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30 August 2026

Creating a custom price alert system using apis and web scraping

Create a personal deal tracker using apis and web scraping to get the best deals

· · 2 min
Creating a custom price alert system using apis and web scraping

Building a personal deal tracker can be a game-changer for tech-savvy shoppers. With the help of APIs and web scraping users can create a custom price alert system that notifies them of the best deals on their desired products.

The first step in building a personal deal tracker is to identify the data sources that will be used to gather information on product prices. This can include e-commerce websitesprice comparison websites and product review websites.

Setting up the API

Once the data sources have been identified, the next step is to set up the API that will be used to gather the data. This can be done by registering for an API key on the website of the data source and then using the API documentation to learn how to make API requests.

Web Scraping

In addition to using APIs, web scraping can also be used to gather data on product prices. This involves using a web scraping library to extract data from the HTML of a website. However, it is essential to ensure that web scraping is done in a way that is respectful of the website’s terms of service and does not overload the website with too many requests.

Deduping Deals

Once the data has been gathered, the next step is to dedupe the deals to ensure that each deal is only notified once. This can be done by storing the deals in a database and then checking each new deal against the existing deals in the database.

Normalizing SKUs

In order to compare prices across different websites, it is essential to normalize the SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) of the products. This can be done by using a standardized format for the SKUs and then converting all the SKUs to this format.

Setting Alert Thresholds

The final step in building a personal deal tracker is to set alert thresholds that determine when a deal is notified to the user. This can be done by setting a percentage threshold that determines when a deal is considered a good deal, or by setting a fixed price threshold that determines when a deal is notified.

Here is some sample code that demonstrates how to build a personal deal tracker using Python and the BeautifulSoup library: import requests from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

Author

Beatrice Mitchell

Beatrice Mitchell, Manchester-rooted and classically elegant, famously commissioned a rebuttal series after a controversial council planning meeting in Stockport, insisting on community testimony. Holds a firm editorial line on accountability and narrative fairness, and collects vintage city planning maps as an idiosyncratic hobby.

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