How do I start a Live search scan?
The Scan tab always starts a new scan. Pick one of the two cards at the top, Use our store library or Add category links. The bar above them shows your step, for example Step 2/3.
Use our store library
- Find the store with Search stores, or browse the tabs: All, Big stores, Brand shops, Recent and Favorites. The star next to a store keeps it in Favorites, in this browser.
- Tick the categories you want. The number in brackets next to a category is how many categories sit under it, or how many products a shelf holds. You can search the store's categories, or press Select all.
- Press Add categories.
- Set your filters under Apply filters to your scan (the filters).
- Check the summary on the right, then press Start scan.
The first time, reading a store's categories can take up to a minute.
Up to 500 categories
One scan takes up to 500 categories. A department counts every category under it, and the summary shows the total, for example Categories 120/500.
You can tick more than 500. The scan then keeps the first 500, in the order you ticked them, and a note above your list names the ones left out, so you can scan those next.
Add category links
- Paste links from one store, one a line, up to 50. Upload a file reads them from a .txt or .csv file.
- Press Start scan.
The store is found from your links, and a scan reads one store, so paste links from a single store. A links scan starts with no filters, and every product found on Amazon comes back. You can add filters later on the scan's page (following a scan).
If a link is from a store we don't read yet, a form under the box lets you ask us to add it (asking for a store).
The summary
| Line | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Scan name | A name of your own. Without one, the scan is named after the store. |
| Store | The store you chose. |
| Scan size | How full the scan is: categories out of 500, or links out of 50. |
| Filters added | How many filters you set. |
| Pages to read | The most pages the scan reads. Empty means all of them, or the store's default when the store has a limit. |
Some stores have a limit of pages a day. They're tagged Limited in the store list, and the line under the summary gives the limit when you choose one. The other stores have no page limit.
Load a past scan fills in the page from one of your recent scans: its store, categories and filters, or its links. Clear filters and Clear categories empty the page again.
One scan at a time
Your scans are read one at a time. A scan you start while another one is being read shows Queued, and it starts by itself when the other one is done.
When a scan asks to read a store
For some stores, the scan's page asks you to Allow Plug Seller to read that store, once per store. Press Allow, then confirm when Chrome asks. Plug Seller only reads the store's public product pages. It never signs in for you, buys anything or touches your cart.