By 2018, one third of the 20 largest companies in almost every industry could be ‘disrupted’ by their competitors, according to a recent report by research firm IDC.

The point emerges that today’s companies must know what their competitors are up to, and make business decisions accordingly. While most businesses recognize the importance of competitor monitoring, only a few are taking the necessary steps. According to a recent survey, more than 70 percent of American companies use competitive intelligence; however, only 55 percent actually use the intelligence for strategic decision-making, says another survey by Harvard Business Review.

One way to monitor your competitors and collect relevant information from the internet is by using a web content extractor. Commonly known as web scraping, this technique works by using software for web surfing. The software or website content extractor visits hundreds and thousands of web pages, discovers and extracts relevant information, organizes the data, and exports them to structured, easy-to-use formats. Here are some major reasons why your business should use a website content extractor.

Analyzing Price

Setting the right price for your products could be a daunting task, especially when you have no clue about what your competitors are charging for similar products. Web extraction helps collect pricing information from hundreds of relevant websites, making it easier to price your products.

Making Strategic Decisions

Web scraping enables you to gather ample information from the web to improve your strategic decision-making. You can extract users’ data, industry news, customer responses, contact details, and order’s data – all to make better-informed business decisions.

Monitoring Competitors

Using a web content extractor, you can collect data from your competitors’ websites, keep an eye on your competitors’ moves, and plan your business strategy accordingly. For instance, knowing more about your competitor’s existing products, new and upcoming launches would help you devise a better product strategy.