The used car industry has revolutionized in the last decade and is now driven by data and is expected to grow up to $1.9B by 2027. Data empowers businesses to make decisions based on statistical numbers, trends, and facts.
Thanks to modern technologies, collecting data is now easier than ever. You can now find sophisticated web scraping services such as ScrapeHero to collect data feeds across online auto portals, OEM sites, and marketplaces. Web scraping or data mining is the process of extracting vast amounts of data from a target website.
The data can then be used to analyze industry trends, track fluctuations in used car prices, or even collect customer reviews and ratings to improve your business strategy. If you are aiming to expand and improve your automotive business, web scraping is a solution that can help you get closer to your objectives.
Why Scrape Used Car Data?
Web scraping is the process of extracting data from websites. The use of this technology is witnessing widespread popularity in the pre-owned auto industry, especially during the pandemic situation. Some of the reasons are listed below:
Used Car Customers are Predominantly moving Online
In the current Covid situation, more and more consumers are preferring online platforms to research, compare, and purchase used cars instead of visiting dealerships in person.
Presence of Unorganized Players Online
There are several unorganized players that dominate the industry in several countries. However, the majority of them do not have an inventory of their own and rely on their online/offline platform to facilitate C2C used car sales. The revenue is generated in the form of commissions earned from the sale.
Understand Customer Buying Trends
Used car industry businesses are using web scraping to extract data from platforms such as AutoTrader, Cars.com, Autoscout24, and other locally popular websites, in order to better understand consumer buying trends like
- The type of vehicle from categories including Sedans, Hatchbacks, and SUVs that are witnessing more interest from the buyers
- Specific models
- Average price points
- Additional features that buyers look out for
Dynamic Business Strategy
The scraped data can help businesses to get the pulse of the market and help streamline operations, pricing, and other strategies, to serve the market better.
What are Different Data Fields That Can Be Scraped from Used Car Websites?
Various data fields can be scraped from a used car website. Some of the most commonly scraped data categories are as follows-
- Year
- Make
- Model
- City
- State
- Price
- Interior and Exterior Color
- Fuel Type
- Product Description
- Transmission
- Miles
- VIN (Vehicle Identification Number)
- Product Images URL
- Customer Ratings/Reviews
Scraping tools can be customized to collect all of these data fields or target just a few or even a single data category. All of the data is collected and can be presented in a structured manner to offer valuable insights to related businesses. Based on the data they can optimize their strategy and improve their offerings.
What Can be Done with the Scraped Used Car Data?
These are some of the different ways in which web scraped data can be used for improving your business strategy. Here are a few examples:
Used Car Price Data
With the rising competition, pricing is a factor that can provide your business with an edge over others. Based on your competitors’ pricing structure, you can work on your pricing strategy to ensure that your offerings are more competitive and attractive.
Used Car Reviews and Ratings
The reviews and ratings scraped from used car websites can help you understand the car categories, colors, models, and more, that are more popular among consumers. The reviews can also provide detailed insights into the service quality gaps of other businesses and customer concerns, which you can use to improve and highlight your services.
Build an Automotive Database
If you are new to the used car industry, a detailed overview of the market could help you jump start your marketing strategy. Data can be scraped from multiple online platforms, including used car sellers and OEM sites for creating an automotive database that offers a complete overview of the entire industry.
Develop a Pricing Formula
The data available online can help used car owners understand how various factors play out to influence the pricing of the car. Understanding the correlation between pricing and other factors like the condition, year of manufacture, model, mileage, and drive type can help used car businesses develop an intelligent pricing formula.
Location-Based Customer Behavior and Pricing Trends
Instead of having an umbrella strategy, it is important to adapt the business strategy to best suit the geographical location. Web-scraping data based on a location can enable businesses to understand local trends such as which models, manufacturers, and type of cars, are in high demand in different states or regions, what the pricing formula in each location is, or which source of fuel is preferred. Understanding these local trends can help used-car businesses gain a competitive advantage over local players.
Gather Used Car Data Using ScrapeHero
The used car market is dynamic with users changing the pricing based on demand or the lack of demand. Monitoring such data requires a web scraping service provider which can reliably gather this data based on your schedule. A web scraping API can ensure that you can gather used car data from websites in real-time. ScrapeHero can build custom web scraping APIs for websites that do not have an API to help you achieve this.
ScrapeHero is one of the top web scraping service providers in the world, providing data to some of the biggest companies in the world. The pre-built scrapers and easy-to-follow web scraping tutorials provided by ScrapeHero allow small businesses, students, and analysts to gather data from popular websites in a cost-effective and simple manner.
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