Discovering The Best Deals And Discounts With A Rakuten Proxy

Often called “the Amazon of Japan”, Rakuten is one of the most popular E-commerce sites in existence today. As a huge affiliate marketing platform, the site essentially pays you to shop with them. Rakuten makes deals with companies to help them acquire customers and when you access a company via the website, the company will pay Rakuten a referral fee. Rakuten then gives you back a percentage of that payment. Talk about a win-win situation for everyone.

As wonderful as all that is, there is a way to further enhance your experience on the site and it goes by the name Rakuten proxy. Read on or use the table of contents to navigate through the article and find out everything you need to know about using a proxy for Rakuten.

What Is a Rakuten Proxy?

When you log into Rakuten, the site is able to identify your device and get a general idea of where you are located because of your device’s IP address. It is because of IP addresses that sites can tell users apart from one and other, monitor and record past activities, make personalized recommendations, and so much more.

But as harmless as this might sound, it can be disadvantageous in certain situations, and having a way to hide your IP address can come in very handy. This is where the use of a Rakuten proxy comes in.

A proxy gives you an alternative IP address with which you can connect to the site. When using a proxy IP address, your device’s IP address remains hidden and all the interactions you have with the site are indirectly conducted via the proxy IP address.

Why Shop Rakuten with a Proxy?

If you’re wondering how exactly masking your IP address could enhance your experience on this platform, here are a few benefits of using a Rakuten proxy that you should be aware of:

1.  Anonymity and improved security

Having your IP address exposed can put your device at risk, especially when you connect to the internet via public or unsecured Wi-Fi. Bad actors sometimes use IP addresses to hack devices and conduct various forms of malicious activities like mining private data and identity theft. A proxy IP address can provide an extra layer of protection, serving as a shield between you and cybercriminals. This means that you can rest assured that the private data you put into the Rakuten site is safer.

2.   Breaking geographical barriers

Depending on where you are located, the Rakuten site might look a bit different. Because your IP address is linked to your physical address, you might not be able to access certain features that have been made available only in particular countries.  With a proxy IP address, you can switch up your location and have any location-based shopping experience you desire.

3.   Buying limited edition products

Some brands, especially top sneaker brands like Adidas, release limited edition products that go out of stock super fast. They place limits on how many of these products a particular person can purchase. This presents a big challenge, specifically for retailers looking to resell.

As already mentioned, it is only through IP addresses that websites can tell their users apart. With a proxy IP address, you can hide your identity, present yourself as another customer and make more purchases.  Using multiple IP addresses, you can quickly make as many purchases as possible before the products go out of stock.

4.   Scraping Rakuten data

Rakuten is a site that gives you access to the products, prices, coupons, promo codes, and discounts of thousands of different companies. Going through all of this data manually can take time and effort. And you are likely to miss out on a whole lot of good deals this way. Web scraping provides a way for you to automate this process and collect all the data that you need efficiently.

For example, if you are trying to buy a rice cooker, you can set up a scraper to find all mentions of “rice cooker” on the site along with other relevant pieces of information such as price, associated rewards, discount rates, etc. With a good scraper, you can get all of this information within minutes and it will all be presented to you in a neat Excel or CSV file for you to go through. With the data obtained, you can find the best possible deals on the site, make a great purchasing decision and save yourself loads of money.

The benefits of Rakuten data scraping go far beyond personal uses, however. As a business owner, you can use a Rakuten scraper to conduct market research and industry analysis. You can use data on the site to find out what prices, rewards, and discounts your competitors are offering to buff up your marketing strategy.

But what is the relationship between a Rakuten proxy and web scraping? In short, proxies help make the process of web scraping more efficient. Websites that host private consumer data are sensitive to the automated activity of web scraping bots. These sites often mistake such activity as malicious and block IP addresses associated with them to protect their user’s data. Proxies provide an alternate IP address for you to use after bans. This allows you to overcome one of the greatest challenges web scrapers face and collect large volumes of data quickly.

Choosing the Right Type of Proxy for Rakuten

There are several types of proxies available for you to choose from. Each of them has specific benefits and drawbacks. To make sure that you are getting what you are looking for, it is important to choose the right type of Rakuten proxy for your use case. Here is a breakdown of some of the commonest types of proxies available:

Dedicated Rakuten proxy

A dedicated proxy remains the sole property of the person that purchases it for the period that it is paid for. This means that when you buy a dedicated proxy, only you have access to it. Because no one else is sharing it with you, it is generally faster. For the same reason, it is more secure and you don’t have to worry about someone else getting it banned from the Rakuten site. Dedicated proxies are great if all you want is increased security or to switch out your location.

Semi-dedicated proxy for Rakuten

A semi-dedicated proxy is one that is shared by a few users. Since other people use the address with you, there is a higher likelihood of slow network speeds and it is a bit less secure. On the other hand, it is a cost-effective option and with a good provider, the drawbacks are usually eliminated.

Rotating proxy

A rotating proxy is one that is set up to change its IP address at regular intervals. If you would like to attain the highest level of anonymity, a rotating proxy is the way to go.  Also, unlike dedicated and semi-dedicated proxies, rotating proxies are excellent for web scraping. That’s because when one IP address gets banned during scraping, it is automatically switched to another one allowing the process to continue seamlessly.

Residential proxy for Rakuten website

Residential proxies are those that are associated with physical residences. These IP addresses come from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Verizon who give them to homeowners when they purchase Wi-Fi sources like modems. As such, proxy providers have to get these addresses from real people which results in them being relatively expensive.

Because they are associated with physical addresses and belong to actual people, they look legitimate to websites. If you used a residential proxy IP address to connect to Rakuten, it would take a while for the site to realize that a proxy IP address is being used. This low likelihood of detection makes residential proxies great for web scraping.

Datacenter proxy

Datacenter proxies are created and distributed by data centers. They are not associated with ISPs or physical residences. As such, it is way easier for websites to detect them as proxies and ban them. In light of this, they are a poor choice for web scraping – you will need hundreds to thousands of them to complete a project. But, compared to residential proxies, they are cheaper, more readily available, and great for increased security and anonymity. Learn more about the differences between residential and datacenter proxies in this blog post.

The Best Rakuten Proxy Provider

For a truly seamless experience, you need high-quality proxies that are fast, safe, and reliable. Rayobyte has proxies that tick all of these boxes and have a ton of other features to give you the best experience possible.

Our proxies run at speeds of 1GBS and we offer unmetered bandwidth so that you can enjoy that speed without any limits. With end-to-end control of our hardware, we are in charge of all the factors that affect the performance of our proxies. As such, we can guarantee 99% uptime and promise that our proxies will not disappoint you when you need them the most.

Whether you want a datacenter proxy to improve your security on Rakuten or you are looking to scrape loads of Rakuten data with a residential proxy, we have what you need. We are available to answer any questions you might have and provide you with assistance or guidance 24/7. Get in touch with us today!

Final Words

With over 10 million users and more than $1 billion in cashback rewards paid out by the site so far, Rakuten is inarguably one of the biggest online retail platforms. Whether you are a consumer trying to get the best deals possible or you are a retailer trying to conduct market research, a Rakuten proxy is an indispensable time-saving tool that can help you enhance your experience on the site.

The information contained within this article, including information posted by official staff, guest-submitted material, message board postings, or other third-party material is presented solely for the purposes of education and furtherance of the knowledge of the reader. All trademarks used in this publication are hereby acknowledged as the property of their respective owners.