Smart shopping solutions are becoming increasingly popular amongst price-conscious and time-poor customers. We sat down with Ronen Yuval-Hoch, Co-founder, CTO, and COO of Shoptagr, a pioneering smart shopping platform, to learn how online data collection products are driving these solutions. Before we jump into the interview, let’s take a look into what smart shopping solutions actually are, and why they’re gaining traction amongst consumers.
What are smart shopping solutions and what value do they offer consumers?
Smart shopping solutions are apps or platforms that offer shoppers innovative solutions to combat pain points in their shopping journey. With competition in the e-commerce world fiercer than ever, and millions of options at consumers’ fingertips, consumers are becoming more demanding than ever before. They want the best quality products, at the lowest prices, quickly and conveniently, before parting ways with their hard-earned dollars. Smart shopping solutions address consumer demands, allowing them to save time and money, and offer added value in their buying journey.
Image source: Bright DataWhat role does online data collection play in smart shopping solutions?
Online data collection is the driving force behind smart shopping solutions. In order for these apps/platforms to address consumers’ pain points, offer them what they’re looking for, and enhance their shopping experience, they need access to large amounts of online public data. Data collection helps in a number of ways:
- Price comparison: Scanning marketplaces and e-commerce sites to offer users the best prices for the most in-demand products. With prices constantly changing and products going on sale, an agile solution offering up-to-the-minute online data is paramount for success.
- Stock availability: Verifying when and where products are available and identifying if a product is close to being sold out. Consumers want to be informed of this information as it happens, to not miss out on purchasing the products they want.
- Consumer sentiment: Collecting e-commerce shop reviews to ensure users are only buying from trusted sources with a satisfied customer base.
Catching up with Ronen Yuval-Hoch, Co-Founder, CTO, and COO of Shoptagr
We sat down with Ronen Yuval-Hoch to learn more about his company, Shoptagr, and how online data collection products have enabled him to offer users a better shopping experience.
Tell us a little about Shoptagr?
Shoptagr is an online shopping platform that allows customers to save products from e-commerce stores and receive notifications if the price changes, if the product is close to running out, or if it’s come back in stock. We help our users save time and money. Most of our users (70%) are US based, with 15% in the UK, 10% in other English-speaking countries, and 5% in other countries around the world. Our customer base has been continuously growing.
What impact did you see on the company in 2020?
With the world’s massive migration to the online sphere, starting March we saw a huge spike in user activity – within one month, it increased by 100%. By the end of the year, our new users increased by 300%!
Which of Bright Data’s products do you use?
We use the Bright Data Web Unlocker. We have built our own infrastructure to collect data, but we needed a solution that would give us access to the sites we needed, without getting blocked.
Can you give examples of the kinds of public data that you need access to online?
We need to give our users the kind of information that they want – letting them know if an item’s price has lowered, if the item is close to running out, or if the item is back in stock. We are also building a crowdsourcing platform, to collect all of the items that our users are searching for, and give all our users access to them. We are always looking for ways to give our users a better shopping experience and with the Bright Data Web Unlocker, we have been able to.
What do you think are Bright Data’s benefits?
We have been using Bright Data for the last year, and I’m very happy with the quality of service both from a support and technical perspective. I’ll start with the customer service. Support is one of the most important things for us when looking for a provider. The customer service at Bright Data is amazing. They really care about their customers. Also, the quality of service from a technical point of view is great. The network is very stable and I have barely ever encountered downtime which is critical in our field – if I’m unable to unlock a website and get the publicly available data I need, I lose money. In addition, the platform is very simple to use, and the price is fair.
How do you see Bright Data supporting you in your growth?
We have plans to build a very large company and grow exponentially, and we definitely want to grow with Bright Data. Bright Data allows us to unlock sites and access the public online data that we need. Also as I said, the pricing is fair, and both from a technical and support perspective, we are very happy with the service. We definitely see this being a long-term partnership.
