🛍️ Taobao & Tmall 淘宝 Product Scraper — Prices, Shops & HD Photos (淘宝 & 天猫 API)

---

[!TIP] 💰 Cheapest Taobao Scraper on Apify Store: Only $1.50 per 1,000 items ($0.0015/item) — 3x to 10x cheaper than competitors who charge $5.00 to $15.00. Extracts 28+ clean data points per item directly into Excel, CSV, or JSON.

---

[!NOTE]

🚀 Fast Catalog & Market Discovery Engine

This actor is optimized for ultra-fast, high-volume keyword search, market intelligence, wholesale discovery, and competitor price tracking ($0.0015/item, ~30 items/second, 100% cookieless). It extracts 28+ rich data points per search listing (true prices, sales volume, shop ratings, factory verification, volume tier discounts, and master HD photos).
Looking for Single-Product Variant Fulfillment? This actor is not a single-listing SKU variant importer (it does not extract deep color/size SKU variant matrices or multi-image carousel description HTML, which live exclusively on authenticated product-detail endpoints).

---

🚀 How to Use in 3 Simple Steps (No Coding Required!)

You don't need any programming skills, proxies, or Chinese accounts to use this scraper. Follow these 3 easy steps:

┌─────────────────────────────────┐      ┌───────────────────────────────┐      ┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│  Step 1: Enter Your Keywords    │ ───► │  Step 2: Click Start          │ ───► │  Step 3: Download Spreadsheet   │
│  Type 'phone case', '女装', etc. │      │  Scraper runs in the cloud    │      │  Export to Excel, CSV or Sheets │
└─────────────────────────────────┘      └───────────────────────────────┘      └─────────────────────────────────┘

1. Step 1: Enter your search keywords
   In the Search Queries field, type what you are looking for in English or Chinese (e.g. phone case, smart watch, wireless earbuds, or 女装). You can enter multiple keywords at once.
2. Step 2: Click "Save & Start"
   Hit the green button at the bottom of the screen. The actor runs securely in the cloud and starts extracting products in real time.
3. Step 3: Download your results
   When the run finishes, click Export to download your complete product catalog as an Excel (XLSX), CSV, or Google Sheet file, complete with permanent, working HD product photo links.

[!TIP] No Chinese Phone Number or Login Required!
Visiting Taobao directly forces you through QR codes, SMS verification walls, and account logins. This scraper bypasses all login walls completely—you get 100% of China's domestic catalog without ever needing an account.

---

📊 What Data You Get (Spreadsheet Columns Preview)

Every product extracted includes rich e-commerce, supplier, and product intelligence. Here is what your exported spreadsheet looks like:

Column Name	Sample Value	What It Tells You
itemId	1043802302596	Unique numeric product ID on Taobao / Tmall.
title	适用苹果18ProMax科技布织物手机壳磁吸保护套	Full product listing title with keywords.
price	15.00	True current selling price in Chinese Yuan (¥ CNY).
salesCount	544	Real sales volume (e.g. 544+人付款).
repurchaseRate	54%	Buyer Loyalty Signal: Percentage of customers who buy from this seller again (回头率).
shopName	深圳市罗湖区洪星电子商行	Verified merchant / storefront name.
sellerNick	深圳洪星生产	Merchant contact nickname.
shopAgeYears	5	Supplier Reliability: How many years the seller has been operating on Alibaba.
businessType	生产加工 (Manufacturer)	Direct Factory Flag: Differentiates manufacturers from trading intermediaries.
isSuperFactory	true	Certified top-tier verified manufacturer badge.
ratings	Quality: 3.0, Logistics: 4.0, Service: 1.5	Multi-point seller score across product quality, shipping speed, and dispute rate.
tierPricing	1~199 @ ¥15.0, ≥3000 @ ¥13.5	Wholesale Price Breaks: Volume discounts for bulk sourcing.
attributes	Function: Anti-drop, Style: Magnetic	Structured product specifications (materials, styles, tech specs).
location	广东 深圳市	Merchant factory / dispatch city and province.
mainImage	https://img.alicdn.com/...	Permanent HD Photo: Master resolution link that never expires and works in Shopify/Excel.
url	https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=...	Direct product page URL.
similarProductsUrl	https://s.1688.com/...	Reverse Design Link: Discover identical designs and alternative suppliers in 1 click.

---

📤 Sample Output Preview

Clean unnested columns ready for 1-click export to Excel, CSV, Google Sheets, Airtable, or Shopify (and natively token-efficient for AI Agents, Pandas, and MCP):

{
  "itemId": "1043802302596",
  "title": "适用苹果18ProMax科技布织物手机壳磁吸i phone 17相机按键保护套16",
  "platform": "taobao",
  "url": "https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=1043802302596",
  "price": 15.0,
  "currency": "CNY",
  "salesCount": "544",
  "shopName": "深圳市罗湖区洪星电子商行",
  "sellerNick": "深圳洪星生产",
  "sellerMemberId": "b2b-22126904641686ef2e",
  "shopAgeYears": 5,
  "businessType": "生产加工",
  "isSuperFactory": true,
  "shopUrl": "https://shop306x909028029.1688.com",
  "province": "广东",
  "city": "深圳市",
  "location": "深圳市",
  "mainImage": "https://img.alicdn.com/img/ibank/O1CN01txLhMd1gezw9SFwuB_!!2212690464168-0-cib.jpg",
  "repurchaseRate": "54%",
  "ratings": {
    "overallScore": 4.0,
    "productQuality": 3.0,
    "logisticsSpeed": 4.0,
    "customerService": 1.5,
    "disputeResolution": 4.0,
    "returnRate": 4.0
  },
  "attributes": {
    "功能": "防摔",
    "款式": "磁吸款",
    "工艺": "贴皮"
  },
  "tierPricing": [
    { "quantity": "1~199个", "price": 15.0 },
    { "quantity": "200~2999个", "price": 14.5 },
    { "quantity": "≥3000个", "price": 13.5 }
  ],
  "serviceTags": [
    "退货包运费",
    "先采后付",
    "回头率54%"
  ],
  "promotions": [
    "首单减3元"
  ],
  "similarProductsUrl": "https://s.1688.com/selloffer/similar_search.html?offerIds=1043802302596...",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-10T10:14:29+00:00",
  "searchQuery": "phone case",
  "detailLevel": "full"
}

---

🎯 Who Is This For? Top Use Cases

📦 1. Product Research & Market Discovery for E-Commerce (Shopify, Amazon, TikTok Shop)

• Discover high-margin consumer products and emerging trends across apparel, electronics, beauty, accessories, and home goods.
• With zero Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ = 1), Taobao is the premier retail testing ground before placing bulk wholesale orders on 1688.
• Benchmark true market price distributions, sales volumes, and merchant reliability before stocking or building collections.
• Photos are permanent, hotlink-unblocked master HD images so you can preview, download, and catalog products without 403 Forbidden errors.

🏭 2. Factory Sourcing & Finding Direct Manufacturers

• Filter out trading middlemen and brokers by checking the businessType (生产加工 = Manufacturer) and isSuperFactory fields.
• Review shopAgeYears (e.g. 5+ years) and repurchaseRate (e.g. 80%+ repeat buyers) to instantly identify vetted, trustworthy Chinese suppliers.
• Use tierPricing to see volume discount breaks before messaging the supplier.

📈 3. Competitor Monitoring & Price Intelligence

• Track live retail pricing, sales velocity, and consumer demand in the world's largest e-commerce market.
• Detect viral Chinese trends weeks or months before they appear on Amazon, TikTok Shop, or AliExpress.

🤖 4. AI Agents, LLM Fine-Tuning & Market Research

• Feed clean, structured e-commerce catalog data into AI agents, market analysis bots, and recommendation engines via the Apify API or MCP server.

---

🥊 Market Comparison: Why UnitBytes Outperforms Alternatives

Capability / Metric	🛍️ UnitBytes Scraper	⚠️ Other Market Scrapers
Catalog Price (per 1,000 items)	🟢 $1.50	🔴 $3.00 – $15.98
Free Monthly Allowance ($5 Credit)	🟢 3,330+ Products	🔴 ~500 items or limited runs
Domestic Catalog Coverage	🟢 100% Domestic Mainland	🔴 Often overseas mirror only (misses 60%+ items)
Extraction Speed	⚡ ~29 items/second	⚠️ Slow browser / delayed API proxies
Zero Account / 100% Cookieless	✅ Yes (No cookies needed)	⚠️ Often requires manual cookies or accounts
Permanent Image Links	✅ Yes (Hotlink Unblocked)	⚠️ Expiring CDN links (403 Forbidden in Shopify)
Seller Ratings & Repeat Buy Rate	✅ Yes (Included)	❌ Missing
Volume Tier Pricing	✅ Yes (Included)	❌ Missing
Product Specifications	✅ Yes (Included)	❌ Missing
Empty Run Fee ($0 Charged)	✅ $0.00	⚠️ Charged full compute or run fee

---

💡 Cost-Effective Pay-Per-Event (PPE) Pricing

You only pay for the products you actually extract. There are no hidden browser compute fees or hourly server surcharges:

Apify Plan Tier	Monthly Apify Fee	Apify PPE Discount	Price per 1,000 Products	What Apify's $5.00 Free Monthly Credit Gets You
Free Plan	$0 / mo	Base Rate	$1.50 ($0.0015 / item)	3,330+ Products completely free every month
Starter Plan	$49 / mo	10% OFF	$1.35 ($0.00135 / item)	Dropshipping catalog exports & price monitoring
Scale Plan	$499 / mo	20% OFF	$1.20 ($0.00120 / item)	Large-scale retail intelligence & daily scraping
Business Plan	$999+ / mo	30% OFF	$1.05 ($0.00105 / item)	Enterprise data pipelines & LLM training datasets

• Zero-Charge Billing Protection: The startup fee is nominal ($0.00005). If your search keyword returns 0 products or is blocked by target rate limits, you are charged $0.00.

---

⚡ UnitBytes · Chinese E-Commerce & Sourcing Ecosystem

⚡ UnitBytes · China Sourcing & E-Commerce Intelligence Ecosystem
🛍️ Taobao & Tmall 📍 You are here Search, Prices, Sales & Shops	🇨🇳 1688 Factory Direct Wholesale B2B & MOQ Direct factories & FBA specs	🌐 Alibaba Wholesale Global B2B Suppliers Verified audits & OEM/ODM	🐟 Goofish Xianyu C2C Resale & Samples Liquidation & arbitrage	📕 Xiaohongshu Trends Social Commerce & KOL Viral products & buyer intent

---

📥 Input Parameters Guide

Parameter	Type	Default	How to Use It
queries	Array of Strings	["phone case"]	Your search terms. Enter any keywords in English (e.g. phone case, smart watch) or Chinese (e.g. 女装, 蓝牙耳机). You can list multiple terms to run in batch.
startUrls	Array of Objects	[]	Category or search URLs copied from your browser. Keywords will be extracted automatically.
maxItems	Integer	30	Total number of products you want to extract (e.g. 50, 500, 5000).
startPage	Integer	1	Start scraping from page 2, 5, or 10 without needing cookies or tokens.
sortBy	String	default	Sort results by: default (Relevance), sales (Best Sellers), price_asc (Lowest Price), price_desc (Highest Price).
priceMin	Integer	None	Minimum price filter in Chinese Yuan (¥ CNY).
priceMax	Integer	None	Maximum price filter in Chinese Yuan (¥ CNY).

---

💻 Developer API & Integrations

For developers building automated data feeds, integrations, or AI pipelines:

🐍 Python Integration

from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize client with your Apify API Token
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")

# Run the actor
run = client.actor("unitbytes/taobao-tmall-scraper").call(
    run_input={
        "queries": ["phone case", "wireless earbuds"],
        "maxItems": 100,
        "sortBy": "sales"
    }
)

# Fetch results from dataset
dataset_items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items
print(f"Scraped {len(dataset_items)} products.")
for item in dataset_items[:3]:
    print(f"- {item['title']} (¥{item['price']}) | Sales: {item.get('salesCount')} | Shop: {item.get('shopName')}")

🟨 Node.js Integration

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('unitbytes/taobao-tmall-scraper').call({
    queries: ['phone case'],
    maxItems: 50,
    sortBy: 'sales',
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(`Scraped ${items.length} products.`);

🔌 MCP Server Setup: Claude Code, Cursor & AI Agents

Connect this scraper directly to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible AI agent via the hosted Apify MCP server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=actors,docs,unitbytes/taobao-tmall-scraper"
    }
  }
}

---

❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Do I need a Taobao account, Alipay, or a Chinese phone number?

No, absolutely not. The actor operates 100% cookieless and anonymously. You never have to register an account, scan QR codes, or verify SMS codes.

Can I search using English keywords?

Yes! Popular English terms (e.g. phone case, bluetooth earbuds, yoga pants, smart watch, hoodie, sneakers) work out of the box. For niche or localized items, you can also search using native Chinese keywords (e.g. 手机壳, 蓝牙耳机, 女装).

How do I export the data to Excel, CSV, or Google Sheets?

When the scraper finishes running in Apify:

1. Go to the Dataset tab of your run.
2. Click the Export button in the top right corner.
3. Select your desired format: Excel (XLSX), CSV, or JSON. You can also copy the API URL to connect directly to Google Sheets or Airtable.

Will the product photo links expire or break in Shopify / WooCommerce?

No. Other scrapers return temporary thumbnail links that expire or give 403 Forbidden errors when loaded on external websites. Our actor automatically unblocks and converts all image URLs to permanent, master-resolution links on img.alicdn.com. They will work reliably in Shopify, WooCommerce, Excel, and WordPress.

How does Taobao compare to 1688?

• Taobao & Tmall is China's leading consumer retail platform. It has no Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ = 1), consumer ratings, and instant dispatch. It is best for dropshipping, product research, and trend spotting.
• 1688.com is Alibaba's factory-direct wholesale marketplace (B2B). It offers bulk manufacturing tiers and raw factory contacts, but requires higher MOQs. If you need factory-direct wholesale orders, use our 1688 Wholesale Scraper.

How can I spot direct manufacturers instead of trading companies?

Look at the businessType column. If it says 生产加工, the seller is a verified manufacturing factory rather than a trading reseller. You can also check isSuperFactory (true) and shopAgeYears (e.g. 5+ years) to verify long-term reliability.

How many products can I scrape for free?

With Apify's default $5.00 free monthly credit, you can extract over 3,330 products completely free every month. There is no credit card required to start.

Does this scraper extract SKU variant options (size, color, variant prices)?

No. This actor is engineered for fast, bulk search & catalog discovery ($0.0015/item, ~30 items/second, 100% cookieless). It extracts master search listing data (true prices, sales volume, seller ratings, wholesale volume tiers, factory verification, and primary master HD photos). Granular SKU variant matrices (individual size/color breakdowns and variant inventory) live exclusively on locked product-detail endpoints that require authenticated sessions.

Can I scrape a list of direct product links (item.taobao.com)?

No. This actor is strictly a keyword and catalog search scraper. Please provide search terms (e.g. phone case, 女装) or search URLs (s.taobao.com/search?q=...). Single item URLs (item.taobao.com) require account login and are flagged with an informational guidance record in the dataset ($0 charged).

What happens if my search returns zero results?

If a keyword returns 0 products, the actor finishes cleanly with exit code 0 and you are charged $0.00.

---

📞 Support & Custom Sourcing Solutions

Need custom integrations, dedicated high-volume scraping pipelines, or enterprise SLAs?

• Apify Actor: Taobao & Tmall Scraper by UnitBytes
• Author: UnitBytes
• Email: contact@unitbytes.com
• Website: https://unitbytes.com

---

🔍 Search Keywords & Tags

taobao-scraper • tmall-scraper • taobao-api • tmall-api • taobao-dropshipping • taobao-product-scraper • taobao-to-shopify • taobao-to-excel • china-sourcing • 1688-alternative • alibaba-alternative • scrape-taobao • scrape-tmall • taobao-pricing • taobao爬虫 • 天猫爬虫 • 淘宝数据采集 • 天猫数据采集 • taobao-seller-ratings • pay-per-event