Is Clay Suitable for Finding Contacts of Small Local Shops in the Italian Market?

·May 11, 2026 06:37 AM·

Hi! Today I'm plucking up the courage to make a request, but first, a brief introduction. I've only been learning Clay for a couple of months. I'm really new to it, especially since I'm only using the free plan, and only in my spare time after my 48-hour work week do I frankly struggle with complex tasks. Sorry about that ;-) Question: is Clay the right tool for finding contacts for small businesses like small local shops? I'm interested in the Italian market and I'm concerned that Clay doesn't have enough contacts for this type of target audience in Italy. I haven't been able to test how it works with Maps because it seems to be a feature reserved for paid subscriptions, not the free plan. Can anyone help me with some suggestions on this topic? Thanks and have a good start to the week. Michele

12 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Muhannad A.
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Hi Michele, The clay maps is available in the free tier as well. You should be able to pull data from maps for local businesses (whatever data is available online)
1
Michele V.
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Hi Muhannad A. well I thought I check it few weeks ago ... ok I will take a look again. My dubt is mainly about "Italy", sometimes US apps are not so accurate for EU countries purpose. But ok, thank you, have a nice day 😉
Muhannad A.
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Well, I could run a small test sequence but I'm not sure what you're looking for. Also yes I do agree considering the technological dynamic can be different within Europe itself.
1
Michele V.
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Okay, it seems like I'm talking nonsense, but actually, a few weeks ago, I found very few results. Now I've tried again, and for example, by searching for tobacco shops, I find a lot, which seems very reliable. I'll do some more tests.
👍1
Jarek O.
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(edited)·
Michele V. I have similar challenges for Polish market. I use different approaches , Google Maps integration being one of them, but I encourage you to find other sources. For example, I recently used local business directory to find pet grooming services in metro area. What it takes is this: a bit of ai to understand how the directory is structured (outside Clay), Zenrows integration to scrape certain info from the directory and make sense of it. For me, what worked well was a three - tier workflow. Top level - paginate the Main directory page. Mid - for each subpage , get links to individual business description Bottom - get info on individual businesses. When you weave a bit of ai into it, you may get way richer data this way. Use „send to table” integration to send each table element separately to next tier and connect the tiers. Btw this is darn cheap, one zenrows run is just 0.1 cr
1
Michele V.
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(edited)·
Hi Jarek O. thank you so much for your advice. I had a feeling that using Clay wasn't enough, even though the results I tested yesterday weren't bad at all. But your approach seems much more refined. What's not clear to me is what you mean when you say "paginate the Main directory page." In my experience, scrappers have trouble retrieving pages from the directories that collect addresses and paginate the results. I think you're referring to this problem, but it's not clear to me how you solve it. In any case, thanks and have a good day!! Michele
Jarek O.
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(edited)·
Michele V. im referring to how local business directories render results; typically there’ll be multiple pages. So step 1 is to figure out how to get page 1, page 2, .. etc. And what's the last page. Once you get this right , use ai to build a json table. With urls to these pages. The send every url to a new table Then scrape each page, build a table of urls to each business individually. Send Each URL to table 3. Scrape the resulting page. This is not bulletproof it will work for simple directories. The critical element is understanding the selectors to look for. We can hop on a quick call next wk if you have a directory to scrape. J. Btw it's Jarek Orenowicz not „Ostrowski” :)
Michele V.
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Oh sorry I messed up with names, apologies for that! Well, your approach seems to me very interesting! If you are available to have a call for me it's perfect!! So, I'm looking forward for that! Thanks Michele
Jarek O.
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Sure we can chat. I'll reach out next wk / vacationing now.
🌴1
Arpit C.
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Jarek O. please don't send threaded responses to the channel. Thanks!
1
Jarek O.
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Ah ok. Will keep this in mind. Thanks for heads-up.
Arpit C.
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Thanks!

Muhannad A.
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Hi Michele, The clay maps is available in the free tier as well. You should be able to pull data from maps for local businesses (whatever data is available online)
1
Michele V.
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·
Hi Muhannad A. well I thought I check it few weeks ago ... ok I will take a look again. My dubt is mainly about "Italy", sometimes US apps are not so accurate for EU countries purpose. But ok, thank you, have a nice day 😉
Muhannad A.
·
·
Well, I could run a small test sequence but I'm not sure what you're looking for. Also yes I do agree considering the technological dynamic can be different within Europe itself.
1
Michele V.
·
·
Okay, it seems like I'm talking nonsense, but actually, a few weeks ago, I found very few results. Now I've tried again, and for example, by searching for tobacco shops, I find a lot, which seems very reliable. I'll do some more tests.
👍1
Jarek O.
·
(edited)·
Michele V. I have similar challenges for Polish market. I use different approaches , Google Maps integration being one of them, but I encourage you to find other sources. For example, I recently used local business directory to find pet grooming services in metro area. What it takes is this: a bit of ai to understand how the directory is structured (outside Clay), Zenrows integration to scrape certain info from the directory and make sense of it. For me, what worked well was a three - tier workflow. Top level - paginate the Main directory page. Mid - for each subpage , get links to individual business description Bottom - get info on individual businesses. When you weave a bit of ai into it, you may get way richer data this way. Use „send to table” integration to send each table element separately to next tier and connect the tiers. Btw this is darn cheap, one zenrows run is just 0.1 cr
1
Michele V.
·
(edited)·
Hi Jarek O. thank you so much for your advice. I had a feeling that using Clay wasn't enough, even though the results I tested yesterday weren't bad at all. But your approach seems much more refined. What's not clear to me is what you mean when you say "paginate the Main directory page." In my experience, scrappers have trouble retrieving pages from the directories that collect addresses and paginate the results. I think you're referring to this problem, but it's not clear to me how you solve it. In any case, thanks and have a good day!! Michele
Jarek O.
·
(edited)·
Michele V. im referring to how local business directories render results; typically there’ll be multiple pages. So step 1 is to figure out how to get page 1, page 2, .. etc. And what's the last page. Once you get this right , use ai to build a json table. With urls to these pages. The send every url to a new table Then scrape each page, build a table of urls to each business individually. Send Each URL to table 3. Scrape the resulting page. This is not bulletproof it will work for simple directories. The critical element is understanding the selectors to look for. We can hop on a quick call next wk if you have a directory to scrape. J. Btw it's Jarek Orenowicz not „Ostrowski” :)
Michele V.
·
·
Oh sorry I messed up with names, apologies for that! Well, your approach seems to me very interesting! If you are available to have a call for me it's perfect!! So, I'm looking forward for that! Thanks Michele
Jarek O.
·
·
Sure we can chat. I'll reach out next wk / vacationing now.
🌴1
Arpit C.
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·
Jarek O. please don't send threaded responses to the channel. Thanks!
1
Jarek O.
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·
Ah ok. Will keep this in mind. Thanks for heads-up.
Arpit C.
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·
Thanks!