advertise, or expand assortment.

This actor is designed for focused marketplace research runs. You can give it public URLs, paste copied source text, or combine both. URL fetching is useful for public HTML pages; pasted text is useful when a site uses heavy JavaScript, login walls, CAPTCHA, or restrictive anti-bot controls that should not be bypassed.

Who Uses It

• Ecommerce operators
• Brand managers and retail media teams
• Marketplace sellers and resellers
• Category managers
• Competitive intelligence analysts

What It Extracts

• retailerName - Retailer, marketplace, or store name inferred from the source.
• shelfUrl - Original category, search, product, or pasted snippet source.
• categoryOrSearchTerm - Shelf category, query, product family, or merchandising context.
• productOrBrand - Product, SKU, brand, flavor, or variant connected to the gap.
• availabilityStatus - Stock status such as sold out, low stock, unavailable, pickup unavailable, or delivery available.
• priceSignal - Visible price, discount, clearance, or comparable price signal.
• deliverySignal - Pickup, delivery, shipping, store availability, or fulfillment signal.
• assortmentGap - Missing flavor, size, SKU, brand, or format opportunity.
• shelfThreat - Competitive or merchandising threat such as sponsored competitor slots or clearance pressure.
• resellerOpportunity - Plain-language action for a brand, reseller, or ecommerce operator.
• gapPriority - Priority based on stock, missing assortment, price, and competitive shelf pressure.
• evidenceText - Short shelf-specific evidence phrase from the source.

Why This Actor Is Useful

Retail shelf pages change quickly. This actor turns shelf text into actions: replenish, pitch substitutes, watch competitor pressure, identify missing variants, and spot fulfillment gaps.

Input

• startUrls - Public pages to fetch and analyze.
• sourceTexts - Optional pasted source snippets for pages that are blocked, login-gated, JavaScript-heavy, or easier to collect manually.
• maxPagesPerStartUrl - Same-domain crawl depth for each URL. Use a low value for precise runs.
• maxConcurrency - Parallel request count.
• proxyConfiguration - Optional Apify Proxy settings for public pages that rate-limit normal requests.

Example Input

{
    "startUrls": [
        {
            "url": "https://www.target.com/s?searchTerm=coffee"
        }
    ],
    "sourceTexts": [
        "Target coffee shelf shows BrewNorth Organic Dark Roast 12oz sold out online, pickup unavailable, comparable brands priced at $14.99, and only 3 organic dark roast options visible."
    ],
    "maxPagesPerStartUrl": 2,
    "maxConcurrency": 2
}

Example Output

{
    "retailerName": "Target",
    "shelfUrl": "pasted://retail-shelf-1",
    "categoryOrSearchTerm": "coffee shelf",
    "productOrBrand": "BrewNorth Organic Dark Roast 12oz",
    "availabilityStatus": "sold out online; pickup unavailable",
    "priceSignal": "$14.99 comparable brands",
    "deliverySignal": "pickup unavailable",
    "assortmentGap": "only 3 organic dark roast options visible",
    "shelfThreat": "competitor brands filling available shelf space",
    "resellerOpportunity": "Prioritize replenishment and advertise substitute organic dark roast SKUs.",
    "gapPriority": "high",
    "evidenceText": "BrewNorth Organic Dark Roast 12oz sold out online, pickup unavailable."
}

How It Works

1. The actor normalizes every URL and pasted text item.
2. Public URLs are fetched with a browser-like user agent and a clear timeout.
3. HTML pages are converted into readable page text while scripts, styles, iframes, and hidden noise are removed.
4. The actor applies Retail Shelf Gap Finder-specific extraction rules rather than a generic page-summary template.
5. Only rows with useful actor-specific information are saved to the dataset.
6. A run summary is saved to the key-value store for quick review.

Practical Workflows

• Monitor product availability across public retailer shelves.
• Find missing sizes, flavors, or formats for assortment planning.
• Track competitor shelf pressure and sponsored placement signals.
• Create replenishment or reseller prospecting lists.

Reliability Notes

• Best results come from public HTML pages or pasted snippets that visibly contain the target signal.
• For JavaScript-heavy sites, paste the relevant text or use URLs that return readable HTML.
• The actor does not bypass logins, paywalls, CAPTCHA, private systems, or website restrictions.
• Some fields may be empty when the source does not contain that information.
• Use smaller crawl limits for broad portals and larger limits only for well-structured sites.

Limitations

• This actor extracts public or user-provided visible text only.
• It is not a legal-access tool for restricted procurement portals, private retailer dashboards, closed review platforms, account-only changelogs, or internal documentation.
• Results should be reviewed before making procurement, legal, inventory, engineering, or sales decisions.

Search Keywords

retail shelf gap finder, retail shelf gap finder, retailer name, shelf url, category or search term, product or brand, availability status, price signal, delivery signal, assortment gap, shelf threat, reseller opportunity, gap priority, evidence text