If you’re involved in eCommerce or market research, you’re likely aware that Amazon’s prices change rapidly. In fact, the retail giant makes about 2.5 million price adjustments every day, meaning every item sees price fluctuations every 10 minutes on average. For sellers, marketers, and savvy shoppers, this is both a challenge and an opportunity.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to monitor those price changes effortlessly, from simple Excel tools to more robust scraping APIs, ensuring you never miss a deal or fail to stay competitive.

Why Price Tracking Matters

Whether you’re a seller, a business owner, or just a savvy shopper, price tracking is essential. Here’s why:
For Amazon Sellers: Keep your prices in check with competitors. Adjust when necessary to maintain a competitive edge.
For eCommerce Businesses: Ensure your prices are competitive in comparison to Amazon’s dynamic offerings.
For Marketing Agencies: Study trends to craft effective strategies for clients.
For Shoppers: Be notified instantly when the price drops on products you want.

Method 1: Leverage Excel Power Query

If coding isn’t your thing but you’re familiar with Excel, Power Query is the perfect entry point. This tool allows you to pull real-time data from websites like Amazon, and it’s simpler than you might think.

Step-by-Step Setup:
Open Excel, then navigate to the Data tab.
Click Get Data > From Other Sources > From Web.
Enter the URL of the Amazon product page you want to track.
When the Navigator pane pops up, look through the available HTML tables and find the one with price info (look for details like discount, MRP, and the current price).
Click Transform Data to clean the data, removing irrelevant rows or columns.
Click Close & Load to import the data into your Excel sheet.

To update your price data later, right-click the query in the Queries & Connections pane and select Refresh.

Set Up Automatic Refresh:
Open the Queries & Connections pane from the Data tab.
Right-click your query and select Properties.
Check Refresh every, then set your preferred interval.
Optionally, check Refresh data when opening the file.
Click OK to save your settings.

You’re now set up to track prices automatically, without breaking a sweat.

Method 2: Leverage VBA

If you need more flexibility and control, VBA is your tool. With it, you can scrape Amazon prices in a more automated, customized way.

Setting Up VBA in Excel:
Enable the Developer Tab: Go to File > Options > Customize Ribbon, then check Developer.
Open the VBA Editor by pressing Alt + F11.
Insert a new module: Insert > Module.
Paste the following code (replace the URL with your product page):

Sub ScrapeAmazon()
    Dim HTML As Object, URL As String
    Dim ItemName As String, Price As String

    URL = "YOUR_AMAZON_PRODUCT_URL"

    ' Create HTTP request
    With CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")
        .Open "GET", URL, False
        .send
        Set HTML = CreateObject("HTMLFile")
        HTML.body.innerHTML = .responseText
    End With

    On Error Resume Next ' Handle missing elements gracefully

    ' Extract item title
    ItemName = HTML.getElementById("productTitle").innerText
    ItemName = Trim(ItemName)

    ' Extract price
    Price = HTML.getElementsByClassName("a-price-whole")(0).innerText
    Price = Trim(Price)

    ' Output to Excel
    Range("A1").Value = "Item Name"
    Range("B1").Value = "Price"
    Range("A2").Value = ItemName
    Range("B2").Value = Price

    On Error GoTo 0
End Sub

Run the script by pressing F5.

Automating with VBA:
For continuous monitoring, set up a recurring task to scrape Amazon at set intervals.
Paste this code into the VBA Editor to automate the refresh every 2 minutes:

Dim NextScrapeTime As Double

Sub ScrapeAmazon()
    ' Similar code as above...

    ' Schedule next run in 2 minutes
    NextScrapeTime = Now + TimeValue("00:02:00")
    Application.OnTime NextScrapeTime, "ScrapeAmazon"
End Sub

Sub StopAutoScrape()
    On Error Resume Next
    Application.OnTime NextScrapeTime, "ScrapeAmazon", , False
End Sub

Now, when you open the workbook, it will begin scraping every two minutes. Close the file or run StopAutoScrape to halt the process.

The Limitations of Data Scraping in Excel

While Excel is a great starting point, there are a few challenges to keep in mind:
JavaScript Rendering: Amazon often loads prices with JavaScript, which Excel can’t process. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Anti-Bot Protection: Amazon’s defenses against scraping are serious. Too many requests can lead to blocks.
Dynamic HTML Structure: Amazon frequently updates its HTML structure, meaning your selectors could break at any time.
IP Blocking: Frequent requests from the same IP address can trigger CAPTCHAs or blocks.

If you're serious about monitoring prices reliably, you'll need something more robust.

Alternative Solutions for Price Tracking

Specialized Price Tracking Tools
Keepa: Offers historical charts and price tracking alerts.
CamelCamelCamel: Free and functional, but less intuitive.
Honey: Great for finding discounts, but lacks advanced features for heavy users.

These tools are useful for occasional tracking but may not be scalable for businesses or data-driven analysis.

Using Python for Custom Solutions
For developers, Python is a powerful tool for web scraping. Libraries like BeautifulSoup, Selenium, and Playwright can help you scrape Amazon without hitting the same limitations as Excel.
For large-scale tracking, you’ll need to incorporate rotating proxies and follow best practices for scraping Amazon at scale.

Google Sheets
Prefer Google Sheets over Excel? You can set up a similar price tracker there too. Check out a detailed guide on Amazon price scraping with Google Sheets for more info.

Wrapping Up

We've explored several ways to track Amazon prices, from using basic Excel tools to more complex scraping techniques. If you're looking for a no-hassle, scalable solution, Scraping API is the clear winner as it handles all the technical challenges and lets you focus on making smarter business decisions.