Best Proxies for Pricing Intelligence

Every business needs to be profitable. So how do you go about that when you’re in a competitive space? Competitor intelligence. Use the internet to research what your competitors offer and for what price. When you know your business is offering better pricing you can use price as your USP (unique selling point).

With proxies in full motion, you extract data endlessly – data, in this case, is pricing on a competitor’s website.

You make a lot of profit if your pricing structure is better – that gives you an edge.

What is a Proxy?

A proxy offers you some form of protection while you surf the internet. In layman’s terms, it is the “middleman” between you and the internet. Your IP address is hidden for every request that goes through the proxy; only that of the proxy is open when you connect to a website.

Proxies types include:

• Residential proxies
• Datacenter proxies

Residential Proxies

These proxies are from Internet Service Providers (ISP) and assigned to homeowners with a real IP address – and represented by a physical location. One of their perks is their high level of anonymity.

What are Datacenter Proxies?

Datacenter proxies are popular, and many people are using them every day. When you think of a proxy, it is a data center that likely comes to mind. Moreover, you may not even know how these proxies deliver their jobs; they do not come from the internet service provider.

There are other types of proxies – but this time, in terms of the number of users. They can be shared, semi-dedicated, or private proxies.

Shared Proxies

Many individuals usually share these proxies. The downsides are that they offer lower performance and speed.

Private Proxies

These are proxies meant for one individual. They perform better than shared proxies and offer higher speed.

Semi-dedicated Proxies

These proxies are neither shared nor dedicated – they’re in between both of them. The number of users is usually between 2 and 3.

In today’s business environment, web scraping is gaining popularity. It is a way to get ahead in your competitive space by leveraging extracted data at your disposal.

Companies understand the importance of price intelligence and will go the extra mile to use it to their advantage.

To this end, price scraping has become more prevalent than ever. A strategic pricing model considers what your competitors offer, and you can outdo them by offering something better.

What is Web Scraping and why Proxies for Price Intelligence?

Web scraping is collecting data from a website for specific purposes – price intelligence, market research, and more. That is usually possible by using bots to gather the desired information.

When you scrape e-commerce websites like Amazon, you will be restricted if you flood the server with so many requests from one single IP address within a short period.

To get around this snag – is simple. Proxies will do the magic.

If you scrape the e-commerce with an array of IP addresses – with each request coming from a unique IP – then you’re on track. If you want to scrape prices on a competitor’s website with several proxies, your activity will be successful. You can then use the data for price intelligence.

Actionable Insight for a Competitive Edge

The original growth hack of web scraping is leveraged by the big and mighty like the Fortune 500 for what purpose? They want to be competitive on pricing and be in the know while measuring customer sentiment.

With access to information on your competitor, you can grow, and with an advantage in your niche field. For instance, businesses use this data to predict future demand, adjust their strategies, and adhere to best practices in the industry.

In other words, web scraping provides your business with an effective pricing strategy in response to real-time demand. You get actionable insight for your business, which can help you shape your decisions in the future.

Best Proxies for Price intelligence

You can retrieve public data with your data acquisition team doing what they know best. However, proxies become an essential tool for this process.

Essentially, it boils down to choosing the best there is. Two main types of proxies exist in the market – data center and residential proxies.

They both have their benefits and downsides.

Residential proxies are real IPs, so it is difficult to associate them with any ban – they seem more like a better option out there. However, they have a low response rate.

On the other hand, the data center may incur the wrath of the website owner because they can be easily detected. However, their fast response rate makes up for this downside.

Choosing suitable proxies for price intelligence cannot be stressed any further. You can stay ahead; all you need is to do the needful.