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    <title>DEV Community: Shan Yun</title>
    <description>The latest articles on DEV Community by Shan Yun (@shan_yun_ab0c7ad30b46ad2d).</description>
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      <title>DEV Community: Shan Yun</title>
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      <title>Shopify's Open Secret: Every Store Exposes /products.json</title>
      <dc:creator>Shan Yun</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Aug 2026 23:44:57 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/shan_yun_ab0c7ad30b46ad2d/shopifys-open-secret-every-store-exposes-productsjson-30ni</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/shan_yun_ab0c7ad30b46ad2d/shopifys-open-secret-every-store-exposes-productsjson-30ni</guid>
      <description>&lt;h1&gt;
  
  
  Shopify's Open Secret: Every Store Exposes /products.json
&lt;/h1&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Build in public: how I turned a 10-line trick into a working Shopify scraper — no login, no CAPTCHA, no anti-bot.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;




&lt;p&gt;If you've ever tried scraping an e-commerce site, you know the drill: Cloudflare walls, CAPTCHAs, session tokens, cat-and-mouse games with anti-bot teams.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Then I discovered that &lt;strong&gt;most Shopify stores hand you their entire product catalog on a silver platter.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The trick
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Every Shopify store has a public JSON endpoint:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight plaintext"&gt;&lt;code&gt;https://STORE.com/products.json?limit=250&amp;amp;page=1
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;p&gt;No auth. No CAPTCHA. Just clean JSON — title, price, variants, SKUs, inventory, tags. For the store, it's the API behind their own product pages. For us, it's a gift.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The whole scraper in 10 lines
&lt;/h2&gt;



&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight python"&gt;&lt;code&gt;&lt;span class="kn"&gt;import&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;requests&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;def&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nf"&gt;get_products&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;store_url&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;max_pages&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="mi"&gt;4&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;):&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="n"&gt;base&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;store_url&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;rstrip&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="sh"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;/&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="sh"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;+&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="sh"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;/products.json&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="sh"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="n"&gt;products&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;[]&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="k"&gt;for&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;page&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="ow"&gt;in&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nf"&gt;range&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="mi"&gt;1&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;max_pages&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;+&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="mi"&gt;1&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;):&lt;/span&gt;
        &lt;span class="n"&gt;data&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;requests&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;get&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="sa"&gt;f&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="sh"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="si"&gt;{&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;base&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="si"&gt;}&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;?limit=250&amp;amp;page=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="si"&gt;{&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;page&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="si"&gt;}&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="sh"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;timeout&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="mi"&gt;20&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;json&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;()&lt;/span&gt;
        &lt;span class="n"&gt;items&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;data&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;get&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="sh"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;products&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="sh"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;[])&lt;/span&gt;
        &lt;span class="k"&gt;if&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="ow"&gt;not&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;
            &lt;span class="k"&gt;break&lt;/span&gt;
        &lt;span class="n"&gt;products&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;extend&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="k"&gt;return&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;products&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;p&gt;That's it. Paginate until empty, and you have a store's full catalog.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Real result: kith.com
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I ran it against a real store while writing this. &lt;strong&gt;One page, 250 products, 215 variants in the response&lt;/strong&gt; — including this:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight json"&gt;&lt;code&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;{&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nl"&gt;"title"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s2"&gt;"Nike WMNS Moon Shoe - Sail / Chlorophyll"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nl"&gt;"price"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="mf"&gt;105.0&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nl"&gt;"sku"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s2"&gt;"14318102"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nl"&gt;"inventory"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="kc"&gt;null&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nl"&gt;"available"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="kc"&gt;false&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nl"&gt;"tags"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s2"&gt;"sneaker, nike, footwear, ..."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;}&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="w"&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;p&gt;Every variant has its own SKU, price, and compare-at price. That's competitor intelligence data — prices, stock, product launches — sitting behind a single GET request.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Try it yourself (30 seconds)
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Don't take my word for it — run this and see the live response:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight shell"&gt;&lt;code&gt;curl &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-s&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s2"&gt;"https://kith.com/products.json?limit=5&amp;amp;page=1"&lt;/span&gt; | &lt;span class="nb"&gt;head&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-c&lt;/span&gt; 2000
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;p&gt;If you get JSON back, the store is scrapeable the easy way. (Not all stores leave it open — test before you commit to a project.)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  What's it good for?
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Competitor monitoring&lt;/strong&gt; — track when a rival changes prices or restocks&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Dropshipping / product research&lt;/strong&gt; — find what's trending across stores&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Catalog snapshots&lt;/strong&gt; — for analytics, dashboards, or AI training data&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The honest limits
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Only works on &lt;strong&gt;Shopify stores&lt;/strong&gt; (non-Shopify sites return nothing — check &lt;code&gt;https://store.com/products.json&lt;/code&gt; first)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Some big stores disable it or rate-limit aggressively (usually the ones with the most aggressive bot protection)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Inventory data is sometimes null — the store decides what to expose&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The polished version
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Full disclosure: I built this and I maintain it — it's the tool I use for my own competitor monitoring.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want this packaged and ready-to-run, I published it as a free-to-try &lt;a href="https://apify.com/classical_furnace_ph3/shopify-store-snapshot-scraper" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Apify actor&lt;/a&gt; — handles pagination, normalization, and exports clean CSV/JSON/Excel. No Docker setup, no proxy management, runs on demand. Otherwise the 10 lines above are all you need.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you're doing competitor research or building a price tracker, try the endpoint first — you might not need a battle against anti-bot at all.&lt;/p&gt;




&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Have you found other public endpoints like this? Drop them in the comments — the good ones deserve a thread.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>webscraping</category>
      <category>python</category>
      <category>ecommerce</category>
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