Scraping e-commerce data from US markets
Retaining a competitive edge is no easy task in the e-commerce industry. It requires knowing your competitors in and out, understanding the needs and desires of your target audience, and offering them just the products they want. You must also be thoroughly familiar with the market trends and make fact-based predictions on where those trends are headed.
Above all else, retaining a competitive edge requires data.
Unfortunately, obtaining accurate, reliable data can be difficult, especially when it comes to market data outside of your geographic region. The solution? Using advanced web scraping techniques with a bit of help from a US residential proxy tool.
The role of web scraping in e-commerce
Web scraping sounds like a complicated process, but at its core, it’s all very simple. It refers to the process of collecting data that’s freely available on the World Wide Web. Now, that can be quantitative or qualitative data of any kind – from text and numerical data to images, videos, and more.
Naturally, extracting all that information by hand would be a process that could take hours (if not days) of hard work. By the time that data is collected and analyzed, it would already become outdated.
That’s where programmable bots, known as web scrapers, come in. Designed to automate data collection, they can crawl through any URL you provide and extract any type of data you need in any format you need in record time.
In the e-commerce industry, that data usually includes:
- Product prices for price optimization;
- Customer reviews for brand reputation management;
- Competitor data for strategy analysis and competitor research;
- Market data for trend analysis and prediction;
- Product data for sentiment and trend analysis;
- Target audience data for lead generation/conversion.
With the help of web scrapers, you could have access to all this information in an instant. You wouldn’t have to worry about accuracy, as these bots eliminate the risks of human error and extract data quickly and accurately. You wouldn’t have to worry about your data being outdated, as the bots can collect new data as it becomes available.
Whether you’re penetrating new markets or trying to establish a stronger foothold in your current e-commerce niche, web scraping can help with every aspect of research and analysis, allowing you to make the most of the freely available data.
The challenges of e-commerce scraping
Even though all the public data on the websites you want to scrape is entirely accessible, not every website will allow you to scrape it using bots. Unfortunately, despite being legal, web scraping is often frowned upon as it could put the website in danger when done improperly.
For instance, web scraper traffic could easily overwhelm the site’s servers and limit content access to genuine users.
Therefore, most websites will use all the tools at their disposal to prevent bot access. Many sites will use IP bans and blocks, denying access to IP addresses associated with web scrapers. Others will use CAPTCHAs – anti-bot technology that analyzes cursor movement to differentiate between genuine site visitors and bots.
However, it’s not any anti-bot technology that presents the biggest challenge to web scrapers. The biggest challenge is the website restrictions that curate content to users – geo-restrictions.
Geo-restrictions are used to block access to some (or all) types of content based on the user’s geographic location. If an e-commerce website is designed solely for users from the US, for instance, only those users with IP addresses from the US will be able to access it. Even if you’re a genuine consumer from, let’s say, the UK, you wouldn’t be able to access information on a geo-blocked website to everyone outside the US.
Some websites with geo-restrictions won’t outright block your access if you’re from the UK, however. Instead, they’ll present you with different information based on your location – different product offerings, different prices, different terms of services, and more.
If you’re from the UK and performing market, competitor, price, or audience research in the US, these geo-restrictions could prevent you from extracting relevant data for your needs.
Overcoming web scraping obstacles with US residential proxies
To overcome CAPTCHAs and similar anti-bot technologies, all you have to do is program your bots better. To overcome IP bans/blocks and geo-restrictions, you’ll need the help of a residential proxy tool.
Web scraping without residential proxies can be a nightmare. Your IP would be blocked instantly, and any geo-restrictions would be impossible to go around.
Proxies are designed to hide your IP address and make it seem like your traffic is coming from an IP that belongs to any geographic region you’d like. Residential proxies, specifically, make it seem like your traffic is coming from a home network located in any geographic region of your choosing.
They give you access to genuine IP addresses assigned by actual ISPs. Many even offer rotating IPs that change your address at frequent intervals, making it virtually impossible to come across IP bans and blocks.
Therefore, if you’re using a US residential proxy while web scraping, all the websites you visit will read your newly assigned IP address and identify your traffic as if it were coming from a US home network. Thus, you’ll have access to accurate, location-relevant data that will simplify your market, competitor, and audience research.
Conclusion
Web scraping is a necessary process for those in the e-commerce industry. It enables you to collect massive amounts of accurate, relevant data instantly, helping you improve your research and analysis and gain a competitive edge. All you need is the help of a tool such as a US residential proxy to bypass common obstacles and ensure your web scraping efforts go without a hitch.