Ask HN: Ecom data pro's: How do you do product research and competitor analysis? To any ecommerce professionals / data analysts here, could you help me out with some ideas? I've been working on an ecom market research related product for my own use for a while that I'm now thinking others may also find useful when its ready. It would be super helpful to get some feedback on this topic in general from relevant professionals to validate my thinking so far. Can I ask: Do you currently do (or would like to do if able) some kind of bulk or automated product research / competitor analysis / ML involving search engine data, ecommerce marketplaces or direct competitor website scraping that provides measurable practical value? What do you find the most useful about these activities and what kind of questions are you specifically trying to answer? Is this usually an ongoing regular task for you or just done occasionally as needed? What kind of data or insights would be practically valuable to you if you could discover anything you wanted to know about your niche, search engine "keyword landscape" (organic, paid (Google PLA's) or other SERP features), specific competitors or their products, marketing assets etc, anything at all related to your entire online market. What are the biggest market research & analysis related problems you struggle with right now either due to existing solutions being none, inadequate, too slow/complex or too expensive. Finally can you recommend any related tools in this area you use currently that you consider invaluable must-haves and why? Hoping to find something interesting here I'm not already familiar with :-) Thanks in advance! |