subject: Web Data Extraction Translates To E-commerce Success [print this page] Competition in the e-commerce industry is fierce, as more and more buyers take to the Web. In fact, Forrester research claims that last year alone, more than 154 million US residents made at least one purchase online.
As a result, companies face mounting pressure not only from other e-retailers, but from traditional brick and mortar retailers looking to establish or expand their Internet presence. Online shops are aggressively implementing a variety of sales and marketing techniques in an effort to gain buyer mindshare, boost sales, and encourage repeat purchases.
But, the majority of these strategies forget one major point that the e-commerce marketplace is driven primarily by price and product selection. Customers dont buy because the site is pretty, or because the person available via live chat to answer questions is knowledgeable. Online stores win business because they offer the best products at the lowest prices.
Because of this, Web data extraction is a highly valuable tool for todays e-commerce sites, providing them with fast, instant access to the intelligence they need to succeed. They can collect comprehensive, timely product information from the sites of the manufacturers who produce the goods they sell, or synchronize their stores with sites maintained by suppliers and other partners, so available quantities, delivery estimates, and other important information is always up-to-date.
But, most importantly, Web crawlers provide online shops with a means of conducting competitive analysis more rapidly and accurately than ever before. From monitoring sales strategies, to assessing pricing levels, Web data extraction tools provide the insight e-commerce sites need to proactively stay one step ahead of their competitors.
Best of all, Web data extractors allow online retailers to locate, collect, and save the needed information, without the need for manual copying, pasting, and formatting. This not only ensures that the data they use to make important business decisions is complete and accurate, it saves them substantial amounts of both time and money.
Ficstar Software is a Toronto-based provider of powerful and innovative, yet intuitive and affordable Web crawlers. The companys custom-designed Web Grabber E-commerce tool empowers online retailers to instantly capture and collect complete, up-to-date product details from anywhere on the Internet. Cutting-edge, fully automated Web data extraction capabilities, combined with a simple and easy to use interface, eliminate the need to manually find, copy, and paste product and pricing information located on competitors Web sites, or sites maintained by partners such as manufacturers and distributors. This, in turn, delivers dramatic increases in productivity, cost-efficiency, and accuracy.
With Ficstar Web Grabber E-Commerce, in-depth product details, such as product names, categories, prices, part numbers, descriptions, inventory levels, and images, can be dynamically scraped from any target Web site. This valuable intelligence can then be used to make more informed decisions regarding product offerings and prices, formulate more successful sales and marketing strategies, deliver better service to existing and potential buyers, and proactively combat competition.
And like all Ficstar solutions, Web Grabber E-Commerce is flexible and customizable, so it can be modified to meet the unique and specific needs of any kind of online shop. For example, your new Web crawler can be customized to support any target Web site, or to save data in almost any popular format. No matter what the Web data extraction requirement, Ficstar can meet it efficiently and economically. So, e-commerce shops of all types have the insight they need to attract new customers, sell more goods, encourage repeat purchases, and achieve maximum profitability in a dynamic and competitive market.
