eBay has been in existence for a long time and thus relied on by people across the globe for selling and reselling the products. As per an estimate, the site has more than 1.3 billion product listings and this whooping number makes eBay a large data warehouse. The listings at eBay along with information regarding the products, merchants, eBay pricing history, and more make it a valuable source for research, analysis, and other studies regarding the e-commerce world.
Manually collecting all the needed data from the site is not possible and here the role of scraping tools comes into play. Using these professional programs, all the desired data can be easily extracted. In the following parts of the topic, you can learn about the top 5 eBay scrapers to extract data easily.
Does eBay Allow Scraping
Like any other site, eBay also allows the scraping of publicly available data like the product list, its price, details, etc. But with a huge number of products listed on the site, manually getting the data is not a practical solution. Moreover, with manual extraction, the chances of getting errors are quite high as there will be no structured data. Here, with the use of data scraping tools, the task can be done not only at a super-fast speed but also in an error-free manner.
Automated web scraping is not allowed by eBay and while choosing a scraping tool, you need to ensure that it counters the site’s defense mechanism and thus goes without being noticed or detected.
The vast data at eBay works like a gold mine for market researchers and to extract all the needed data you can either create your own scraper with the help of a programming language like Python or use a readymade tool like Octoparse.
Free Scrape eBay Data Without Coding
One of the easiest ways to extract data from eBay is by using readymade software designed for data scraping. Octoparse is the best web scraper which supports almost all popular sites and platforms including eBay. It is free to use for most basic functions and offers advanced features like preset eBay scraping templates, scheduled scraping, cloud service, IP rotation, etc.
Steps for eBay scraping with Octoparse
Step 1: Enter eBay page link into Octoparse
Install and launch Octoparse on your device and paste the copied target eBay page link in the search box, and then you’ll start the auto-detection. You can also search for eBay to find the preset eBay scraper templates and preview the data sample.
Step 2: Create a pagination loop and create a loop item
After the quick auto-detection, you can create a workflow and make some customization to ensure that your desired eBay data is scraped. For example, check the pagination loop if you want to scrape data from multiple eBay pages. You can also modify the XPath to get the precious data field you need.
Step 3: Begin extracting eBay data
Finally, click on the Run button to start scraping eBay product listing data. You can download the final file in Excel or CVS to your local device.
If you need to check the detailed steps for eBay data scraping, you can move to Octoparse eBay Data Scraping Guide or watch the video tutorial below.
Other 4 eBay Web Scraping Tools
1. ProxyCrawl
This is an all-in-one tool for data scraping and crawling that works with all popular sites including eBay. This cloud-based tool can be accessed using API and allows extracting a wide range of data from eBay like price, product details, brand name, availability, and more. Using the tool, you can scrape while being anonymous. The blocks, restrictions, as well as captchas, can be bypassed.
Key Features
- A cloud-based tool that can be used through API for data scraping.
- Quick and hassle-free extraction of different data types.
- Allows getting access to the SERP details in the structured form.
- Live demo option to check the scraping process.
2. ParseHub
This is free to use a desktop tool that allows scraping all needed data from eBay as well as other sites. A paid version of the tool is also available if you are looking for support for advanced features. Using this program, you do not have to worry about proxies as IP rotation is supported.
Key Features
- Free and powerful scraping tool supporting eBay and several other sites.
- Simple and user-friendly interface making it apt even for users without technical experience.
- Allows extracting data from multiple pages and is compatible with AJAX, dropdown, forms, and other sites.
- The extracted data can be accessed using JSON, EXCEL, and API. You can even get the data in Google Sheets, and Tableau.
- Support for IP rotation.
3. Helium Scraper
When you want to extract data from any site quickly and in a hassle-free manner, Helium Scraper works as an excellent tool. With a simple workflow, the tool is easy to use and allows extracting as much data as needed by increasing the parallel browsers. You can define your own actions for data extraction or can also use custom JavaScript in case of complex data.
Key features
- Allows data extraction from various sites including eBay.
- Fast extraction with a simple workflow.
- Comes with a 10-day free trial version to test the tool.
- Support to SQLite that is capable of storing 140TB data.
- A point-and-click interface makes data extraction easy without any need for coding.
4. Python
If you have earlier worked with Python and have knowledge of this programming language and coding, then it can be used for creating custom codes to extract data from the eBay site. Along with Python, we would need a platform to run the codes, and here we would use the BeautifulSoup library to get the task done.
Key features
- Use Python to create customized coding for extracting data needed from the eBay site.
- Python along with the BeautifulSoup library will enable us to get the task done.
- The task would also need pandas and numpy libraries.
- The data scraped can be saved in CSV, JSON, and other formats.
