I'm looking to scrape about 3 million items from an e-commerce site, including product names, prices, descriptions, and more. Unfortunately, there's no public API available for this site. From what I've seen, most of the pages are static HTML, but some may use JavaScript for pagination and dynamic loading. My key goals are to extract this large volume of data efficiently, without overloading their server or risking a ban, and to be able to perform regular updates, like syncing data weekly. Any tips or best practices for tackling this?
4 Answers
First and foremost, definitely check their robots.txt file before you start scraping. Ignoring it can lead to getting rate limited or even blocked, especially if you're making a lot of requests. It's essential to respect the site's rules.
Keep in mind the legal aspects of scraping. Some sites have strict policies against it, and you could face consequences if they decide to take action. It might be safer to reach out to the site directly or consider lighter methods like real-time querying or stratified random sampling.
If you have the budget, think about hiring third-party services that already scrape that particular e-commerce site. They have the infrastructure set up to handle potential IP blocks and layout changes. Just remember, maintaining such a pipeline over time can require significant investment, especially as the site's structure changes.
Consider using multiprocessing with asynchronous requests. You can break down the website into manageable chunks and run multiple async scrapers at the same time. This will help you make fast requests without having to wait on slow I/O. It can really boost your efficiency!
Totally agree! I work with scrapers often, and I've seen so many get shut down just for ignoring that. It's like the first step to avoiding a mess!