Any publicly available website can be analyzed and processed to extract interesting information. The web scraping process mainly involves collecting and saving information in a database or text files. The collected data can later be used in any way, not necessarily related to its original purpose, for example for research purposes or to develop a competitive advantage.
Fun fact
It is estimated that over 40% of the traffic on the Internet is now Internet bots. Web scraping is just one of many processes that can be performed by bot software. If you have ever encountered Google's reCAPTCHA, you already know why. Some research institutes report an even higher share of bots in total traffic, reaching up to 60%.
The vast amount of information contained on the Internet makes web scraping a commonly used method for obtaining data. Web scraping techniques are used by individuals as well as the largest companies around the world who want to gather the largest possible data sets that will allow them to gain an advantage in many different fields.
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Popular examples of using web scraping methods
The Internet is the largest collection of knowledge that humanity has ever created. The information that we can find on it is usually legible to humans, but less so for machines. An essential element of web scraping is designing a bot that will be able to precisely extract the information indicated by the creator. Preparing rules, the process of data extraction, recording and subsequent analysis creates enormous opportunities that cannot be ignored if we want to develop a competitive advantage. The collected data, which will be properly processed and analyzed, will allow us to draw conclusions that can then be used to make important decisions. A decision supported by data is certainly more precise and effective.
Tracking competitor prices and products
Various entities monitor both prices and new products from competitors using automated processes, which allows them to offer more attractive prices. Product price is not the only information that can be useful in gaining an advantage. Information about new products or changes in the assortment of a given store may be equally important. Continuous monitoring of competitors and data analysis (very often automatic) allows you to create more effective pricing strategies , as well as gain insight into trends for a given industry.
Automatically acquired information can also be used against the competition as an additional incentive to buy, because a store with constantly changing data can inform users that the same or similar product is cheaper than the competition. Since nature abhors a vacuum, even in this field dedicated platforms for monitoring competition prices have been created, such as Prisync or Price2Spy. In such a dynamically changing environment as e-commerce, manual actions would overwhelm even the most determined person.
A digression on the honesty of online stores
An interesting and useful application for web scraping may be verifying the honesty of online stores in the face of the Omnibus Directive in force since January 1, 2023, which, among other things, requires online stores to inform users about the lowest price of a given product in the last 30 days. The new regulations apply to products that have been included in a promotion in the store. Analyzed data collected by specially prepared web scrapers could clearly determine whether a given online store is adapted to the new law and whether it is not trying to play dirty with the law and customers.
Lead generation
The Internet is full of both public and non-public personal data and contact information. Web scraping can also be used to obtain as many leads as possible , which will then be used to contact these people to present them with your offer. After choosing a target, e.g. LinkedIn platform or another similar data aggregator and defining the target group, you can start collecting valuable data that gives you the chance to acquire additional customers.
Is this legal from a legal perspective? More on that later in the article.
