Amazon Scrapers (Why Every Seller Needs Amazon Scraping Tools)
I remember holding over $500 worth of textbooks while standing in line at my collegiate bookstore. $500 to a freshman in college is a small fortune. ‘There has to be a cheaper way to buy books that I’m never going to read,’ I thought. But like the lemming I was, I paid the full price that semester. Never in my life did I think I’d want a way around spending money on books. Books, my most cherished method of comfort and escape.
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Then the whispers began. Amazon. Amazon? Yes, Miranda – buy your textbooks from Amazon. At a discount? Yes, and free shipping for students. Needless to say, spring semester Miranda had a lot more spending money than fall semester Miranda.
Years later, and I find I’m still learning all Amazon has to offer. How could this 2-day shipping, sell every product on the planet, digital giant still surprise me? The surprise comes in the form of Amazon scrapers. But don’t worry, my Amazon obsessed friends, in this blog we’ll explore the exact meaning of web scraping Amazon and what this tool can do for you. We’ll look at the very best Amazon scrapers available on the market today. Maybe that Intro To Computer Science textbook was useful after all.
What are Amazon Scrapers?
Whether you’ve used an HTML scraper, Google scraper, or never heard the term web scraping in your life, the concept of scraping Amazon is a unique process. In short, Amazon scrapers extract data from HTML (Hypertext markup language) and organize that data in a comprehensive way. HTML is the language of the digital world, how the internet exchanges information back and forth. An Amazon scraper tool is a handy, efficient way to gather data relating to a specific topic. Amazon’s product list is extensive, boundless even. Rather than searching through pages and pages of pricing data connected to each product, Amazon scrapers will provide you with pricing stats you need for business, academic research, or personal reference.
An Amazon’ scraper’ is a digital bot, one that’s smart as a whip and programmed to gather whatever data you request. Think of a digital scraper as your own private detective. Your company needs to know the prices set by your competitors, so the Amazon scraper sniffs out the numbers of each product available in the market. Having the ability to compare prices set by your competition gives you and your company a leg up on your competitors. We’ll discuss how to scrape Amazon a bit more in-depth, but the primary reason to use a scraper is for a quick solution to researching prices on your own time and dime.
Dissecting an Amazon ASIN Scraper
Before we go any deeper into how to use an Amazon scraper, I want to have a brief discussion about ASINs. Oh no, another new concept to learn. Never fear; I promise an ASIN isn’t as complicated as my advanced French class (so complicated, so soul-crushing). But let’s focus on the positives and explore this neat new acronym.
As a seasoned Amazon user, it’s possible you’ve seen an ASIN at the bottom of a product page. An ASIN stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number. Essentially, it’s the unique, 10-character alphanumeric code that Amazon and its partners assign to each product sold on the site. The number might differ depending on the marketplace selling within Amazon. You see, Amazon partners with all sorts of 3-party retailers, like Nike or Samsung, and then fulfills those orders for the 3-party retailers. Different marketplaces might separate ASINs for the same product.
Why do ASINs matter in the realm of scrapers? Well, since an ASIN is as unique as a URL, an Amazon ASIN scraper can use the identification number to parse through Amazon’s price data. The number offers an alternative, effective way to scrape Amazon. Since ASINs are unique to Amazon, it’s safe to say scraping in this way is Amazon-specific, which means you’ll know exactly where the information is sourced from at all times.
How to Scrape Amazon
Now that we have a handle on what an Amazon scraper is, I think it’s time to talk more about how the smart little digital bots work. We touched on HTML earlier, but let’s break the concept down even further.
If you’re an individual hoping to use an Amazon product scraper to compare the prices of online products to your brick and mortar store, then parsing the HTML, as we talked about, is an easy solution. Parsing content on Amazon is a way of breaking down data so that the information is readable and easier to understand. Think of it like this, each time you type information into an excel spreadsheet, that document simplifies the information so that it may fit into the cell of a spreadsheet. Once the data is parsed, you’re able to use it immediately, rather than attempting to understand the complicated language of the internet.
Why use an Amazon Price Scraper
We’re ready to jump into the big question. Why use a scraper in the first place? Glad you asked. Gathering Amazon price data is the main reason to use Amazon scrapers. But what does that mean for you and your company? Here are a few specific reasons why you would need to gather data from an Amazon price scraper.
1. Staying competitive in an overcrowded market
Knowing how your competitors are pricing certain items when they put those items on markdown, or markup is a quick way to stay with or beat the competition. By staying informed, you’ll be more knowledgeable about the price points of certain products you already sell and how to price products you might buy and distribute in the future. With so many different products available in almost every market, customers are bombarded with choices. A scraper is an easy way to check prices, therefore assuring customers that they are making the correct choice by investing money in your product.
2. Marketing purposes
Many advertisements feature prices and the numerical value of products. Using Amazon scrapers to gather this data offers an easy point of reference for the marketing and sales teams at your company. Without a digital bot, those teams are left to do hours worth of tough, possible fruitless research. Targeting specific products and their specific prices will help streamline marketing campaigns. Whether you’re looking to make a video advertisement, poster, or promote products via social media, price points are a large factor in the decision making of a buyer. Customers need to be assured, by buying from your company, they are getting the best deal possible.
3. Product tracking
If you, like so many other companies, sell your products to 3rd-party sellers in order to distribute and ship, then the act of scraping Amazon can be a useful method of tracking how distributors are marketing, showcasing, and selling your product on Amazon. This method of product tracking saves you the trouble of searching for your products all on your own. It allows you to stay on top of how your products are being received and how they look to the outside world. This method of scraping also serves as a way to keep 3rd-parties accountable, ensuring they are showing your products in a manner you approve.
4. Customer reviews
As I said, the main purpose of an Amazon scraper is to check product prices. However, as you might already know, Amazon reviews can sway customers to buy or pass on a product. Say you sell bikes. Amazon scrapers can gather all the reviews for the different bikes you sell. These reviews will tell you how customers are responding to a particular bike, how they use the bike to fit their lifestyle, or if the product has ongoing manufacturer issues. In the kingdom of retail, customers are royalty. Having the opinion of royalty readily available could be the difference between a successful business and a failed one.
The list above is in no way exhaustive, just a few examples of how you could use an Amazon scraping tool. Perhaps there are other pieces of information you need, the information I haven’t covered. That’s no problem. With scraping, data available to you is extensive, and you are in no way limited to what we’ve discussed in this blog. So let your imaginations soar and use Amazon scraping as the primary method of data collection. In the world of business, immediate access to pertinent data is a powerful position to be in compared to any and all competitors.
The Very Best Amazon Scraping Tool
With our discussion about Amazon scrapers coming to a close, you might be asking yourself, where on earth can I find an Amazon scraping tool? Are they difficult to come by? Do I need to be a tech wizard in order to conjure up such technology? Negative. Here at Scraping Robot, Amazon scrapers are just a simple sign up away.
Not only do we specialize in web scraping, but our scraper features frequent improvement updates, offers 5000 free scrapes upon sign up, and requires no monthly fee. Each scrape is priced at a reasonable $0.0018. The best part of all, we offer custom scrapes upon request should you need a more tailored way to scrape Amazon. Our tools allow you to search by both ASIN and URLs, giving you more options for scraping.
We also offer 7-day data storage, which means you won’t be struggling to find a digital file to keep all the data that our Amazon scraper gathers together. Because the last thing you want is to lose the crucial information found by our intelligent bots. Plus, should you have any pressing questions or concerns about the software, our customer service team is available 24/7 and would be happy to address any aspects of the Amazon scrapers. What a relief to know you’re not in this process alone. You know the basics of how scrapers function, now trust Scraping Robot to do all the legwork for you and your company.
Final Thoughts on Amazon Price Data
Trust me when I say, I didn’t read one textbook from that first semester of college. Call it laziness, but I call it defiance. The defiance stemming from an overpriced collegiate bookstore. Stupid to defy the bookstore after I coughed up the money for said books, but I tried. Once I fell into the online world of Amazon, I never looked back, and I suspect we have this in common.
If your company needs a little help gathering data or you’re looking to do research in order to start your own business, the use of scrapers is an effective, efficient way to collect product prices and stay competitive in a consumer-driven market. Stop tiring out your eyes scanning Amazon on your own time. Instead, trust Scraping Robot to find all the information you need to make your endeavors a great success. Amazon enthusiasts unite with the help of Amazon scrapers.
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