If you’re considering scraping Amazon, you need to consider using a rotating, dedicated or private proxy server. Proxies will make the process much simpler. This is especially true for web scraping, ad testing, browsing the net, protecting a brand and acquiring limited release products. You want to avoid drawing attention as spam and being blocked. Prior to purchasing proxies, you need to understand the different types. Chances are good that you’ll be using a bot for most of the work. Good examples of proxy-enabled bots are the numerous pieces of software such as AIO Bot which are capable of adding sneakers to a cart. In every case, it’s critical that your proxies are compatible are not banned. This is where the different types come into play.
The Top Five Guidelines for Scraping Amazon
Residential proxies provide additional anonymity because they’re more difficult to blacklist than datacenter proxies and almost completely undetectable. The IP address for a datacenter can be easily detected by the giants such as Nike, Ticketmaster and Google in the subnet of the IP address. The most popular software for scraping search engines is Scrapebox due to the ability to scrape in excess of thirty search engines and the multiple query filters. Like Amazon is for scraping products, the most ubiquitous and most often scraped search engine is Google. This is why Amazon, like Google, uses numerous anti-spam measures. In the upcoming top five guidelines, we’ll dive even deeper into how to safely scrape Amazon.
Guideline 1: Sending SOCKS or HTTP Requests
There are limits to these types of requests, and proxies demand numerous requests every minute. Eventually, your IP address will be blocked by the service or site you’re sending your requests to. Business applications decrease in profit and efficiency from excess redirects, bans and blocks. The business must access and monitor the net without this occurring. Security measures can negatively impact browsing session such as IP detection, browser user agent detection, timeout limits and request frequency. Fresh proxies are necessary or queries will likely be blocked by search engines; the security limits will become obvious in your scraping application of choice.
Guideline 2: Remaining Undetectable
Residential and backconnect proxies are undetectable when retrieving data and sending it back to the user. This will maximize the number of requests for every IP address. If the proxy is detected, limits are often placed for repeat purchases. Highly developed websites use proxy detection systems. One of the best ways to remain undetectable is with a fingerprint clean-up app such as Canvas Defender or ScriptSafe. Our post on the top Chrome and Firefox add-ons for proxies will also prove useful if you’re taking a browser-based approach.
Guideline 3: The Evergreen IP Address
An evergreen address is provided with proxy rotation. This will strengthen the undetectable nature of the proxy and the connection becomes unbannable. A constantly refreshing IP address will not be associated with excessive requests. For high-quality proxies, we recommend reviewing the offerings on RotatingProxies’ pricing page.
Guideline 4: The Security Factor
The rotation interval of a proxy can be set. This enables the rotation of large pools of IP addresses through the proxy gateway. This number can be in the millions. This many IP addresses significantly lowers the risk of an attack on any kind of session monitoring. A datacenter proxy can help hide an IP address and traffic can be encrypted by a VPN. This being said, both of these options decrease security because the servers and websites can reveal the proxy.
Guideline 5: Self-Managing Proxy Replacement
The proxy rotation is built-in and replaces proxy IP’s. This eliminates the time and the need to replace banned proxies. This reduces the overhead and time usually required for a business to monitor and manage their proxies. Datacenter proxies will eventually require changing and can be detected. This makes residential rotating proxies the best possible choice for unfettered browsing.
Amazon’s IP Radar Ban
Amazon will not hesitate to ban any IP suspected of wrongdoing. Excessive requests in a small time frame is not normal behavior and Amazon will ban the IP. Defensive actions will be taken for constant requests because this is considered an attack. Amazon has the intelligence to identify a bot. Keep in mind, Amazon is usually the first to identify a bot. If the bot is not set up correctly, it will be obvious the account is not being operated by a person. Amazon also abides by protection and usage laws regarding data to remain safe. The most important fact is data scrapers are not prohibited if they’re used to access privately held information. If you’re careless, Amazon will test you.
The Scraper Tools
There are a lot of scraper tools available and they all claim to eliminate any issues when scraping data. This is not true of every tool. It’s important to research the scraping tool to ensure it will not cause complications prior to use. The tool should stagger all requests to make it appear the activity is normal for a human user. A scraper with only one speed will lead to the IP address being banned by Amazon. The worst scenario is your real IP address being blocked by Amazon. This will ensure all future purchases are difficult. The best way to avoid this is to try numerous proxy tools. It’s important to note some proxies have already been banned by Amazon. A dedicated or private proxy is fresh because it has never been used.
Rotating Proxies
The best choice for scraping data on Amazon are rotating proxies. They’re easier to use and much harder for Amazon to detect. Rotating proxies can extract an enormous pile of information before the strategy must be changed. Proxies are crucial for marketers Amazon data scraping. Proxies must be configured correctly to be undetectable. Amazon must believe a human is operating the system as opposed to a bot. Amazon has all the tools as well as the skills to identify the activities of a bot. If you use your real IP address for making requests, Amazon will believe you’re trying to install malware or hack into an account. They will assume your intent is malicious and you will be banned. Although some people use Amazon’s API to obtain information, proxies are much more effective.
Saturation in the Market
Proxies and scrapers can cost hundreds of dollars. When these tools perform they way they should, this investment is worth every penny and more. Unfortunately, there are a lot of proxies and scrapers on the market that do not provide the desired results. A Google search for “Amazon scraper” or “Amazon proxies” will provide an astounding number of results. Prior to deciding which scraping tools you want to purchase, there are a couple of things you should look at. The first is to look at the reviews. No product will make everyone happy, so there will always be a couple of bad reviews. This being said, a lot of bad reviews are a warning sign. It’s best to look at a different tool. The second point is to be aware of numerous biased reviews. If you see affiliate links in most of the reviews, move on. It says a lot about a product when the only good reviews come from affiliates. We also recommend reaching out to the scraper or proxy provider to request a free trial before making your final decision.
Typical Bot Behavior
Amazon is astounding at recognizing the behavior of a bot. Their software analyzes typical bot behavior, then bans the proxies. Once you’re banned, you must get another proxy. If you’re not careful, you will receive another ban. You will not gain any data and frustration is likely. The speed is what stops a tool from exhibiting bot behavior. The number of queries per second must be limited to prevent Amazon from becoming aware of the software. The actions of the bot must be varied. If it always goes from point A to point F to point Q, it will be noticed by Amazon. The pattern must be constantly varied and erratic to make the bot appear human. This may also mean giving the bot the night off so it looks like a person taking a break.
Rotating the Proxies
Amazon will examine your IP address. Your best option is a package of rotating proxies. This type of package generally provides a new IP address every ten to 120 minutes. There can be 6,000 different IP’s in your rotating pool. This will eliminate the concern of running out of addresses. Your IP addresses will change so rapidly, Amazon will probably remain unaware. If Amazon does catch an IP address, you can no longer be tracked once you change your IP because your data is private. Simply put, Amazon is unable to recognize your new IP address.
Scraping Only What You Need
When your bandwidth is unmetered, speed is no longer an issue. Only scraping what you need will make the most out of your speed. Pulling useless information will slow down your proxies. Set your scraping according to what you need. This will enable your resources to work quicker so you can finish faster and move on. This will eliminate the need to sift through piles of useless data.
Storing URL’s and the Product Descriptions
Typically, your software will run throughout your project. On occasion, your software may crash. The top proxies on the market will not remember the URL’s that have already been crawled. Keep a list and do not start the software from the beginning. This list will ensure you can begin again where you left off and save you a lot of time and frustration. Some of the information you will gain are product descriptions. If you use this information on your site, you will be flagged by Google for duplicate content. This information makes an excellent guide but must not be copied word for word. This can lead to being buried within the search results.
Harvesting Data
Many individuals are confused regarding harvesting data. You should not log into your Amazon account to scrape data. You should ensure you’re logged out to make certain the only data accessed is what you should be getting while scraping. This will eliminate numerous potential issues when scraping any site including Amazon. Once your tools and proxies are in place, you can access a wide variety of data such as product descriptions and online prices. This information provides an exceptional means of growing your online business.
Python Scrapy
Python Scrapy is a good tool for beginners to extract unstructured and structured data from Amazon including data mining, historical archival and information processing. Scrapy can scrap data from websites and web services such as Amazon, Facebook and Twitter. Scrapy was created with a Python language so it must be installed. The lxml package is optional but necessary for scrapping html data. Scrapy uses an application framework for creating and using applications. Creating a directory is required. This can be accomplished by setting up a new Scrapy project and choosing the directory to store the code. Once an item has been scraped, it’s sent and processed through the Item Pipeline and executed sequentially. The behavior of the components can be customized including the spiders, pipelines and core.
The Spiders Directory
This directory encompasses all crawlers and spiders in Python Scrapy. This defines the way the site is scraped, how the crawl is performed and the way the data is extracted. The spiders determine which URL’s are scraped, the domain names scraped and handle any responses from lodged requests. You can scrape all data related to the product such as the category, name, price and availability. There are different options for creating spiders. A default template will be created automatically in the spiders directory. Datahut.co lists additional details regarding installing and using Python Scrapy.
Octoparse
The best sellers on amazon.com can be scraped using Octoparse. The task can be downloaded directly to start collecting data. The process begins by setting up the basic information. The target URL is then entered into the browser prior to opening the web page. Data can be extracted from multiple web pages and you can set the location for the next item. You can add sections where you believe data is located and create a list. This list can be expanded or edited. Since the first item will not contain all the necessary information, the correct item can be selected. For full details regarding installing, configuring and running Octoparse for amazon.com be sure to visit Octoparse’s website.
The Bottom Line
One of the most difficult sites to scrape is Amazon. This is especially true for beginners. The best way to succeed without being blocked is with rotating proxies. As long as they have been set up properly, the chances of being discovered are slim. This provides an effective means of gathering the desired information. This is the easiest and simplest way to scrape Amazon as well as the best way to avoid being discovered by Amazon’s extensive security measures. For the best results, follow the tips described throughout this article and learn by doing.