Over the last few years, data collection and automation tools like Java web scraping have helped B2B companies significantly accelerate their growth. Here are some of the primary ways this is happening.
Web Scraping
Java web scraping, which gets its name from how it’s usually written in the Java coding language, is a mostly automated process that gathers information from websites that isn’t part of regular user data. Scraping can include data like product pricing information, the number of interactions and replies to posts, and almost any other sort of data available on the site.
Web scraping is helpful for businesses because it creates a much broader picture of what competitors are doing without requiring much user time when set up. For example, web scraping can help alert companies when competitors are offering deals or when the stock of certain products is running out. Having this information can create new sales and marketing opportunities for savvy companies.
Java web scraping collects data faster than any user checking manually. Small requests can finish within minutes, while massive content examinations across multiple websites could finish within hours or days. It might seem slow at first, but it’s still faster than doing it manually, given the amount of data involved.
Aside from its other benefits, Java web scraping allows companies to collect new types of data. While data isn’t valuable on its own, it becomes useful when you can interact with it, asking questions and getting helpful answers.
Mail Tracking
The humble tracking number provides an extraordinary amount of information for B2B companies. By monitoring and recording this data, companies can determine actual delivery times from any warehouse to any delivery location.
It allows companies to determine when to send out shipments for minimal overlap, what to tell companies who are asking for fast deliveries, and where a company should expand next to provide the best coverage.
Mail tracking is almost always digital these days, but a simple script can tell a company everything they need to know.
Surveys
Surveys remain one of the most effective tools for gathering information, although creating them takes a little more work.
B2B companies usually work with a small number of customers (compared to, say, Walmart’s 265 million customers per week in 2020), and clients are often willing to provide feedback to help improve the service they’re getting.
It’s particularly true for B2B companies doing an expanding rollout for products instead of a single huge launch. Expanding rollouts give time to iterate and improve a product based on feedback before selling it to the next group of clients, usually resulting in a happier and more loyal customer base.
In most cases, using surveys for data collection does not provide immediate, noticeable growth for the company. However, by telling companies what to focus on when developing products and what future customers are most likely to care about, surveys can help take a minor concept into a significant source of growth.
What Types of Data Collection Are Best For B2B?
The best type of data collection depends on a B2B company’s clients and culture. A supply company that distributes bulk goods to partners can benefit from mail tracking, but they might not care about the web scraping abilities of JavaScript.
However, more information is always better as long as you can extract valuable results from it. With enough data, you can predict market problems, identify opportunities, and position your company to address partners’ needs.
Before You Go
Whether you’re making data collection tools or buying them as a service from someone else, the real value in tools comes from knowing what information they collect and how you should apply the results. A little planning goes a long way towards maximizing the value of data and accelerating your company’s growth.
