Web scraping Amazon can be a game-changer for businesses when done effectively. For example, this story highlights a website that generated $800k in just two months by scraping Amazon reviews daily. Impressive, right?
While we can’t promise overnight riches, we can guide you through the process of scraping Amazon data. This guide will show you two approaches: using a no-code Amazon Scraper and building a Python Amazon Scraper. But first, let’s discuss the legality of scraping Amazon.
The rules surrounding Amazon scraping can be unclear. Amazon’s robots.txt file defines areas of the website that are and aren’t accessible to web crawlers. However, this file is more of an ethical guideline than a legal boundary.
Amazon employs anti-scraping measures like CAPTCHA tests and rate limiting to deter bots. Bypassing these barriers often requires advanced techniques such as user-agent spoofing, CAPTCHA solving, or request delays.
To summarize: the legality of scraping Amazon depends on factors like:
- The type of data being scraped
- The methods used for scraping
- The intended use of the scraped data
As long as you avoid unauthorized access (e.g., bypassing login barriers) or overwhelming Amazon’s infrastructure, you’re likely in the clear. That said, always ensure your use of scraped data complies with legal standards. Misuse, such as reselling data, can lead to legal consequences.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s dive into how to scrape Amazon.
Scraping Amazon is possible with both code-based and no-code tools, even with the technical challenges posed by Amazon’s anti-bot defenses. Below, we’ll explore both methods. Let’s start with a no-code Amazon Scraper.
Not a coder? No problem! No-code Amazon Scrapers allow you to scrape data without writing a single line of code. Simply provide the product or category URLs, and the tool will extract data like reviews, prices, and product descriptions. For this demo, we’ll use Apify’s Amazon Scraper.
Go to the Amazon Product Scraper on the Apify Store and click "Try for Free." This tool can scrape data like prices, reviews, product descriptions, and more.
Sign up for an Apify account (free) using email, Google, or GitHub.
In the Apify Console, paste the URL of the Amazon page you want to scrape (e.g., a category or product page). Add multiple links by clicking “+ Add” or upload a text file with URLs. Set the max number of items to scrape.
Amazon employs CAPTCHAs to block bots. Ensure CAPTCHA solving is enabled for uninterrupted scraping.
Select a proxy type (Residential or Datacenter) to avoid being blocked by Amazon’s anti-bot systems. Residential proxies are recommended for better success rates.
Click "Start" to begin scraping. Once completed, the status will change from "Running" to "Succeeded."
Download your data in formats like CSV, JSON, or Excel by clicking "Export results."
ScraperAPI makes web scraping effortless by handling millions of requests with ease. Extract data from Amazon, Google, Walmart, and more without hassle.
👉 Start your free trial now: https://www.scraperapi.com/?fp_ref=coupons
For greater control and customization, you can build your own Python Amazon Scraper. Below is a step-by-step guide.
Download and install the latest version of Python.
Run the following command to install the necessary libraries:
python -m pip install requests beautifulsoup4 lxml pandasInclude the following libraries in your script:
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
from urllib.parse import urljoin
import pandas as pdAvoid detection by mimicking a browser’s requests. Add custom HTTP headers:
custom_headers = {
'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/122.0.0.0 Safari/537.36',
'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.9',
'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip, deflate, br, zstd',
'Referer': 'https://www.amazon.com/',
}Use BeautifulSoup to parse HTML and extract product data such as titles, prices, and descriptions.
Navigate through Amazon’s pages by detecting the “Next” button link.
Aggregate the scraped data into a Pandas DataFrame and export it as a CSV file.
Amazon’s defenses can make scraping challenging. To avoid issues like CAPTCHAs and IP bans:
- Use anti-detect tools like AdsPower for features such as fingerprint spoofing and proxy rotation.
- Sign up for free with AdsPower to enhance your scraping efforts.
Scraping Amazon can open the door to countless business opportunities. Whether you choose a no-code or code-based approach, tools like ScraperAPI make the process more efficient and reliable.
👉 Try ScraperAPI today: https://www.scraperapi.com/?fp_ref=coupons