How to Build Walmart Price Tracker With Python

Follow this guide to learn how to track prices and availability of your desired Walmart products, and how to set up email alerts with the latest product and price change data.

See the full blog post for comprehensive explanations about each step.

• 1. Install libraries
• 2. Import libraries
• 3. Inspect elements to prepare XPaths
  • Title
  • Price
  • Product link
• 4. Fetch Walmart category data
  • Set API credentials
  • Prepare parsing instructions
  • Prepare payload
  • Send a POST request
• 5. Track Walmart price history
  • Load history data
  • Track Walmart price changes and new products
  • Save history data
• 6. Create a price alert
  • Configuration
  • Compose email
  • Send email
• 7. Full source code

1. Install libraries

pip install requests

Next, you’ll have to create an Oxylabs account to get the necessary credentials for the Walmart Scraper API. Register on the Oxylabs dashboard and claim a 1-week free trial.

2. Import libraries

import json
import smtplib
from email.message import EmailMessage
from pprint import pprint
import requests

3. Inspect elements to prepare XPaths

Title

//div[@role='group']//span[@data-automation-id='product-title']

Price

//div[@role='group']//div[@data-automation-id='product-price']//span[@class='w_iUH7'][1]

Product link

//div[@role='group']//a/@href

4. Fetch Walmart category data

Set API credentials

username, password = "USERNAME", "PASSWORD"

Replace PASSWORD and USERNAME with your API credentials.

Prepare parsing instructions

parsing_instructions = {
   "titles": {
       "_fns": [
           {
               "_fn": "xpath",
               "_args": [
                   "//div[@role='group']//span[@data-automation-id='product-title']/text()"
               ],
           }
       ]
   },
   "links": {
       "_fns": [
           {
               "_fn": "xpath",
               "_args": ["//div[@role='group']//a/@href"],
           }
       ]
   },
   "prices": {
       "_fns": [
           {
               "_fn": "xpath",
               "_args": [
                   "//div[@role='group']//div[@data-automation-id='product-price']//span[@class='w_iUH7'][1]/text()"
               ],
           },
           {"_fn": "amount_from_string"},
       ]
   },
}

Visit our documentation to learn more about the available functions and how to use them.

Prepare payload

url = "https://www.walmart.com/cp/electronics/3944"


payload = {
   "source": "universal",
   "url": url,
   "parse": True,
   "parsing_instructions": parsing_instructions,
}

Send a POST request

response = requests.post(
   "https://realtime.oxylabs.io/v1/queries", auth=(username, password), json=payload
)
print(response.status_code)
pprint(response.json())

5. Track Walmart price history

Load history data

history = {}


try:
   with open("walmart_data.json", "r") as f:
       history = json.load(f)
except Exception as _:
   pass

Track Walmart price changes and new products

content = response.json()["results"][0]["content"]
price_changed = []
new_products = []
for title, price, link in zip(content["titles"], content["prices"], content["links"]):
   product = {"title": title, "price": price, "link": link}
   if link not in history:
       new_products.append(product)
   elif history[link]["price"] != price:
       product["old_price"] = history[link]["price"]
       price_changed.append(product)
   history[link] = product

Save history data

with open("walmart_data.json", "w") as f:
   f.write(json.dumps(history))

6. Create a price alert

Configuration

# config
SMTP_SERVER, SMTP_PORT = "SERVER_ADDRESS", "SERVER_PORT"
email, email_password, destination_email = "from@email", "from_email_pass", "to@email"

As you can guess, you’ll have to replace these configs with appropriate data. For example, if you are using a Gmail account for sending email, you’ll have to set the SERVER_ADDRESS as smtp.gmail.com and SERVER_PORT must be set to 587. from@email and from_email_pass should be set as per your sender email. Last but not least, to@email will be replaced with the receiver of the email notification.

To generate an app password for Gmail, you can do the following:

• Go to your Google account
• Select Security
• Select 2-Step Verification under "Signing in to Google"
• Select App passwords at the bottom of the page
• Enter a name to help you remember where you'll use the app password
• Select Generate
• Copy and save the generated password

For more details, check out Google's support documentation.

Compose email

body = f"""Price Changed:
{json.dumps(price_changed, indent=2)}
New products:
{json.dumps(new_products, indent=2)}
"""
msg = EmailMessage()
msg.set_content(body)
msg["subject"] = "Walmart Price Tracking alert"
msg["to"] = destination_email
msg["from"] = email

Send email

server = smtplib.SMTP(SMTP_SERVER, SMTP_PORT)
server.starttls()
server.login(email, email_password)
server.send_message(msg)
server.quit()

7. Full source code

import json
import smtplib
from email.message import EmailMessage
from pprint import pprint
import requests


username, password = "USERNAME", "PASSWORD"

history = {}


try:
   with open("walmart_data.json", "r") as f:
       history = json.load(f)
except Exception as _:
   pass

url = "https://www.walmart.com/cp/electronics/3944"

parsing_instructions = {
   "titles": {
       "_fns": [
           {
               "_fn": "xpath",
               "_args": [
                   "//div[@role='group']//span[@data-automation-id='product-title']/text()"
               ],
           }
       ]
   },
   "links": {
       "_fns": [
           {
               "_fn": "xpath",
               "_args": ["//div[@role='group']//a/@href"],
           }
       ]
   },
   "prices": {
       "_fns": [
           {
               "_fn": "xpath",
               "_args": [
                   "//div[@role='group']//div[@data-automation-id='product-price']//span[@class='w_iUH7'][1]/text()"
               ],
           },
           {"_fn": "amount_from_string"},
       ]
   },
}

payload = {
   "source": "universal",
   "url": url,
   "parse": True,
   "parsing_instructions": parsing_instructions,
}

response = requests.post(
   "https://realtime.oxylabs.io/v1/queries", auth=(username, password), json=payload
)

print(response.status_code)
pprint(response.json())
content = response.json()["results"][0]["content"]
price_changed = []
new_products = []
for title, price, link in zip(content["titles"], content["prices"], content["links"]):
   product = {"title": title, "price": price, "link": link}
   if link not in history:
       new_products.append(product)
   elif history[link]["price"] != price:
       product["old_price"] = history[link]["price"]
       price_changed.append(product)
   history[link] = product
   print(product)
with open("walmart_data.json", "w") as f:
   f.write(json.dumps(history))
# Send email alert
SMTP_SERVER, SMTP_PORT = "SERVER_ADDRESS", "SERVER_PORT"
email, email_password, destination_email = "from@email", "from_email_pass", "to@email"
body = f"""Price Changed:
{json.dumps(price_changed, indent=2)}
New products:
{json.dumps(new_products, indent=2)}
"""
msg = EmailMessage()
msg.set_content(body)
msg["subject"] = "Walmart Price Tracking alert"
msg["to"] = destination_email
msg["from"] = email
server = smtplib.SMTP(SMTP_SERVER, SMTP_PORT)
server.starttls()
server.login(email, email_password)
server.send_message(msg)
server.quit()