A federal statistical requirement (Bureau of Labor Statistics) needing managed, recurring apparel data from major US department stores — three collections monthly, secure delivery, full schema, QC, and documentation.

Use Case

Federal / Statistical Data (BLS)

Region

United States

Retailers

Macy's, Kohl's, Nordstrom, Dillard's, JCPenney, +more

3× / Month

Collection Schedule

Apparel + More

Footwear, Jewelry, Watches

SFTP

Secure Delivery

Data Dictionary

+ QC Documented

Contact Sales

Key Takeaways

Actowiz delivered a managed, recurring web-scraped apparel-data service across major US department stores — Macy's, Kohl's, Nordstrom, Dillard's, JCPenney and additional retailers — for a federal statistical requirement. Data was collected three times monthly (around the 1st, 10th, and 20th), covering men's, women's, children's and infant apparel, footwear, jewelry, and watches, with each product's price, identifiers, category, description, brand, material, and detailed attributes. Delivered via secure SFTP in standard structured formats with a data dictionary, defined QC, and documented handling of site changes and anti-bot measures, the service met the reliability, provenance, and documentation standards a government statistical program requires.

What did the client need?

The requirement is a managed web-scraping and data-delivery service supporting a federal statistical program (Bureau of Labor Statistics), covering major US department-store websites — at minimum Macy's, Kohl's, Nordstrom, Dillard's, and JCPenney, plus additional apparel retailers as needed.

The service had to capture as much of the online US assortment as possible across men's, women's, children's and infant apparel, footwear, jewelry, and watches; collect three times monthly (around the 1st, 10th, 20th); deliver via secure SFTP in standard structured formats; and provide a data dictionary, QC process, and documented handling of site changes and anti-bot measures — using commercially available data only, without the government's name or systems.

What made this hard?

Federal-grade reliability. A fixed three-times-monthly schedule with next-business-day delivery demanded a highly reliable, monitored pipeline.
Broad assortment. Maximum available assortment across apparel, footwear, jewelry, and watches from multiple large retailers.
Rich product schema. Prices, identifiers, category, description, brand, material, and detailed attributes (sleeve length, closure type, etc.).
Documentation & QC. A data dictionary, QC/validation process, and documented failure-handling were mandatory.
Compliant collection. Commercially available data only — no government name or system access used.

How did Actowiz solve it?

Actowiz delivered a managed, monitored apparel-data service to the federal schema, with secure delivery and full documentation.

Approach

Multi-retailer coverage. Macy's, Kohl's, Nordstrom, Dillard's, JCPenney and additional retailers, maximizing assortment capture.
Fixed schedule. Three collections monthly (≈1st, 10th, 20th) with next-business-day delivery and a full monthly dataset.
Full product schema. All required fields captured where available, including detailed attributes.
QC & validation. Documented quality-control, completeness monitoring, and validation.
Resilient operations. Documented handling of site changes, crawler failures, and anti-bot measures.
Secure delivery. Structured formats (CSV/Excel/delimited/SAS) via SFTP, with a data dictionary.

Data Attributes / Fields

Field	Description
date_collected / retailer	Collection date and retailer
sku_product_id	SKU / product ID
category / subcategory	Category hierarchy
current_offer_price / regular_price	Offer and list price
third_party_seller / shipping_fee	Seller and shipping, where applicable
brand / material	Brand and material
attributes	Sleeve length, closure type, and other specs where applicable
description	Detailed product description

What were the results?

Federal-grade service. A reliable, documented, thrice-monthly data feed fit for a statistical program.
Broad assortment. Wide product coverage across apparel, footwear, jewelry, and watches.
Secure & documented. SFTP delivery with a data dictionary and defined QC.
Resilient. Documented processes for site changes and anti-bot interruptions.

Project at a Glance

Metric	Value
Use Case	Federal / statistical data (BLS)
Region	United States
Retailers	Macy's, Kohl's, Nordstrom, Dillard's, JCPenney, +more
Categories	Apparel, footwear, jewelry, watches
Schedule	3× monthly (≈1st/10th/20th)
Delivery	Secure SFTP, structured formats + data dictionary
Compliance	Commercially available data only

Client Feedback

“For a federal statistical program the bar is reliability and documentation — the schedule cannot slip and every field needs provenance. Actowiz delivered a managed service with SFTP, a data dictionary, and QC we could stand behind.”

— Program Contractor, Federal Statistical Requirement

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Which retailers are covered?

A: Macy's, Kohl's, Nordstrom, Dillard's, JCPenney, and additional major US apparel retailers as needed.

Q: What is the collection schedule?

A: Three times monthly, around the 1st, 10th, and 20th, with next-business-day delivery and a full monthly dataset.

Q: How is data delivered securely?

A: Via SFTP in standard structured formats (CSV, Excel, delimited, SAS), accompanied by a data dictionary.

Q: How are site changes and anti-bot measures handled?

A: Through documented monitoring, failure-handling, and maintenance processes, with QC and completeness checks.

Q: Is the collection compliant for government use?

A: Yes — only commercially available data is collected, without the government's name or system access.

Need a managed, documented recurring data service?

Actowiz Solutions runs enterprise- and federal-grade recurring scraping with SFTP delivery, QC, and full documentation. Visit actowizsolutions.com to discuss your data requirement.

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