More signs that data is emerging as new asset class

Recently, procurement magazine reported on analyses which revealed that among the traditional assets of goods and services, data is increasingly becoming a third category for procurement. 

Now, a new Oxylabs white paper, Alternative Data Defines Competition in the US & UK Ecommerce Sectors, has further highlighted the exceptional importance of real-time data collection for eCommerce businesses.

Working with Censuswide, Oxylabs surveyed over 1,000 senior data decision-makers from leading UK and US ecommerce companies. 

Real-time data’s critical value

The report outlined how, without access to and the analysis of real-time information, eCommerce businesses may fail to reach their full growth potential.

When asked about their goals for collecting data in the coming year, 62% of eCommerce organisations said that real-time data would be at the forefront of their priorities. 

According to the report, while US-based companies will focus more on collecting and utilising external data (43.91% vs 37.20%), their non-US counterparts will instead prioritise the management of existing infrastructure (56.09% vs 44.49%). 

Regarding UK-based companies, the main focus plan lies in real-time acquisition (65.94% vs 58.28%) and data quality assurance (28.35% vs 18.96%). 

Interestingly, the geographic differences in these results point to the unique web scraping environments of each region, and the varying nature of the issues that they face.

Since the majority of today’s web pages are subject to frequent content changes, real-time web scraping is depended on by almost all digital businesses. 

As companies begin to rely more on efficient and low-cost data collection methods such as external data gathering (which is used by 40.54% of respondents), there is a clear shift towards gaining more actionable insights.

“These goals might indicate that businesses have yet to harness the true potential of real-time data,” commented Tomas Montvilas, Chief Commercial Officer at Oxylabs. 

“Greater data delivery speeds and instant insights can prove itself to be the next edge of competition that eCommerce companies are faced with. As competitors adopt real-time data for purposes such as monitoring, others will want to follow suit, causing a feedback loop. I expect to see real-time data keep climbing in importance in the coming years.”

“As eCommerce has grown exponentially, businesses are increasingly dependent on data. Today's organisations feel compelled to measure everything from the number of transactions per hour to the lifetime value of their customers. Web scraping has become an essential part of all decision-making processes for businesses large and small, which means that eCommerce companies can now use real-time data to gain a competitive edge in difficult economic times”.

You can find the Oxylabs’ Alternative Data Defines Competition in the UK & US eCommerce report in full here.