Global Retail Firm Automates Competitive Data Extraction from the Web Using Denodo Data Virtualization
Company Size
1,000+
Country
- Worldwide
Product
- Denodo Data Virtualization
Tech Stack
- Data Virtualization
- Web Automation
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Productivity Improvements
- Revenue Growth
Technology Category
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Retail
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Sales & Marketing
Services
- Data Science Services
About The Customer
The profiled company is a leading global retailer. It designs, sources, and markets its products globally through a diversified network of retail, wholesale and franchise channels. The firm reported positive growth figures for the second time in a row when global markets were teetering from the fright of an economic downturn. In addition to innovative designs and aggressive brand building, its success is largely attributed to forward thinking digital marketing. Its aggressive use of social media to transcend geographical boundaries and appeal to the younger consumer base is an example of a key digital marketing initiative.
The Challenge
The profiled company is a leading global retailer that decided to extend its use of the digital domain by tapping into the wealth of competitor product and pricing data available on the web. It planned to collect this information and use it to drive its product and pricing strategy. However, the company faced challenges in acquiring and using competitive information due to the expensive and manual effort expended in extracting the data and keeping it updated, the incomplete and error-prone nature of manual acquisition, and the non-scalable nature of the extraction process that could not support company expansion.
The Solution
After a competitive proof of concept, the company selected Denodo as it met all of their project requirements and also exhibited a strong understanding of their business. Denodo provided a complete solution that included extraction of data from a variety web of sources, normalization of this data and integration into existing data workflows. The company has deployed Denodo’s data virtualization platform to leverage competitive information from the web. This happens in 3 stages – extraction, combination, and reporting. The Denodo Platform extracts and normalizes competitive data using its sophisticated web automation capabilities. The ITPilot module within Denodo navigates through competitor websites and extracts product information such as name, description, image URL, and price. The Denodo scheduler runs this automated process once a month to create a ‘snapshot’ of competitive data and stores it in a database for further analysis and historical reporting. The Denodo Platform then accesses the extracted data and post-processes the information into virtual data views. This includes data transformation and normalization, product de-duplication, and data aggregation. The virtual data views created within the data virtualization layer are used to feed custom and ad hoc user reports.
Operational Impact
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