search-and-fetch-product

Noon Product Search & Fetch

Purpose

Given a search query, return a normalized list of matching noon.com products (sku, catalog_sku, offer_code, name, brand, prices, rating, image, product URL, stock state). Given a sku or catalog_sku, return a normalized product-detail object (title, brand, long description, images, specifications, price, seller, stock). Read-only — never calls cart/checkout/wishlist endpoints. Pure JSON in, pure JSON out.

When to Use

• A shopping/comparison agent looking up products on noon (UAE / Saudi / Egypt marketplace) by free-text query.
• A pricing pipeline that needs to dereference a noon sku to brand, price, rating, image, and seller.
• Anywhere you'd otherwise scrape noon's React-rendered HTML — the JSON API returns the same payload the React app consumes, in a fraction of the bytes and with no DOM-rendering wait.

Workflow

noon.com exposes a public, unauthenticated JSON API that is the same surface the React storefront calls. Two endpoints cover the entire skill — no scripted browser session, no cookies, no anti-bot warm-up. Both endpoints geolocate by request IP and default to UAE / English / AED (verified 2026-05-26 from a US-egress proxy). A residential proxy is not strictly required (the API also returned 200 from a bare egress IP in the same run) — recommend keeping --proxies on as a soft hedge against region-level rate limiting, but a vanilla fetch will succeed.

1. Search

GET https://www.noon.com/_vs/nc/mp-customer-catalog-api/api/v3/u/search?q={URL-encoded-query}
Accept: application/json

Returns 200 application/json. Top-level shape:

{
  "nbHits":   59296,          // total result count, what you map to `total`
  "nbPages":  50,             // page count for the default page size (50)
  "hits":     [ /* 50 hit objects */ ],
  "search":   { "originalQuery": "milk", "page": 1, "limit": 50, "sort": {...} },
  "meta":     { "title": "...", "desc": "...", "h1": "milk" },
  "canonical_url": "/search?q=milk",
  "type":     "catalog"
}

Each hit carries everything you need for the list-item shape — no per-product round trip required:

Build product_url as https://www.noon.com/uae-en/{url_slug}/{sku}/p/ (trailing slash required for canonical noon URLs — they 308-redirect to add it otherwise). Swap uae-en for saudi-en / egypt-en for those locales (see locale gotcha below).

Empty result set: the response is well-formed with nbHits: 0 and hits: [] — emit the empty-result shape, do NOT raise an error.

On non-2xx, retry once with the same URL (the API has occasional CDN-MISS slow-paths). If the retry also fails, surface the error rather than fabricating data.

2. Resolve identifier → product detail

When the caller supplies a sku, catalog_sku, or offer_code:

GET https://www.noon.com/_vs/nc/mp-customer-catalog-api/api/v1/u/{sku-or-catalog_sku}/p
Accept: application/json

• sku and catalog_sku are interchangeable on this endpoint — for the products observed, both fields hold the same value (e.g. N12278277A). Pass whichever you have.
• offer_code is NOT directly resolvable by this endpoint (/api/v1/u/{offer_code}/p → 404 {"userMessage":"Page not found"}). When the caller supplies only an offer_code, you must first locate the corresponding sku (either from a prior /search result you have cached, or by running /search?q={offer_code} as a fallback) and then call /api/v1/u/{sku}/p.
• The alternative path /api/v1/u/{url_slug}/{sku}/p also works and returns an identical payload — useful when you have a noon canonical URL and want to avoid parsing it.

Detail payload shape (relevant subset):

{
  "product": {
    "sku": "N12278277A",
    "product_title": "Long Life Milk Low Fat Plain 1Liters Pack of 4",
    "brand": "Almarai",
    "long_description": "<p>…</p>",         // HTML — strip tags for the normalized `description`
    "specifications": [                       // array of {code, name, value, value_code}
      { "code": "size", "name": "Size", "value": "1 Liters" },
      { "code": "item_pack_quantity", "name": "Pack Quantity", "value": "Pack of 4" },
      …
    ],
    "image_urls": ["https://f.nooncdn.com/…", …],
    "offer_code": "a3aec6710c3a42ae",
    "product_rating": { "value": 4.8, "count": 90 },
    "variants": [
      {
        "sku": "N12278277A",
        "offers": [
          {
            "offer_code": "…",
            "price": 24.57,                    // list / was price
            "sale_price": 17.55,               // current price
            "store_name": "noon Grocery",      // → seller
            "is_buyable": true,                // → in_stock
            "stock": 10
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Mapping rules:

• description → strip HTML tags from product.long_description; collapse whitespace; null if empty.
• images → product.image_urls (already absolute CDN URLs).
• attributes → flatten product.specifications[] into { [spec.name]: spec.value }. Preserve original names ("Size", "Pack Quantity", "Allergy Info", etc.) — they're the user-facing labels the site renders.
• price / sale_price / seller / in_stock → read from product.variants[0].offers[0] (not the top-level — those fields are absent on the detail payload). Multiple variants exist for size/color/configurable SKUs; pick the offer whose sku matches the requested identifier, else fall back to variants[0].offers[0].
• currency → "AED" for UAE (default). See locale gotcha for SAR / EGP.
• Any field absent in the payload → emit null (per the task's "normalize missing values to null" rule). Never invent.

Bad / nonexistent SKU: 404 with {"userMessage": "Page not found"} — surface as a not-found result, do not retry.

3. Compose final JSON

Always emit valid JSON only — never HTML, never wrapped prose. Empty-result and not-found shapes:

// Search, no matches
{ "source": "noon", "query": "{query}", "total": 0, "items": [] }

// Detail, unknown sku (404)
{ "source": "noon", "product": null }

Browser fallback

If the JSON API ever returns persistent 4xx (rate-limit, regional block), open the rendered page in a stealth + proxied Browserbase session and read the same JSON from the embedded __NEXT_DATA__ script tag, which carries the identical search / product payload that the API serves. URLs:

• Search: https://www.noon.com/uae-en/search/?q={query}
• Product: https://www.noon.com/uae-en/{url_slug}/{sku}/p/

Both pages 200 in the stealth session used in this skill's iter-1. The browser fallback costs ~10× the API path (JS-render wait + DOM ref enumeration) — only invoke when the JSON API is unreachable. Snapshot-and-click-through is not required: parse __NEXT_DATA__ and you get the same hits[] / product objects as the API.

Site-Specific Gotchas

• The API is fully public — no auth, no cookies, no anti-bot. Verified 2026-05-26: identical 200 JSON returned with and without --proxies on both endpoints. The Akamai cookies (ak_bmsc, bm_*) in the response are set proactively; they are not required on subsequent requests. Keep --proxies on as a soft hedge but do not block on it.
• The endpoint geolocates by request IP — there is no locale query parameter. Both endpoints default to UAE (English, AED) for unrecognized regions; a US-egress proxy returned UAE results with meta.title containing "Dubai, Abu Dhabi and all UAE". To target a specific noon market: route requests through an in-region IP (UAE / Saudi / Egypt). The URL-path prefix /uae-en/, /saudi-en/, /egypt-en/ does not work on the API surface — https://www.noon.com/uae-en/_vs/nc/mp-customer-catalog-api/api/v3/u/search/?q=milk (308-then-200) returns HTML (the rendered search page), not JSON. The locale prefix is for the user-facing storefront only.
• Currency is implicit — derive it from the country, not the response. No currency / cc / iso_currency field exists on either response. Mapping observed in iter-1: UAE → AED, Saudi Arabia → SAR, Egypt → EGP. Hard-code "AED" when defaulting to UAE; only swap if the caller explicitly targets another market AND you can confirm the egress IP / cookie was set accordingly.
• sku and catalog_sku are the same string for every product observed. Both equal "N12278277A" in the milk dataset. Treat sku as the primary identifier; carry catalog_sku through unchanged in case noon ever splits them.
• offer_code is a per-seller binding, not a product identifier. It identifies a specific seller's offer on a sku — useful for cart/buy URLs but not for the /p detail endpoint, which requires sku. /api/v1/u/{offer_code}/p returns 404 {"userMessage":"Page not found"}. When given only an offer_code, resolve to its sku via a search call before fetching detail.
• List-item price is the "was" price; sale_price is the current price. Both endpoints share this convention. When sale_price == price there's no discount; do not subtract or compute a discount field unless explicitly requested.
• product_url requires the trailing slash. https://www.noon.com/uae-en/{slug}/{sku}/p (no trailing /) 308-redirects to …/p/. Build the trailing slash directly to avoid the extra hop.
• Price / stock / seller live under product.variants[0].offers[0] on the detail payload, NOT at the top level. The top-level product.offer_code matches variants[0].offers[0].offer_code but the prices and is_buyable are nested. For configurable products (size/color variants), iterate variants[] and pick the offer whose sku matches your requested identifier.
• Description is HTML. product.long_description ships with <p>, <br />, <strong>, <li> tags — strip and collapse whitespace before emitting the normalized description string.
• No-result is nbHits: 0, hits: [] — NOT a 404. Treat as a successful empty result, not an error to retry.
• Default page size is 50. Use &page={N} (1-indexed) to paginate. nbHits / nbPages are in the response. For the documented schema (single-page-of-50), do not paginate.
• Hits also carry discount_tag_* fields (B5G10 coupons, RAK50 bank-card offers, etc.) — these are marketing overlays, not real prices. Ignore them when normalizing.

Expected Output

Search response (with matches)

{
  "source": "noon",
  "query": "milk",
  "total": 59296,
  "items": [
    {
      "id": "N12278277A",
      "sku": "N12278277A",
      "catalog_sku": "N12278277A",
      "sku_config": "N12278277A",
      "offer_code": "a3aec6710c3a42ae",
      "name": "Long Life Milk Low Fat Plain 1Liters Pack of 4",
      "brand": "Almarai",
      "price": 24.57,
      "sale_price": 17.55,
      "currency": "AED",
      "rating": 4.8,
      "review_count": 90,
      "image_url": "https://f.nooncdn.com/p/pnsku/N12278277A/45/_/1711622055/bd611911-1285-42ee-8f04-837aaa1290d1.jpg",
      "product_url": "https://www.noon.com/uae-en/long-life-milk-low-fat-plain-1liters-pack-of-4/N12278277A/p/",
      "url_slug": "long-life-milk-low-fat-plain-1liters-pack-of-4",
      "in_stock": true
    }
  ]
}

Search response (no matches)

{ "source": "noon", "query": "zzzqxqwerimpossibletoexist123", "total": 0, "items": [] }

Product detail response

{
  "source": "noon",
  "product": {
    "sku": "N12278277A",
    "catalog_sku": "N12278277A",
    "offer_code": "a3aec6710c3a42ae",
    "name": "Long Life Milk Low Fat Plain 1Liters Pack of 4",
    "brand": "Almarai",
    "description": "About Brand: Almarai is a conglomerate based in Saudi Arabia listed on the stock exchange of Tadawul. It is specialized in the production and distribution of food and beverages. …",
    "price": 24.57,
    "sale_price": 17.55,
    "currency": "AED",
    "images": [
      "https://f.nooncdn.com/p/pnsku/N12278277A/45/_/1711622055/bd611911-1285-42ee-8f04-837aaa1290d1.jpg",
      "https://f.nooncdn.com/p/v1611986341/N12278277A_2.jpg",
      "https://f.nooncdn.com/p/v1611986341/N12278277A_3.jpg",
      "https://f.nooncdn.com/p/v1628171349/N12278277A_15.jpg"
    ],
    "attributes": {
      "Size": "1 Liters",
      "Pack Quantity": "Pack of 4",
      "Diet": "Vegetarian",
      "Shelf Life": "210 day",
      "Flavour": "Plain",
      "Product Ingredients": "Fresh Cow's Milk, Vitamin D3, Vitamin a. Max 1.20% Fat, Min 8.5% Non Fat Solids, Standardized and Pasteurized. 100% Pure Fresh Cow's Milk",
      "Formation": "Liquid",
      "Allergy Info": "Artificial Flavours Free",
      "Milk Source": "Dairy",
      "Fat Content": "Low Fat"
    },
    "rating": 4.8,
    "review_count": 90,
    "seller": "noon Grocery",
    "in_stock": true
  }
}

Product detail response (sku not found)

{ "source": "noon", "product": null }