In the fast-changing world of retail, success depends on having your finger on the pulse of the market. As an ecommerce professional with over 5 years of experience gathering web data, I‘ve seen how critical actionable intelligence is to brands and retailers. My friend, if your business needs the freshest omni-channel insights, you simply can‘t afford gaps in your data flows.
That‘s why partners like Wiser Solutions rely on robust proxies to enable continuous scraping of thousands of retail sites. After dealing with limitations of consumer proxy networks, Wiser turned to the experts at Oxylabs. Now they seamlessly gather terabytes of updated product data to serve their clients.
Curious to learn how proxy specialists can take your retail analytics to the next level? Read on for insights! I‘ll share key learnings from my work empowering web data gathering across industries.
Wiser Solutions: The Retail Intelligence Specialists
Founded in 2005, Wisconsin-based Wiser Solutions is a leading commerce intelligence provider. Their cloud-based solutions transform retail and brand performance by turning data into strategic action.
Specifically, Wiser focuses on three key capabilities:
E-commerce analytics
- Tracks pricing, promotions, assortment across retailers
- Daily insights into competitors‘ product content and campaigns
- Helps brands optimize online product marketing
Digital shelf analytics
- Monitors product content quality, SEO, visibility on retailer sites
- Ensures brands stand out on digital shelves
- Improves online discoverability and conversions
In-store execution
- Apps and IoT devices to assign and manage in-store tasks
- Digital audits and feedback on performance
- Connects in-store execution with online insights
Wiser serves over 85 top retailers and brands globally such as Pepsico, Bayer, British American Tobacco, and more. Their clients rely on them to capture market data and competitive intelligence across critical channels.
But delivering these services at scale posed huge data gathering demands…
The Need for Reliable, Cost-Effective Data Extraction
To maintain their Commerce Execution Suite, Wiser continuously gathers product and pricing data from thousands of retail sites worldwide. As SVP Operations Devon Kelly Walczak put it:
"It‘s critical that we use proxy vendors who understand our use case and are able to partner with us to find the right balance of cost and success."
Balancing cost and success in data extraction was a struggle for Wiser. Here‘s why large-scale web scraping poses challenges:
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Volume: Wiser needs millions of fresh data points each week from across retailers. Requiring extracts from thousands of domains.
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Velocity: To keep their intelligence updated, Wiser has to gather new data multiple times daily.
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Blocking: Many retailer sites now use advanced bot mitigation to detect and block scrapers.
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Geographic reach: Wiser supports global brands wanting data from worldwide markets.
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Budgets: As a SaaS business, Wiser has to maintain cost-efficiency even at huge data volumes.
When their previous consumer proxy network proved unreliable, causing data gaps, Wiser knew they needed to upgrade their approach…
How Oxylabs Became the High-Performance Proxy Partner
To meet their complex web scraping demands, Wiser turned to Oxylabs and their Datacenter Proxies. As an experienced proxy expert, I understood how Oxylabs offered robust capabilities missing from consumer networks:
A vast proxy inventory
Oxylabs maintains a pool of over 1 million IP addresses spanning 1300+ cities globally. This huge scale ensures reliable capacity for Wiser‘s needs.
Enterprise-grade infrastructure
Based in premium, high-bandwidth datacenters. Delivers over 99.9% uptime for uninterrupted scraping.
Optimized scraping performance
Oxylabs proxies support key functionality like JavaScript rendering and sticky sessions vital for proper site scrapes.
Flexible geographic coverage
Global IPs prevent geo-blocking, allowing Wiser to gather data from any market needed.
Top-notch support
Dedicated proxy experts provide high-touch assistance for maximizing value.
Cost-efficiency
Competitive volume pricing tailored for Wiser‘s data gathering scale.
For retailers, Oxylabs is a proven partner, with clients including:
- Wish.com – Gather insights across ecommerce competitors
- Fizbot – Fuel their real estate platform with property data
- Connexity – Power their retail media advertising platform
And many more using proxies for price monitoring, market research, ad verification, and beyond.
The Results: Smooth Sailing for Wiser‘s Retail Intelligence Workflows
Since adopting Oxylabs‘ Datacenter Proxies, Wiser Solutions achieved:
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<1% scrape failure rates – Ensuring comprehensive, gapless market data
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Improved cost efficiency by 2X – Reduced spend on proxies while handling more data
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Faster global rollout for clients – Onboarding new markets with geographic flexibility
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Reduced IT headaches – By leveraging Oxylabs‘ experts rather than managing proxies in-house
With a rock-solid proxy foundation, Wiser can focus on delivering quality analytics to their clients. As Walczak put it:
"It‘s been great working with Oxylabs. Their technical expertise and responsiveness allows us to focus on our core business of retail insights."
Key Recommendations for Proxy-Powered Web Scraping
Based on many years as a hands-on proxy expert, here are my top tips on leveraging proxies for data extraction:
Pick proxies purpose-built for scraping
Consumer proxies won‘t cut it under heavy loads. Choose a provider specializing in scalable web scraping.
Ensure geographic diversity
Global IP addresses are a must for scraping internationally without blocks.
Demand reliable uptime
Look for datacenter proxies with proven >99% uptime at high loads to prevent failures.
Work with technical experts
Partners that understand the nuances of JS rendering, proxies rotations, and blocks can customize solutions.
Scale cost-effectively
Volume discounts and custom plans based on your actual usage allow optimizing spend.
Handle loads dynamically
Select providers with robust APIs and self-service controls to ramp up capacity on demand.
Still have questions on picking proxy solutions? Reach out for help selecting an approach tailored to your web scraping needs. With the right foundation, you too can turn website data into winning market intelligence.
To learn more, visit Oxylabs.io or request a consultation with a proxy expert today!
