What you can learn from big eCommerce about proxies

The internet has completely transformed the way we do many things, including shopping. With most people in developed countries doing most of their shopping online, the continued rise of eCommerce is only natural.

With so many eCommerce websites available, the competition has become more intense over the years. Competitor research has become one of the most important aspects of market research, and web scraping has become the most important source of information needed for decision making. This is why you need eCommerce proxies, and using a web scraping API like ZenRows to get data from e-commerce sites is one of the most popular recommendations.

Since data-based decision making can make all the difference in the highly-competitive eCommerce space, every ambitious business is taking steps to get the most reliable information about the competition. On the other side, big eCommerce websites are taking serious steps to disrupt website scraping and prevent their competition from getting marketing information from their website.

When they suspect website scraping, some of these websites respond in different ways. They may send wrong data to the client making the request, blacklist the IP address, or ban the address completely. As a marketer, you want to get reliable data feed through web scraping. You also want to get it as fast as possible to minimize the chances of being detected. This is where eCommerce proxies come in.

What are eCommerce proxies?

Proxies are intermediaries between clients and a server in a network or web traffic. They serve as intermediaries for requests from users seeking resources from other servers.

Types of proxies

Based on their configurations and the way they work, proxies are of different types. Here are brief descriptions of the different types of proxies available to internet users:

• Residential proxies are IP addresses linked to a real physical location, which in turn appears as an average user to the server. They are considered the best proxies for most uses as they can bypass geographic restrictions, cloaking, and other manipulative techniques used by most sites to send false data to clients. They are extremely difficult to detect. Are you looking for the best Residential Proxies? Please check ProxyRack‘s guide and expert opinion will help you choose the best one.
• Datacenter proxies are artificial IP addresses that are created and maintained professionally. They are known for their incredible speed, even though they can be detected and are prone to a ban.
• Private proxies are the kinds that can be used by one user only, at any given time. We recommend reading more about how to choose the best private proxy provider – https://proxyway.com/best-private-proxy.
• Dedicated proxies are proxies that are not sharable at all. These are proxies that can only be used by a single user.
• Shared proxies can be used by several clients. They can generally be found for cheap or even free and typically have security risks.

The best proxies for eCommerce scraping

Many big eCommerce websites employ different techniques to disrupt website scraping. From presenting captcha to skewing the data to flagging or blocking access altogether, there are different ways their anti-scraping software works. You need the best proxies to get the right data you need from any website so that you will always make informed marketing decisions.

In terms of performance, residential proxies are considered the best for eCommerce web scraping. As mentioned earlier, they are IP addresses of physical devices and can effectively bypass geographic locations to fetch you the data you need. Rotating residential proxies is very efficient in getting adequate data about your competitors without any disruptions. They work by making your web scraping activities appear like real searches from real devices in different locations. There are minimal chances of being detected or being banned. If you can lay your hands on a pool of reliable residential proxies, you can achieve a lot.

Other benefits of using eCommerce proxies

Aside from helping you access highly accurate data that will help you make informed marketing decisions, proxies can be beneficial to your eCommerce business in many ways. Proxies are great for brand protection, ad verification, travel fare aggregation, pricing intelligence, SEO monitoring, and more.

Final thoughts

Competitive analysis is essential for the survival of eCommerce websites, which is why web scraping is super relevant. It is important that you get accurate data from your web scraping endeavors. You need the right proxies to do that. Choose the right type of proxies from a reputable provider. Your provider must have a sizable pool of proxies and fast and reliable customer support.