Fetch Modes
Every Collection has a fetch_mode that controls how much data the scraper retrieves per item.
Pick the mode that matches what your pipeline actually needs — the credit cost is identical either way.
The two modes
| Mode | What you get | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| `full` | Complete product data — title, description, images, ratings, seller info, price, stock status, buy-box availability, and more. | First-time catalogue ingestion, content enrichment, building a product database. |
| `availability_only` | Stock status and current price only — a lightweight payload focused on in-stock / out-of-stock and the current buy-box price. | High-frequency price monitoring, repricing engines, stock-alert systems. |
When to choose full
Use full when you need rich product information alongside availability data — for example, when
building or refreshing your product catalogue, comparing product details across marketplaces, or
populating a database for the first time. The scraper fetches the complete product page, so you
get every structured field in one pass.
When to choose availability_only
Use availability_only when you already have product metadata and only need to know whether an
item is in stock and at what price. Because the scraper skips non-availability fields, runs
complete faster and return smaller result files — useful when you're running large collections
on tight schedules.
Same credit cost for both modes
Both full and availability_only consume 1 credit per item. Choose based on your data
needs, not cost.
Setting the fetch mode
Pass fetch_mode when creating or updating a Collection.
# Create a collection in availability_only mode
curl https://multicartapi.com/api/v1/schedules/add_schedule/ \
-X POST \
-H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"name": "AU Price Monitor",
"request_type": "amazon",
"schedule": "Daily",
"priority": "Normal",
"notification_email": "[email protected]",
"fetch_mode": "availability_only"
}'You can also change the mode on an existing Collection at any time via
POST /api/v1/schedules/update_schedule/ with { "schedule_id": 101, "fetch_mode": "full" }.
The new mode takes effect on the next run.