Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Using Web Scraping Services to Stay Ahead of the Game

Companies that manage to stay popular and make more money online are the ones taking advantage of any new technologies being introduced. One such innovation that has been developed to help businesses get better opportunities and expand their brand is web scraping.


A while back, analyzing and collecting data and information about your industry was a time consuming and tedious process. Traditional data collection methods were also erroneous so you couldn’t rely on the results to make sound decisions about your business.

But this is no longer the case. Web scraping services allow businesses to obtain information from multiple websites and easily study the market trends around the world. These web scraping tools can extract different types of information. From pricing data to product ranges, data mining tools can give you a lot of information you can use to develop a stronger marketing strategy.

A common misconception is that data mining is illegal. This is far from the truth because the tools used to scrape web data obtain information that is already available for the public to see on the web. For instance, most online businesses provide their pricing information and it’s being viewed by millions of users across the world. Using a software to get this information that is readily available from multiple sites doesn't make it illegal. It is just a faster and more efficient way of obtaining such data.

There are many ways in which your business can benefit from the collected information. For a start, you can perform an analysis and try to predict how the market will fair in the coming months. You can also know the kind of goods or services that are in demand and add them to your stock or provide a cheaper alternative. By analyzing the market share, you can develop a suitable pricing strategy in order to ensure your products sell.

The way you use the information collected from web scraping will determine how much your business benefits. For instance, if the data shows that most of your competitors are using low prices to attract customers, the solution may not be to lower your prices even more in order to attract customers. Doing this could affect your profit margins. You have to think beyond the price and come up with a strategy that will keep customers coming even when there are price fluctuations. Develop a unique selling point by comparing what other businesses offer and go a step further to provide an even better service.

Web scraping is usually done by experts who not only collect the data in a fast and effective manner, but also record and present it in a way that allows you to analyze the information quicker. If you are in the verge of losing profits then hiring data mining experts can be your best bet. There could be certain trends in the market that you are probably not aware of. Through web scraping, you are made aware of any market changes that could affect your profits.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Competitor Price Monitoring for Ecommerce Success

One of the most important factors which can make or break an eCommerce business is price. Set the wrong price and the product or service on offer will perform terribly in the market. Take time to research on the best possible price and you will witness significant success online. That’s why systems like competitor price monitoring are important in online retailing.

A lot of online retailers don’t even know the amount of sales they are missing out on by using the wrong pricing structure. Many research studies have indicated that consumers are making buying decisions online based on price. You’ll need to use web scraping to know if your products are priced higher or lower. You need to understand what a difference in your product pricing can do to win sales. For instance, some
businesses have used competitor price tracking to identify the amount of adjustments that can make significance in sales. A one percent difference in pricing may not yield any difference in terms of sales like a 10 percent increase or decrease.

By monitoring competitor prices, you can trigger precise adjustments in your own prices in order to increase sales. As an eCommerce business, you can’t focus on a single competitor. You need to look at many competitors across the board so that you can understand what the real market looks like. Most of these competitors are also using custom web scraping to look into your prices just as you are. You may have to follow certain major competitors in your industry in order to be on the right track when it comes to product pricing.

Competitor price monitoring is important even if you already have an effective pricing strategy. When you are developing your eCommerce site, you need to ensure your business strategy is based on a proper pricing model. Thus, pricing goes hand in hand with an effective business strategy. One cannot do without the other. If you are going up against giant leaders in your industry, you need to know what everyone else is doing and then come up with a different model that is better than what is already being implemented.

After competitor price tracking you may have to lower your product prices in order to attract new buyers. Giving your products low prices doesn't instantly translate to a low value. Remember that consumers are using factors such as pricing, brand and credibility in order to make a buying decision. However, price is one of the top factors that make consumers decide on whether they’ll consider your product. If you don’t offer the low prices that retail giants are giving online, your products will not sell.

The bottom line is eCommerce businesses which don’t take time to monitor competitor prices and use proper pricing will find it increasingly difficult to sell online. Web scraping makes the difference between selling and getting an opportunity to present your products to new consumers every day. The good thing is that, it’s never late to consider custom web scraping. It’s a process that takes just a few seconds and will ultimately help you to stay ahead of your competitors.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Why Competitor Price monitoring is Vital in Ecommerce

Do you understand your product’s market position? The eCommerce industry is very competitive and without proper understanding of the competition, your online business is likely to experience serious challenges. Competitor price monitoring gathers all the data you need about your competition. The information is collected in a centralized store and then it is prepared in form of a report that enables you to make critical business decisions that affect your bottom line. This data can be used to create an effective pricing system and to adjust your existing management systems.

Using this data, you can take notice of price movements that may affect how your product or service performs online. Research has shown that many consumers will buy products online based on their prices.
For this reason, price is a major determinant on how your brand will perform online. If you sell your products really expensive, people will prefer cheaper online retailers. If your products are too cheap, some buyers will assume the quality is really low. This is why data scraping is important. It helps you strike a balance and provide quality products at reasonable rates while being aware of what your competition is doing.

There are several ways your eCommerce business can benefit from competitor price monitoring. For starters, it allows you to view the number of products and ranges that your competition has to offer clients. If you offer a wider product range, you can use this as a selling point to attract more customers. You can structure your marketing strategy to emphasize on the fact that you have more products and ranges compared to your competitors.

Secondly, custom web scraping can help you know when your competitors change their pricing and even keep track of the competitors who are following certain pricing strategies. The scraping system can retrieve data that will help you understand your competitor’s pricing decisions so that you can come up with a pricing strategy that will contribute to your business success.

Every business that is selling products or services through the Internet can take advantage of web scraping to monitor competitor prices. This system gives business owners a better understanding of the market and how to tailor their own brand to best fulfill the needs of their target customers. Most companies that offer web scraping services are even able to tailor this solution to meet your specific needs. They utilize cloud computing systems which can handle any size of eCommerce business. Even multi sites with multiple languages can benefit from competitor price monitoring. The computer programs are able to collect data from sites with millions of products.

Competitor price tracking is a cheap, reliable and quick method of obtaining competitor data. Before these systems were introduced in the market, many businesses spent time and resources extracting competitor data manually. Furthermore, traditional means of obtaining competitor data could not work when your competition has millions of product pages. CPM can extract this data and provide a detailed report within a couple of days.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

The Use of Competitor Price monitoring in Ecommerce

The dynamic nature of online business makes it crucial for business owners to be constantly in touch with changes in their niche. Data scraping makes this possible especially on the one important front for businesses, pricing. Online shoppers are always looking for a better deal. Given the availability of many price comparison resources online, they will always go for a deal allowing them to save. Thus with proper pricing you can position yourself as the best deal. Web scraping affords a shopping business online with many advantages top of which is competitor price monitoring.

The information obtained from tracking the pricing strategies of competing sites can be used in a number of ways. First, you are able to know what the most attractive deals to clients are. At times it is not just the cheapest deals that are sought, but the value the customer receives for any cent spent. Thus eCommerce sites are able to know how to sell their services and products. This is useful especially when seeking to stand out from the rest of the competition. Competitor price tracking also enables you to identify the competing advantage you have or lack vis-a-vis your competitors. Therefore changes on pricing strategies are made from an informed position.

You need to know the general behavior of targeted clients online. This includes products they purchase mostly, discounts which are attractive, the content they mostly read, what influences them, time spent searching online etc. With efficient web scraping you can achieve this. However, only data relevant to your niche or market can be useful. As such a business needs to use custom web scraping. This enables you to get data that is tailored to the needs of your business. This is basically information regarding your target market and competitors.

You can also use data scraping to identify existing opportunities in the market. Since you are collecting information regularly, you are able to build a database which enables you to know what clients are seeking
and is not being offered. This makes it possible to target your business growth in areas offering more potential. In connection to this, custom web tracking also prevents you from being left behind by competitors. You are in a position to notice trends and other changes early. An effective competitor price monitoring system will help you know which products are in high demand and the general price in the market. You also know the offers that are working and act accordingly.

Generally, custom web scraping enables a business make informed decisions. You get structured data customized to your business needs. However, there are other advantages of considering the system such as accuracy of data, reliability, wide coverage, it is fast and can be updated daily. You will need to get professional services for this. Get an experienced company that is able to give you customized services and quick reporting. Competitor price monitoring guarantees ROI and is a necessity for any online business.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Is There a Need for Competitor Price Monitoring?

Many businesses have benefited from competitor price monitoring. They use this to understand not only their competitor’s pricing structure but also their product range and any special offers. This information can actually help a business to gain a competitive edge. If you know what other businesses are doing and what is not working for them, you can use a price tracker to prevent costly mistakes that can turn out to be disastrous.

Web scraping is a method of analyzing competitors using software programs that obtain data very quickly and accurately. With these computer programs, you don’t have to obtain pricing data from retailers manually and this saves you a lot of time and ensures accuracy. Data scraping allows businesses to understand their customer behaviors and why competitors are making certain price movements.

When you price your products higher, similar products may be offered by your competitors at a lower price and you would not be getting good business from your target market. If you consider a very low price, your profit margins will suffer because consumers will seek your product or services based on the low price. You need to look for a pricing structure that will help you build a loyal customer base. This does not mean you have to settle for the lowest price. Competitor price tracking allows you to understand consumer behavior and create a pricing strategy that works for them.

The information that you obtain from using a price tracker must be accurate. This is why the process must be done right. If the data you obtain is faulty, you cannot use it to make any critical pricing decisions. With data scraping, the information obtained is accurate so it is easy to use it to make very important decisions that will affect your bottom line.

There are companies that offer custom web scraping services. What they basically do is to start by understanding the kind of information that you want to obtain regarding your customers. For instance, if you want to obtain data about their pricing alone, they will customize this for you. If you would also like to know the product range of your competition, the company will also offer this information. Tracking competitor prices will gather all the information you need regarding your competition in a safe and effective manner.

Whether you are a new business trying to create a pricing strategy or an established brand that wants to strategist the pricing plan, you can take advantage of competitor price monitoring to get accurate information that will help you to make informed decisions. Price tracking does not have to take a lot time and it can be done by a third party that will guarantee accuracy and effectiveness throughout the process. This will also help you reduce the expenses.

In summary, competitor price tracking is important if you would like to make wise decisions about your product that will help you to expand your market. Take advantage of this process to increase your profit margins.

Friday, May 23, 2014

How to Use a Price Tracker to Save a Fortune

Successful retailers take advantage of every technology available to help them improve their product pricing. When proper pricing structures are applied, retailers are able to experience a significant reduction in inventory loss and an improvement in profit margins. One of the ways to develop a suitable pricing structure is by using a price tracker. With this tool, a business can plan the best strategies that will outperform their competition.

Competitor price monitoring is important today because buyers’ behavior has changed tremendously over
the years. A long time ago, a buyer would make a purchase after making minimal, if any comparisons. However, today there are so many businesses that offer the same products as well as comparison sites which make it easy for buyers to quickly find the best price offerings. If your product is priced poorly, you are going to miss out on business because savvy buyers will not consider it. This is where competitor price tracking comes in.

Competitor price monitoring allows retailers to get a huge competitive advantage as it helps them to gain a better understanding of product pricing. The data obtained from reliable custom web scraping can be used to better understand which products are delivering the highest profit margins and take note of the ones which are not performing as well. By making such observations, you are able to come up with advanced planning solutions that will affect your bottom line.

Custom web scraping utilizes reliable computer programs that include all the data you may require regarding competitor prices. Using this data, it is easier to plan pricing that is reasonable enough to meet your target customers. You can even notice some underlying differences in pricing which you can take advantage of to attract your competitor’s clients and keep them coming back for more. The main purpose of solutions like web scraping is to enhance profitability and maximize sales.

Competitor prices can be monitored manually but this process is unreliable and time consuming. A price tracker will offer you up to date information regarding the performance of certain products. This computer software will also compare the prices on a timely basis in order to prevent your business from lagging behind in case a sudden shift in pricing occurs.

Using the data obtained from web scraping solutions, a business needs to plan meetings that analyze the sales and profits overtime in order to take note of certain market trends. For this solution to help you save money, you need to know how to use the data you receive. You can obtain very detailed reports after the analysis is done. The reports can be represented in various formats depending on what is suitable for you. As a proactive business person, it is important to invest in technologies that help to improve your bottom line.

Competitor price monitoring can help you to manage your inventory, optimize your product pricing and gain a competitive advantage. You can obtain the greatest insights regarding your products by using a reliable price tracker.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Why it pays to Use a Price Tracker to Monitor Competitor Prices


One of the toughest decisions a brand has to make whenever they release new products is identifying the right pricing. Pricing your products properly is important in any business and so is competitor price tracking. The right pricing can enhance sales. On the other hand, a poor pricing strategy can create significant problems that your brand may never be able to overcome.

There is no single formula for product pricing that suits all types of business or all markets. However, there are certain factors that remain consistent regardless of the type of product you are selling, the business and market. For instance, monitoring competitor prices is crucial because you must keep track of what your competitors are charging. You can also use a price tracker to understand the relationship that exists between quality and price.

What most businesses do nowadays is they use computer software that is designed to track prices that are offered by their competition. This process is known as web scraping. In addition to the obvious, there are many other reasons why monitoring competitor prices can make your business meet its goals in pricing products.

To begin with, a price tracker can help you to stay on top of pricing trends. The online market is evolving and price drops can occur when you least expect them to. If you have a system in place to keep track of the price drops, it will prevent your brand from falling behind in this competitive online market. When the prices have dropped and all your target customers are rushing for the best deals, you will lose so much potential business if you fail to adjust your prices. These price adjustments need to be made often if you want to remain competitive in your industry.

Secondly, custom web scraping can also help a business to understand its customers better. It is important to explore your market and segment. Understand what your customers buy, their demographics and if they are price sensitive. You will only be able to price accordingly if you figure out the kind of segment you are targeting. If your customers are price sensitive it means that they will conduct a great deal of price comparing before buying any product.

Most importantly, competitor price tracking when done using software is a time saving and reliable approach. The software tracks trends in sales and pricing over time so that your business doesn't lag behind in the industry. It also allows you to focus on your core business which is being a success rather than wasting time tracking competitor prices manually.

The data you obtain from web scraping needs to be used properly in order to help you price right. Make sure you listen to your customers by obtaining feedback about your pricing regularly. Hire a market research team that will use custom web scraping to monitor what your competitors are doing. Most importantly, have a pricing plan in place that guides you on proper product pricing so that you don’t end up diverting from your original goals completely.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

How to Determine If Data Scraping is Essential for You

Obtaining critical data is important if you want to be competitive online. However, collecting massive amounts of data on the web has never been easy. One of the most popular methods that have been used to gather essential information is data scraping. This method has made competitor price monitoring easier for many online businesses. Businesses have managed to keep track of the pricing structures used by their competition in order to remain relevant in the industry. But is web scraping right for your online business?

The first thing that will help you to determine if it is worth investing in data mining is the size of data that you want to obtain. If you want to gather a huge amount of data then this is the most cost effective approach to
Web Scraping
do so. You may want to obtain data for an online catalog with more than a thousand categories. Doing this manually will end up wasting so much time and there is a possibility of errors which compromise the whole process.

Secondly, do you require detailed content? If you do then custom web scraping is the most effective way to obtain it. If you need to obtain any data regarding not only the pricing of your competition but also the detailed specifications of their products, screen scraping technology can help you to do this accurately and effectively. Always consider the type of content that you want to obtain from this process to determine whether this is the right approach for you or not.

Thirdly, how often does the data change? There are cases whereby you need to monitor your competitor’s prices frequently because of the continuous data refreshes. You need a reliable system that will give you accurate real time data so that you do not end up relying on outdated information to structure your pricing.

What is your budget? Today, there are many companies that offer web scraping which is why the service is offered at a very reasonable rate. In fact, this is one of the most cost effective approaches to obtain accurate competitor data within a very short time. If you are a small business investing in competitor price monitoring then this is a feasible approach for you to take.

Custom web scraping can turn your business around if you make good use of the collected information. For instance, you can use the information to predict the market changes and make certain moves before your competition. You can notice market trends that will give you a competitive advantage. In fact, you can perform all the necessary market research from the collected information.

Early data collection methods were ineffective, inaccurate, costly and time consuming, but data mining companies have changed all this. There is software which scrapes web data automatically and records them in different formats. You can get the data in graphical representation or tabled data for easy analysis. Good thing is custom web scraping allows you to personalize the service to meet your unique business needs.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Is Web Page Scraping the Most Ideal Method to Learn About Your Competitors?

The importance of competitor price monitoring can never be emphasized enough. Researching on the pricing structure your competition is using online is very critical to the success of your business. But how do you go about it? There are a number of ways to get these figures. Unfortunately, most of the traditional methods are time consuming and inefficient. Let’s look at why web page scraping is the most productive, efficient and reliable method to find out more about your competitor’s prices.

How much time would you require to check your competitor’s websites manually one after the other? Web scraping utilizes a different approach. Websites nowadays have a plethora of information and this makes it difficult, if not impossible, to analyze thousands of products on a single site. Furthermore, the prices change continuously and it can be difficult to keep track if you are doing this manually.

If you are checking your competitor’s pricing manually, the information you obtain can be easily lost or
Custom Web Scraping
misplaced. This method may be inexpensive but the time and effort you will spend getting this data is not worth it. The other main challenge with checking your competitor’s prices online manually is that, you may not get information on all the sellers. Even if you do, the data will be very limited so it will not be of great help to your company.

Custom web scraping provides a much better solution to learning about your competition and their prices online. To begin with, the method is not time consuming. At just a touch of a button, you can obtain accurate and reliable data regarding your competition. An online pricing intelligence tool is used to scan thousands of pages across the web and give you data you can rely on to drive your bottom-line.

In addition to that, data scraping that is done using these pricing intelligence tools can offer you very detailed information. The information can be presented in different formats depending on what you prefer best. Whether you want graphs, charts or tabled data that analyses your competitor’s prices, these tools can deliver.

Custom web scraping solutions are designed to suit your specific needs. It’s never a one size but suits all kind of approach. The results that you want to obtain from your competition will determine the kind of pricing intelligence tool that will be used in the process. These computer programs will scan different websites instantly to give you real time data which applies to the current economic situation. You would not have to rely on data that is already outdated.

Before you even invest in web scraping, know the kind of information you need in order to beat your competitors. You need to figure out the kind of data you will need to analyze from your competition in order to restructure your prices. Remember that your competition is also doing the same - monitoring your price rates. You need to do it as well and take the best approach to beat the rest.

Monday, April 14, 2014

4 Rewards of Web Scraping Solutions Your Business Could Use

If you ever question the need for competitor price tracking, take a look at the number of businesses trying to sell their products online now. The e-commerce market is super competitive and a smart business person should use the right product price to make a kill. Web scraping applications have been used to monitor competitor prices for those who want to survive in this tough eCommerce market.

Below are the 4 main reasons why it is essential to track competitor prices in this current e-commerce market.

Increase Sales

Competitor price monitoring can help your business to sell more by adjusting the prices of your products
Competitor Price Monitoring
. As soon as you discover the best prices, you can increase or lower your current rate and then monitor the sales for a period of time. You may witness a steady increase in sales when you increase the prices or lower your prices. You need to identify the point where your sales peaked and stick to that price.

Enhance Profit Margins

With web scraping, you can identify out of stock products which are on the competitor’s site and increase the prices of these items competitively especially if they are on demand. You get an opportunity to attract a new clientele and still increase your profit margins. Even though you don’t have the same exact product, you can offer clients a similar item at a competitive price. Bear in mind that data scraping is meant to help you identify what your competitor is doing to be better than you. That’s why you mostly need to target the best in the business.

Adjust Your Product Catalog

Custom web scraping can give you critical details about what your competitors have in stock. If you have a large store, you cannot check all your competitor’s products manually as the site has many pages. Web scrapping provides a quick and effective solution to review your competitor’s product catalog and optimize your own inventory in order to attract a greater customer base. You will get valuable information regarding the stock items available as well as the price point in which they are offered.

Attract The Right Geographical Audience

A store can have different pricing structures across geographies and competitor price attracting allows you to gain insight on the right pricing for each location. You can charge more based on where the store is located because certain neighborhoods attract a wealthier clientele. Before coming up with pricing structure, you can benefit from web scraping the data to monitor the prices.

Look for a company that can offer you a reliable data mining solution within a short time frame. If you think you need to adjust your product price, data scraping is very important.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Is Data Scraping Useful for You?

Web Scraping
As a business, it is important to always have relevant and useful information on hand for when you might need it. It can however be difficult to acquire all this information and especially to sort it out so that you only store the important information. This is why there exists data scraping services to make this process easier for you.

Data scraping works in three processes so as to be effective. The first step will be pre-processing where a large amount of the required data is collected. The second step is the mining process whereby the data is cleaned up. Errors are corrected and the information is sorted into relevant sections at this stage. The final step is referred to as validation whereby the information is authenticated to make sure that it is indeed information your business can use successfully.

There are many reasons you should go for web scraping services. For a start, it helps you to make fast and viable decisions. This is because you have all the relevant information at your finger tips. There is little time wasted in searching for the information since this will have been classified for you to refer to. It will also be possible for you to explore various options from the information you have before settling on the best course of action.

Because the information is packaged in formats that are easy to understand, you can make strategies that are precise and easy to implement. The decision making bodies will analyze the information from various perspectives and therefore get an idea of the strategies that would be successful for your business. Web scraping services will therefore have helped you make plans on how to grow and expand your business.

Web scraping also helps you to gain a competitive edge over your business rivals. You have access to information that can help you launch strategies that will make you successful in your field. It is also important to get information about your competitors so that you know what they are doing. You can compare the strategies of both your business and those of your rivals. This way you can identify the strengths and weaknesses of both parties and then take the appropriate steps. One of the ways you can get hold of information from your rivals is through competitor price monitoring. This way you know how your rivals are pricing their products and whether there are steps you can take in order to get ahead.

While this information is very important for your business, the best way to acquire it is through outsourcing. There are various web scraping firms that can offer these services for you at affordable rates. Since no business needs are the same, you should choose the firm that can offer custom web scraping so that techniques are tailored specifically for your business.

Monday, March 31, 2014

Why You Need Custom Web Scraping Services

If you run a business, you want to be aware of what the competition is up to so that you are always ahead of the game. This necessitates you to carry out market research so that you get the relevant information which can help you to progress. However, the best and easiest way to go about this is through web scraping.

One of the most common methods businesses use to get data is employing people whose work is to manually browse the web looking for relevant information. While this process is reliable, it takes up a lot of time and it is costly. Nowadays, various data mining companies have developed effective data scraping methodologies which make this process cheaper and faster.

The way this works is that you tell the data scraping company what sort of information you need. Depending on your needs, you can get custom web scraping services so that the web crawlers can turn up information that will be relevant and useful to your business. Once the data is collected, it is converted into a form that you can analyze and thereafter act upon. You can decipher patterns and trends from this information and then formulate policies. You can also decide to store the information gathered for future use. Some of these formats include CSV files, databases and XML files among others.

There are various reasons why you might want to have web scraping services. You might want to keep an eye for any changes in regulations in your field of business and thus you may want to gather data from relevant government portals.

If for instance your business is in highly competitive industry, you might want to keep tabs on the changes that your competitors are implementing. Competitor price monitoring can help you ensure that you are not charging too high or too low for your services or products. This is especially important if you are running an eCommerce business as customers are very perceptive to any changes. This is because they will browse through various other similar sites and take a pick at the one they consider is best.

When it comes to gaining such market intelligence from your competitors, it is best that you are not noticed while doing so. This is why there are companies that can provide anonymous web scraping so that you do not leave any traces. This allows your business to gather intelligence from your competitors without them knowing.

Getting custom web scraping might turn out to be the best thing for your business. It is still a relatively new concept but one that is bound to have benefits for your company. There are many ways you can get data from anonymous web scraping and others but the most important thing is to have a plan on what to do with the data.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Identifying the Need for Competitor Price Monitoring

Competitor price monitoring can be hugely advantageous to most businesses. Understanding the competitor’s pricing, product range and special offers can give you a competitive edge. This basically means that you will have a certain advantage over your competition. If you have no idea of what others in business are doing then it can turn out to be costly and disastrous for your business.

One of the ways to get this vital information is through web scraping. Companies that offer these services basically use various software programs that can obtain accurate data very quickly. By monitoring competitor prices then you are able to avoid overpricing your products. You will identify a competitive price that will drive in more sales to your business.

Other than that, getting competitor prices will also help you to identify some of the products which you could be selling very cheaply. You can still be the cheapest amongst other similar businesses but you can increase your price range slightly to lower that margin. This will help you to keep the price low and improve your profits.

Web scraping services can also give you an idea of some of the product types that you should be selling. There could be brands or ranges that are very profitable and have a huge market but your company doesn't offer them. With these web scraping solutions, you are able to expand your product offerings and increase your profit margins.

Automating competitor price monitoring is more efficient than allocating your in-house staff to collect this critical data. There are hundreds, if not thousands of people venturing into the same industry every day. It is impossible to collect data regarding certain competitors on a daily basis since this number keeps on growing and the data is changing overtime. Automating the process ensures businesses have quick access to accurate data.

There are cases where businesses are spending a lot of money on supplies simply because they chose the wrong supplier. Monitoring competitor prices can help you to get the best deals from your suppliers. The information that you obtain can help you to negotiate and in some cases look for a more competitive supplier. If the product is supplied at a lower price range, it’s possible to reduce the cost of the product and offer your clients a more competitive price.

Every business needs web scraping services. How you handle your competition will determine whether your business will succeed in the industry. The only way you are going to possess an advantage over your competition is by knowing as much as you can about them. Know their strengths and weaknesses and use these to come up with effective strategies that will make you stand out from the pack.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Competitor Price Monitoring Can Help Hotel Websites to Beat OTAs

Competitive price monitoring is very important in the hotel and travel industry. This is because the hotel industry is a highly competitive one and proper pricing is of utmost importance. Online travel agencies and hotel websites are competing for the same market segment. They are both looking for people who want to book hotels and accommodations online. Surprisingly, people are choosing online travel agencies because they can be able to compare prices before making any bookings.

In countries like Germany, consumers will consider price more than anything when looking for any service online. That is why these online travel agencies are giving hotel websites a run for their money. So what can hotels do in order to boost their sales and make sure customers are making bookings via their sites?

One of the things that hotels have to consider is the sales messages that they place on their sites. People will not read lengthy descriptions about your services and products. Keep the sales messages and promotions short and simple.

It is also important to give previous guests an opportunity to review your business online. Reviews can help your business to increase sales and market your brand online. Your previous customers can give reviews on social media channels. These reviews will be read by your potential clients and give you better business online.

Reviews on third party sites like Trip Adviser are more trusted than the ones on your own website. Many potential customers will not believe reviews on your site because there is that assumption that companies are writing their own reviews. Allowing a trusted third party site to review your business is one of the ways to increase your brand’s authority and trust.

You must ensure that all your offerings are on online travel agencies. In fact hotels should not be competing with online travel agencies because they offer them business. What hotels need to do is to ensure that once they receive the client, they offer world class service in order to turn this client into a loyal customer. This is what helps you to get better business online.

However, online travel agencies are not for everyone. There are cases where the online travel agencies may not be suitable for your business. Have well defined goals and prioritize on the channels which you will use to advertise your brand. You can manage to do your own sales, without the use of travel agencies. However, you will need to track competitor prices in order to identify the most appealing pricing strategy for your business.

Custom scraping services can help you to evaluate the price offerings of different hotels online and then make wise decisions based on these findings. You can get custom web scraping services which are tailored to suit your unique needs. Your hotel business doesn't have to remain dormant online because of OTAs. A lot can be done to make sure you receive massive bookings through your website. Website scraping is one of the services which can help you to get proper pricing policies and make your hotel the most preferred one among thousands.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Advantages of Using Data Scraping Solutions to Monitor Competitor Prices

With so many products being offered by businesses on the Internet, customers are spoilt for choice. This is what makes the online market a very competitive one. The prices of various products and services are changed every other day. Consumers are likely to go for the product with the right pricing. As a business owner, it’s up to you to do all it takes to find the right pricing for your products and services. Data scraping solutions can help you to do just that and gain a competitive edge.

Competitor price monitoring involves examining and capturing the pricing data obtained from different retailers and using this information to get a better knowledge of the market dynamics which would help a business to decide on suitable pricing. By monitoring competitor prices, businesses can better understand certain customer behaviors and the reasons for price movements. All this information is critical for any business with an aim of maintaining a competitive edge.

Through data scraping, businesses are able to monitor the prices of similar products being offered to consumers online and decide on their pricing policies based on these findings. This process is performed using specialized software to make it fast and accurate. Web scraping applications will extract the data within a very short time. Some of these applications can even update the data at regular intervals so that you are able to monitor and analyze the price changes as they occur.

For data scraping to be of any good use for your business, it must be done right. You need to invest in web scraping solutions that offer you accurate data. If the data is faulty then retailers cannot use it to make important pricing decisions. The best web scraping solution understands how each competitor’s website works and is designed to extract data that is accurate and easy to match. Finding this kind of application shouldn’t be a problem as there are many options being offered online.

Always ensure that the web scraping services will provide complete and accurate data that matches up with what you want. The only way you can get this is by using trained technicians who have experience in online mapping solutions. Make sure the accuracy of the data you will receive after web scraping is guaranteed before seeking the services.

The best way to get accurate and valuable pricing information is by using custom scraping services. These web scraping services are personalized to meet your unique needs. You can get data in your preferred formats through custom scraping services. All you need to do is to convey your requirements to the company and all the information is delivered in an accurate and timely manner.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Website Scraping: Competitor Price Monitoring Services

Website Scraping: Competitor Price Monitoring Services: Are you in the process of identifying the most suitable pricing strategy for your business? If so, you need to invest time and resources ...

Competitor Price Monitoring Services

Competitor Price Monitoring
Are you in the process of identifying the most suitable pricing strategy for your business? If so, you need to invest time and resources on competitor price monitoring. This involves understanding your competitor’s product prices and using this information to either increase or reduce your own selling price. This knowledge can help you to come up with a pricing strategy that gives you an edge in your market.

Why is competitor price tracking important? Without having an idea of what the actual market looks like, it is impossible to offer competitive products and services. If you own a serious business, then you must look into your competitor’s prices. You are only going to make a sale if you find the right price point. You may be losing out sales to your competitors mainly because of your pricing.

Competitor price monitoring is especially crucial for eCommerce businesses. Before you even set up a business strategy, it is important to carry out a pricing analysis. Every effective business strategy is based on price. You can’t go against your competitors without knowing what they are charging and why. In case you want to come up with a very distinct pricing model, you must be able to justify this to your customers. You cannot defend your unique pricing model unless you know what other similar businesses are charging.

If your products are overpriced or under priced, your profit margins will be significantly affected. The process is done using specialized tools which compare the prizes on different web portals. You can get the prices of different retailers or manufacturers in your industry before pricing your products.

Monitoringcompetitor prices also allows you to make strategic decisions in your company. In today’s competitive e-commerce market, you cannot afford even the slightest mistake on pricing. If your products are overpriced, your profit margins will suffer tremendously. You will not be able to get the desired ROI from your business.

Monitoring competitor prices also helps you to understand your customers better. The price reports are obtained anonymously across thousands of retailers on the web. The process is not only accurate but also almost instant. You can understand what your customers want and make the right decisions based on accurate results. You can make reliable business decisions based on this information.

Automated tools are used in tracking competitor prices and this saves your organization time and resources. You don’t need to waste a lot of time doing this manually. Manual comparisons will not only affect your productivity as a business but they are prone to errors. Automated tools offer accurate results within a short time period.

Remember that, when conducting competitor price tracking, the main idea is not to identify the lowest bidder and offer the lowest price. You can cut down on the price of a few items until you establish a loyal customer base if you are still a new business. There are so many other strategies that you can come up with to give you a chance to sell your products or services in this competitive business world.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

The Merits of Professional Web Scraping Services

If you are running a business, you will need to monitor how your competitor is doing. When you monitor competitor product prices, you will then be able to set prices that put you at an advantage. Web scraping, also called web data extraction, allows you to get this information. You could do the web scraping yourself, but hiring professional web scraping services has more benefits.

Different website admins employ different techniques to slow down and stop bots. These include blocking IP addresses, disabling web service APIs that the site’s system might expose, excess traffic monitoring and commercial anti-bot services. Others are using CSS sprites for the display of phone number, email address and other information, Web application firewalls, CAPCHA, using robot.txt and using honey pot and other method to identify automated crawler IP addresses. A professional will know how to go around these measures.

A professional understands the legal issues around monitoring competitor prices using web scraping. A professional will interpret the terms of use of the website you want to mine data from and this will allow you to make an informed decision. It is important that you be discrete when monitoring competitor prices and a professional will advice you on how to go about the process incognito.

Different techniques are used in web scraping and most are very complicated. Unless you have specialized skills and experience, you will need a trained and experienced professional to monitor competitor product prices. These techniques include text grepping & regular expression matching, HTTP programming where HTTP requests are posted on remote web servers using socket programming, HTML parsers, vertical aggregation platforms, semantic annotation recognizing and DOM parsing.

There are several web scraping software programs in the market. Hiring a professional for the task is important because he/she will know the best software. These software tools need customization to get exactly what you are looking for and only a trained and experienced professional will be able to do this. Custom scraping services will ensure you get the data you want whereas automatic web scraping might give you data you do not need.

A professional knows exactly what is available in different websites and where it is found. This visualization is important when using computer vision web-page analyzers for custom scraping services.


In some situations, human copy-and-paste is the most effective web scraping technique. Hiring web scraping services in such cases is important because this is a tiring and time consuming exercise that will interfere with your business. When you hire a professional, your whole team gets to concentrate on running the business. Most companies offering custom scraping services have an online presence, giving you cost benefits, anonymity and convenience. A professional will also give you tips on other methods that you could use to get the data you need. 

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Business Intelligence Advantage By Web Scraping Data

In current business environment, trade barriers no longer exist and the logistics costs are down. Goods are manufactured at places with minimum cost of production and transported all over the world. The demand for products varies geographically and is price sensitive. In these circumstances, it is imperative to have the following information for business to grow

  • Demand for products across different geographies
  • Acceptable prices for products by consumers
  • Availability and pricing of the raw materials and components
  • Pricing and product descriptions of similar products from competitors
  • Location and size of markets of a product of different competitors


With fast pace of innovations, a product in high demand can quickly become obsolete within a couple of years or maybe in some instances, a few months. In this scenario, doing business requires having intelligence information.


We at ITSYS Solutions specialize in web scraping and provide “hosted” competitor business monitoring & intelligence solutions. Since 2006 have scraped thousands of websites providing our clients from North America and Europe with data in formats as per their requirement. Our “hosted” web scraping services will capture the data anonymously and non-intrusively. For more details on how we can help your business, please feel free to contact us with your web data extraction project requirement and our executives will revert back to you.