# Colruyt Scraper — Belgian Supermarket Products & Prices (`studio-amba/colruyt-scraper`) Actor

Scrape products, prices, unit prices, brands, and promotions from Colruyt.be — Belgium's largest supermarket chain. Supports product search and category browsing. No login required.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/studio-amba/colruyt-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Studio Amba](https://apify.com/studio-amba) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 16 total users, 3 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 result scrapeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Colruyt Scraper

Scrape products, prices, unit prices, brands, and promotions from [Colruyt.be](https://www.colruyt.be) — Belgium's largest supermarket chain with their famous lowest-price guarantee.

### How to scrape Colruyt data

1. Go to the Colruyt Scraper on Apify Store
2. Enter a search query (e.g., "melk", "pasta", "bio") or leave empty for a catalog sample
3. Set your desired maximum number of results
4. Click "Start" and wait for the results
5. Download your data as JSON, CSV, or Excel

### Why use this scraper?

- **Belgium's #1 supermarket** — Colruyt has the largest market share in Belgian grocery retail
- **Lowest-price guarantee data** — Colruyt actively price-matches against all competitors (Delhaize, Albert Heijn, Carrefour, Aldi, Lidl)
- **No login required** — scrapes the public product catalog without needing a Colruyt Xtra account
- **Unit prices included** — get price-per-liter, price-per-kg for easy comparison
- **Bilingual** — supports both Dutch (NL) and French (FR) product data
- **Zero competition** — only Colruyt scraper available on the Apify Store

#### Use cases

- Price comparison and monitoring across Belgian supermarkets
- Market research for FMCG brands and retailers
- Basket optimization tools
- Competitor intelligence for grocery retail
- Academic research on food pricing in Belgium

### Input options

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `searchQuery` | string | Search products by keyword (e.g., "melk", "pasta"). Default: "melk" |
| `maxResults` | integer | Maximum number of products to return (1-5000). Default: 50 |
| `language` | string | Language: "nl" (Dutch) or "fr" (French). Default: "nl" |
| `placeId` | integer | Colruyt store ID used to resolve prices. Default: 871 |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Apify proxy settings. Belgian residential proxies recommended |

### Output fields

| Field | Type | Example |
|-------|------|---------|
| `name` | string | "EVERYDAY Halfvolle melk 1l" |
| `brand` | string | "Everyday" |
| `price` | number | 1.09 |
| `currency` | string | "EUR" |
| `unit` | string | "1l" |
| `unitPrice` | string | "1,09/l" |
| `promotionPrice` | number | 0.89 |
| `category` | string | "Zuivel > Melk" |
| `url` | string | "https://www.colruyt.be/nl/producten/12345" |
| `imageUrl` | string | "https://static.colruytgroup.com/images/500x500/..." |
| `inStock` | boolean | true |
| `scrapedAt` | string | "2026-06-07T12:00:00.000Z" |

### Example output

```json
{
    "name": "EVERYDAY Halfvolle melk 1l",
    "brand": "Everyday",
    "price": 1.09,
    "currency": "EUR",
    "unit": "1l",
    "unitPrice": "1,09/l",
    "category": "Zuivel > Melk",
    "url": "https://www.colruyt.be/nl/producten/12345",
    "imageUrl": "https://static.colruytgroup.com/images/500x500/std.lang.all/12/34/asset-1234567.jpg",
    "inStock": true,
    "scrapedAt": "2026-06-07T12:00:00.000Z"
}
```

### Cost estimate

This actor talks directly to Colruyt's product search API, so it is fast and cheap:

- One API request returns up to 250 products
- A typical run of 50 products finishes in under 30 seconds
- Residential proxy traffic is minimal (a few hundred KB per run)

### How it works

Colruyt uses one of Belgium's most aggressive anti-bot systems on its website
(Imperva BotGuard, Fastly CDN, F5 BIG-IP, Dynatrace RUM). Instead of fighting
the website, this scraper queries the same product search API that the
colruyt.be frontend uses, through Belgian residential proxies. That makes it
faster and far more reliable than browser-based scraping.

### Limitations

- **Search-based:** Results come from Colruyt's own search engine. Broad queries (e.g. "bio") return more results than very specific ones.
- **Store prices:** Prices are resolved for one store (`placeId`). Colruyt prices can vary slightly per store.
- **Promotions:** Promotional prices are only available when the product is actively on promotion.
- **Price comparison data:** Colruyt's competitor price comparison (vs Delhaize, Carrefour, etc.) requires Xtra login and is not available in this scraper.
- **Rate limiting:** The scraper paginates politely to avoid triggering blocks.

### Changelog

- **0.2** — Switched to Colruyt's product search API: faster, more reliable, no third-party unlocker needed
- **0.1** — Initial release: product search, prices, unit prices, brands, images

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQuery` (type: `string`):

Search for products by name or keyword (e.g., 'melk', 'pasta', 'huismerk'). Leave empty to scrape a sample of products from the catalog.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of products to return.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Language for product names and descriptions.

## `placeId` (type: `integer`):

Colruyt store ID used to resolve store-specific prices. The default (871) works for most use cases. Prices can vary slightly per store.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Proxy settings. Belgian residential proxies are strongly recommended — Colruyt blocks datacenter IPs.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQuery": "melk",
  "maxResults": 20,
  "language": "nl",
  "placeId": 871,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "BE"
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchQuery": "melk",
    "maxResults": 20,
    "language": "nl",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ],
        "apifyProxyCountry": "BE"
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("studio-amba/colruyt-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "searchQuery": "melk",
    "maxResults": 20,
    "language": "nl",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
        "apifyProxyCountry": "BE",
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("studio-amba/colruyt-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchQuery": "melk",
  "maxResults": 20,
  "language": "nl",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "BE"
  }
}' |
apify call studio-amba/colruyt-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,studio-amba/colruyt-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/9j1nNbySchf9WnKnR/builds/3yhK8SDJ3wQ0VECH7/openapi.json