What is Data Scraping for Competitive Analysis?

For companies that need to rapidly adjust prices and stay on top of trends, such as those in the e-commerce or retail space, data scraping offers an efficient and affordable means for price monitoring and market analysis. When even the slightest price fluctuations can impact consumer behavior, having access to up-to-date pricing data will be a decisive factor in a company’s position in the market. Now, what is data scraping and how can it be leveraged for competitive analysis using pricing software?  

Here at Pricefx, as the leading cloud-native pricing software company, we understand that competitive data sits at the heart of any effective pricing strategy. Leveraging data scraping for competitive analysis empowers businesses to make more dynamic pricing decisions and maintain a strong foothold in their industry marketplace.  

In this article, we’ll examine what data scraping for competitive analysis involves and outline how businesses like yours can use data scraping techniques in combination with pricing software to enhance their competitive analysis efforts.  

So, let’s dive in.

What is Data Scraping and How Does it Work?  

What It Is 

Data scraping, or web scraping, is the process of pulling large amounts of data from an open source, typically a public website, and storing it in a different location for analysis.  

Why It’s Used in Pricing 

Data scraping offers pricing teams an efficient way to keep a close eye on competitors by quickly scanning websites for information related to competitor pricing, promotions, product descriptions, and inventory levels, enabling more competitive pricing decisions and quicker price adjustments.  

How It Works  

Data scraping is usually carried out on a company’s behalf by a data scraping service provider through a computer program. 

Based on a company’s data points of interest, the program gathers competitive information from multiple online sources, such as public websites, e-commerce platforms, social media, and price aggregators, and transfers the information to a local file in a machine-readable format. The data is then analyzed to identify trends and anomalies and mapped onto the company’s own products for comparison.  

At Pricefx, while we don’t scrape data ourselves, we have partners who do. To integrate scraped data into our platform, Pricefx typically takes in the data through an API and stores it as a master data file, which is then used to inform the engine’s pricing logic.  

Data Scraping for Competitive Analysis: Strategies to Use With Pricing Software  

While data scraping has many commercial uses, competitive analysis is one of its most important applications in the pricing realm. In this section, we’ll outline the data scraping strategies businesses can employ with the help of pricing software to gain a competitive edge when monitoring competitive pricing activity. 

1. Competitor Price Monitoring  

Pricing software can ingest data sent from data scraping tools for real-time competitor price monitoring, which in turn enables businesses to stay on top of rival pricing strategies and react quickly to competitor price changes or promotions. In addition, it fully automates the repricing process through a set of predefined rules and competitor data triggers, eliminating the need for heavy manual intervention in price changes. 

2. Dynamic Pricing 

Pricing software can implement dynamic pricing by ingesting the competitive data from data scrapers and updating prices according to the set pricing strategy. What’s more, companies can easily set their dynamic pricing logic in the software and adjust it over time according to what the data tells them. For example, the aim can vary from matching the lowest price competitor to maintaining a middle position between low and high price competitors. 

3. Price Optimization 

Companies can also integrate scraped competitive data with pricing software to enhance the precision of their price optimization model. For example, retail businesses can closely monitor the promotional campaigns of their peers and mimic a similar approach in their own pricing. Optian, Pricefx’s price optimization software, pulls in competitive pricing data, along with other factors such as cost, demand elasticity, and historical sales data, to calculate optimal price points.  

4. Customer Segmentation 

Scraped competitive data provides valuable insights into customer behavior, particularly when monitoring inventory levels (when publicly available, as is the case in high-tech industries, for example) or targeted promotions. Pricing software can use this data to segment customers based on their purchasing patterns and preferences, enabling an effective implementation of personalized pricing strategies and promotion campaigns. 

5. Competitor Benchmarking 

Data scraping rarely involves a single competitor, and by comparing their own pricing across competitors, businesses can identify areas where they may have significantly overpriced or underpriced their products. In certain supply and demand scenarios, companies may have the option to strategically position themselves as the highest-priced option in cases when their inventory holds significant value.  

Pricing software helps with competitor benchmarking by allowing companies to adjust their prices to align with market trends and remain competitive. 

Real-World Examples of Businesses Using Data Scraping for Competitive Insights  

Many businesses today, particularly in retail and e-commerce, hospitality and travel, and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sectors, use data scraping techniques to monitor competitive activity and inform pricing strategies.  

Large-scale online retail platforms like Amazon, Walmart, and eBay regularly scrape web data to power real-time price adjustments of their products and gain a competitive advantage over their marketplace peers. By taking in a steady stream of competitive data brought in by web scraping tools, dynamic pricing algorithms can rapidly adjust product prices based on factors such as demand, inventory, and competitor prices.  

What to Keep in Mind Before Scraping Data  

Scraping publicly accessible data is a legal practice in the U.S. Even so, as data scraping laws continue to be renegotiated to cover emerging technologies, businesses need to tread carefully in their scalping practices and stay up to date with conditions of legality, including GDPR laws, to avoid crossing any legal boundaries. Companies should also take note of the terms and conditions of individual websites, as some may have their own data scraping restrictions.  

Looking beyond legal adherence, companies should always consider the ethical dimensions of what’s being scraped. Questions around user privacy and harm prevention should take center stage in competitive scraping practices, irrespective of the laws in place at the time.  

Discover More Ways Web Scrapers Can Enhance Pricing Software 

In this article, we’ve explored some of the key use cases for data scraping in the context of competitive analysis for enterprise-level pricing. If your company is thinking of integrating scraped data with pricing software, there are a few other benefits to keep in mind. 

To learn more, consider checking out our article that outlines how web scraping and pricing software can be used in combination to power more accurate and profitable pricing strategies: