How to Scrape 1688 Product Listings in Node.js

A practical Node.js example showing how to scrape product listings from 1688.com (Alibaba's Chinese wholesale marketplace) using an Apify actor — no need to build a scraper from scratch.

This example calls the hosted 1688 Listings Scraper actor via the Apify API client and prints the resulting product data.

What this example does

• Connects to the Apify API using your token
• Calls the piotrv1001/1688-listings-scraper actor with a search keyword and item limit
• Waits for the run to finish
• Fetches the resulting dataset of product listings
• Prints each product to the console

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or newer
• An Apify account (free tier works)
• Your Apify API token — find it under Settings → Integrations

Installation

npm install

Environment setup

Copy the example env file and add your Apify token:

cp .env.example .env

Then edit .env:

APIFY_TOKEN=your_apify_token_here

Usage

npm start

The script will run the actor, wait for it to complete, and print each scraped product to the console along with a link to the dataset in your Apify console.

Code example

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
import 'dotenv/config';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Set APIFY_TOKEN in your .env file (copy .env.example to get started)
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN,
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "keywords": [
        "iphone case"
    ],
    "maxItems": 50,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ],
        "apifyProxyCountry": "CN"
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("piotrv1001/1688-listings-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

Example output

See sample-output.json for a full example. Each product includes:

• offerId — the unique 1688 product ID
• title — product title (in Chinese)
• priceFrom / priceTo — price range in CNY
• tierPrices — wholesale tier pricing
• minOrderQuantity — minimum order quantity (MOQ)
• soldCount, wantBuy — sales signals
• attributes — structured product attributes (material, brand, etc.)
• images — product image URLs
• services — seller-provided services (return policy, shipping guarantees)
• logistics — shipping origin, delivery time, unit weight
• sellerCompany, sellerLoginId, sellerWinportUrl — seller info and storefront link
• location — seller location
• url — original 1688 product URL
• scrapedAt — ISO timestamp

Use cases

• Product sourcing — find suppliers and wholesale prices for items you want to import
• Competitive price monitoring — track wholesale pricing trends on 1688
• Dropshipping research — discover trending products and reliable suppliers
• Market analysis — analyze categories, MOQs, and seller distribution by region
• Sourcing automation — feed structured product data into ERPs, spreadsheets, or BI tools

Try the actor on Apify

Open the 1688 Listings Scraper on Apify

Related resources

• 📖 Full guide: How to scrape 1688 product listings
• 📚 Apify JavaScript client docs

License

MIT