Case Study : How Global Sports and Outdoor Equipment Manufacturer Company Achieved Cost Savings and Competitive Insights

You might wonder what a global sports and outdoor equipment manufacturer might have to do with data and web scraping?

Well, we can assure you this- without data and data extraction, there’s no way to excel in today’s business world!

But it is not easy to leverage data as this case study reveals. This particular company was struggling to get the data that it wanted. 

The case study is regarding how web scraping revealed new business insights and transformed their operations. 

Read on to discover how businesses can capitalize on the power of web scraping to help it scale new heights. 

Introducing our customer

Our customer is a leading company specializing in the manufacturing of sports and outdoor equipment. 

As it is obvious, we always keep the identity of our customers confidential. So we cannot mention the name of the company etc. We will only refer to them as our customer in this blog.

Interestingly enough, our customer tried to benefit from web scraping by getting inputs from their competitors’ data. They encountered difficult challenges which prevented them from getting the data that they wanted. 

This is the case study of their journey. 

What specific data did our customer want to scrape from Amazon and eBay?

Our customer believed that if they could get hold of their competitors’ data, they could get insights regarding pricing, purchase trends and product availability. For this, they wanted the data regarding the products listed on Amazon and eBay. They specifically wanted to get details like product prices, seller names, product availability status and other such product related inputs. 

This was basically the plan. 

What were the major obstacles faced by this industry leader?

Our customer faced two major obstacles which troubled them. 

Soaring Costs:

Yes, it was costs. There was a 500% annual cost increase with respect to web scraping. This kind of increase in cost makes it unmanageable for a business. It becomes impossible for a company to then continue to invest in web scraping in order to get a competitive edge. 

So they had to desperately look for a more affordable solution.  

Scraping Failures and Lack of Explanation:

While one can bear a reasonable cost for quality, our customer encountered a number of scraping failures. In other words, the customer saw a number of failed scraping tasks. 

It meant that it affected their plans to gain insights from the data because they could not get the data they wanted. Some pages and vital data points were not extracted. The service provider could not provide any explanation for these drawbacks. 

In the end, the customer could not get the data they so badly needed. This is frustrating because they paid for the web scraping and could not get the data vital for their business. 

How did our web scraping company address the challenges faced by the customer?

We came up with a set of solutions to address their different pain points and requirements. 

Affordable Pricing Model:

Since cost was the first problem that the customer encountered, we came up with an affordable pricing model to suit their needs. 

Here are the key aspects of our pricing model:

• Scraper Setup & Maintenance Completely Free: To make it easy for them to get started, we provided free-of-cost scraper setup and maintenance services. This ensured a smooth transition for them without any extra cost.
• Pay-per-Use Pricing Model: We offered a highly customizable pay-per-use pricing model that allowed the customer to use their funds judiciously on web scraping and pay only for the data that they needed. This resolved the issue of large sums to be paid at the outset or in advance.  
• No Commitment: We wanted our customer to remain completely free to choose the service they wanted and for as long they wanted. So the pay-per-use pricing model helped them remain free to discontinue any time they wanted. They could start any time, use as much as they wanted and discontinue any time without any penalties. This completely transformed their experience. 
• No Additional Proxy Cost: For leveraging the power of web scraping optimally, proxy services are vital. But it can increase your costs at times. So we provided a package that included proxy services at no additional cost or charges.

Advanced Scraping Technology:

To provide a customized and hassle-free experience, we deployed advanced scraping technology and tools. We did the following: 

• Mobile Browser Simulation: We used an algorithm which sort of replicated mobile browser behavior. It enabled us to continue our navigation without getting detected. 
• Highly Anonymous Residential Proxies: For a more secure and anonymous way to scrape, we employed highly anonymous residential proxies leading to seamless scraping.
• Scraping Success: We could scrape more than 80,000 pages at an astonishing success rate.

Accurate Data Extraction:

• We removed the unnecessary data and scraped only the information that the customer wanted. 
• In this way, we ensured a steady flow of accurate data and smart business insights for them so that they could make intelligent business decisions with ease. 

What significant impact did our web scraping solutions have on our customer’s operations?

Since the business related aspects are confidential, we cannot reveal certain details here. But we can tell you how much we could transform their experience. 

• Compared to their previous experience, we could reduce their web scraping costs by around 50%. 
• We provided more than 95% success rate in data extraction. It provided them with highly accurate and reliable data. 
• This ensured that they could get the data from competitors’ pages running into thousands and analyze it to their advantage.
• As a result, they could leverage the insights gained from the data and make great business decisions. This improved the way they positioned their products and transformed the customer experience.

Conclusion:

The customer faced numerous challenges- from spiraling costs to failed scraping. We used a host of strategies to fix the undue expenses on scraping and provided reliable and accurate data using advanced data extraction technology and tools. 

No wonder it transformed their business operations and gave them a competitive edge! 

Contact sales to learn more