1. The Problem: Why This Matters
Extracting structured data from websites is essential for market analysis, competitive intelligence, and pricing research. However, manually scraping and organising this data is time-consuming and inefficient. Businesses need an automated way to collect, process, and export website data into useful formats for analysis and reporting.
2. The Solution: How It Works
This workflow automates web scraping and data export by:
- Fetching website content from a specified URL.
- Extracting and processing structured data, such as book listings and prices.
- Sorting data based on price or other key attributes.
- Converting the extracted data into a CSV file.
- Saving the data to Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel.
- Sending the CSV via email for easy access and sharing.
3. Key Benefits
- Automates the collection and processing of website data.
- Saves time by eliminating manual data entry and formatting.
- Ensures data is available in multiple formats (CSV, Google Sheets, Excel).
- Provides a scalable solution for continuous web data extraction.
- Enables easy sharing of extracted data via email.
4. Workflow in Action
- A manual trigger or scheduled automation starts the workflow.
- The system fetches website content from a predefined URL.
- HTML parsing extracts relevant data, such as book titles and prices.
- The data is split into individual records for processing.
- The extracted data is sorted by price.
- The structured data is saved to Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel.
- A CSV file is generated and emailed to specified recipients.
5. Example Use Case: Real-World Scenario
An online bookstore wants to track competitor book prices and availability. Instead of manually checking websites, they use this workflow to:
- Automatically scrape book listings and pricing from competitor sites.
- Sort books by price to identify the best deals and pricing trends.
- Save data in Google Sheets for internal tracking.
- Email a CSV report to the marketing and pricing teams.
By automating this process, the bookstore stays competitive, makes data-driven pricing decisions, and saves hours of manual work.