Build a Price Monitoring Bot in Python — 10 Lines of Code

Name: ShelfRun
Author: ShelfRun

March 4, 2026 · 4 min read

Want to track when a competitor drops their prices? Here's a complete price monitoring bot in 10 lines of Python.

The Complete Bot

import requests, json

API_KEY = "sr_live_your_key"
STORE = "competitor-store.com"
THRESHOLD = 50.00  # Alert if any product drops below $50

products = requests.post(
    "https://api.shelfrun.com/v1/quickscan",
    headers={"X-API-Key": API_KEY},
    json={"url": STORE}
).json()["products"]

drops = [p for p in products if p["price"] < THRESHOLD]
for p in drops:
    print(f"🔥 PRICE DROP: {p['name']} now " + str(p['price']))

Making It Run Automatically

Add a cron job to check every hour:

0 * * * * python3 /path/to/price_monitor.py

Or Use ShelfRun's Built-in Alerts

Even easier: set up alert rules directly in ShelfRun. No code needed:

Add your competitor's store to ShelfRun
Set sync frequency to daily
Create an alert rule: “Notify when any price drops by more than 10%”
Add a webhook URL to receive notifications

Webhook Payload

When a price drop is detected, ShelfRun sends a webhook:

{
  "event": "alert_triggered",
  "rule_type": "price_drop_pct",
  "product": "Nike Air Max 90",
  "old_price": 120.00,
  "new_price": 89.99,
  "change_pct": -25.0
}

Connect to Slack

Pipe the webhook to Slack using n8n or Zapier for instant team notifications. See our integration templates for step-by-step guides.