Lately, two terms have seen a surge in popularity in the business world - digital transformation and review scraping. Digital transformation is defined as the adoption of digital technologies in business day-to-day activities. On the other hand, review scraping is one of the activities that fall into the scope of a broader term - web scraping.
Out of all web scraping activities, review scraping is one of the most popular. Why is that so and what is the connection between digital transformation and review scraping?
Automated review scraping & digital business transformation
A study done by IDC shows that global investments in digital transformation will reach $3.4 trillion in 2026. The majority of those investments are already being allocated to web scraping, especially review scraping. Companies have understood that the key to success lies in the leverage between digital technologies and timely and accurate data. That’s the point at which digital transformation and web scraping intertwine best.
With web and review scraping, companies can get a better understanding of their customer’s needs and therefore, tailor better solutions. Having the right market insights, understanding customer intentions, and making that whole process automated is a game-changer for any company.
Although web scraping can be used in many different forms, companies have understood that one of the best ways to benefit from it is to use it for review scraping. Customer reviews are one of the most influential factors when it comes to making a purchasing decision. Before making
that decision, around 95% of customers turn to read online reviews. Thus, businesses must be aware of what’s being said online. Web scraping enables them to monitor customer reviews and incorporate them into their digital transformation.
Digital transformation challenges
However, digital transformation doesn’t come only with benefits, but with certain setbacks as well. The global landscape is constantly changing under various geopolitical influences, and that often presents a challenge for enterprises. Geopolitical events always affect economic changes such as changes in the exchange rate, therefore the challenges are not always easy to overcome.
All these aspects can be summarized into a couple of most important challenges:
- Customer needs evolution
- Quick and efficient response to changes in demand
- Supply chain management
- Achieving stable/growing profits
One thing appears to be imperative when thinking of ways of solving these obstacles - making data-driven decisions. For an organization to make data-driven decisions, data extraction is one of the starting points.
As we mentioned, organizations have understood that customer and market insights are one of the keys to winning in the nowadays business world. Therefore, digital transformation heavily relies on review scraping.
Let’s see how that works and why is it so beneficial.
How does review scraping work in digital transformation?
Since review scraping is impossible to do manually, the appearance of review scraping tools has enabled companies to fasten this process. By doing it, companies can have a better understanding of market trends and customer behavior patterns. The process is based on API technology, that enables companies to access, monitor, and analyze reviews across dozens of sites from a single place. So, besides providing valuable insights, review scraping tools help companies save time and resources that can be allocated to other activities.
The process of review scraping can be done on websites, but also on social media channels.
- Scraping product/customer reviews from websites
Many customers, whether they’re satisfied with the product/service or not, like to share their opinion online. Sometimes they do it directly on the product website, but very often they visit so-called third-party websites. Depending on the industry branch, customers will choose to comment on different places, but some of the most frequented ones are Yelp, TripAdvisor, Indeed, Booking, etc.
Not all websites and platforms are easy to scrape - some of them have a very complex structure, thus it’s crucial to find a reliable tool to help you with this task.
As you can see in the graph below, regardless of the industry branch, customers state that online reviews play a significant role in their purchasing decision.
Source: BrightLocal
- Scraping customer reviews from social media platforms
Social media channels are nowadays one of the most important ways for formulating an opinion about a brand, product, or service. When deciding whether to purchase or not, customers not only check product websites but also their social media channels. Businesses need to keep track of reviews, mentions, and hashtags on social media. Moreover, they need to do it for their competition as well.
Keeping track of what’s being said on social media is equally as hard as checking other types of reviews on third-party websites. It’s almost impossible to do it automatically, so review scraping tools can help a lot when it comes to cramping reviews from Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
Source: Deloitte
Why is scraping reviews on social platforms so important?
Well, first of all, you’ll get an understanding of the general feeling that customers have about your business. Moreover, you’ll see who those people are and what’s their location. If it turns out that many customers are complaining about the same thing, you can run a sentiment analysis to pinpoint the problems and define the best strategy for solving them. Last but not least, you’ll see how you stand compared to the competition and check if they’re maybe doing something that you’ve completely overlooked.
Summary
Review scraping will give your business the competitive edge that it needs. It’s an essential part of the digital transformation process and as such, it must not be neglected. Nowadays, competitive advantage can be achieved only with accurate data, and understanding customer sentiment will provide you with just that.
Are you using some of the review scraping tools? If so, what are your experiences? Please share them in the comments below, we would love to hear from you.