search-close-icon

Search here

Can't find what you are looking for?

Feel free to get in touch with us for more information about our products and services.

What is Data Normalization & Why Enterprises Need it

Data normalization

In the current era of big data, every successful business collects and analyzes vast amounts of data on a daily basis. All of their major decisions are based on the insights gathered from this analysis, for which quality data is the foundation.

One of the most important characteristics of quality data is its consistency, which is when corresponding data fields are of the same type and in a standard format across datasets. This consistency is achieved by data normalization — a process that ensures and improves company-wide success.

What is data normalization?

If you look up web scraping on Google, it is most often defined as a technology that allows you to extract web data and presents it in a structured format. Big data normalization is the process that organizes this unstructured data into a format, and makes subsequent workflows more efficient.

Generally speaking, it refers to the development of consistent and clean data. Its main goal is to reduce and eliminate redundancies and anomalies, and to organize the data so that, when done correctly, it is consistent and standardized across records and fields.

Do you need data normalization?

Simply put — yes! Any data-driven business that wants to succeed and grow needs to regularly implement data normalization in its workflow. By removing errors and anomalies, it simplifies what are usually complicated information analyses. This results in a well-oiled and functioning system full of quality, reliable and useable data.

Since data normalization makes your workflows and teams more efficient, you are able to dedicate more resources towards increasing your data extraction capabilities. As a result, you have more quality data entering your system and get better insights on important aspects, thus enabling you to make more low-risk, data-backed decisions. Ultimately, you see major improvements on how your company is run.


Related read:


How it works

The basic idea of data normalization is to create a standard format for data fields across all datasets. An example of datasets before and after normalization is shown below:

Normalized data

Apart from this basic standardization, data normalization experts have defined five “normal forms,” with each rule placing each entity type into a number category based on the complexity levels.

For simplicity, we’ll look at the basics of the three most common forms — 1NF, 2NF and 3NF — in this post.

Data to make or break your business
Get high-priority web data for your business, when you want it.

First normal form (1NF)

In the first normal form, each cell must have a single value and each record must be unique. This ensures there no duplicate entries.

First normal form

Second normal form (2NF)

For data to fulfil the 2NF rule, it should firstly comply with all 1NF requirements. Then, it must have only ‘primary key’ (ID in the example below), for which all subsets of the data are placed in different tables. Relationships among entities can be created via ‘foreign keys’.

Second normal form

Third normal form (3NF)

In the 3NF rule, the data should firstly satisfy all 2NF conditions. Then, it should only be dependent on the primary key (ID). In case this primary key is changed, all the data that is associated with it and thus impacted should be moved to a new table.

Third normal form

If you’d like a more detailed explanation about the normal forms, you can find it here.

Advantages of data normalization

In addition to the merits mentioned above, the following are some of the other major benefits of normalizing any data:

Improved consistency

With data normalization, all your data and information is stored in a single location, which reduces the possibility of inconsistent data. This in turn improves the quality of your dataset, thus strengthening your foundations, so teams can avoid unnecessary risks during decision-making.

More effecient data analysis

In databases crammed with all sorts of information, data normalization eliminates duplicates and organizes unstructured datasets. This removes all unnecessary clutter, freeing up spaces to drastically improve processing performances.

As a result, all important systems load quicker, and run smoother and faster, allowing analysts to process and analyze more data and gain more valuable insights than ever before.

Better and faster data-driven decisions

Thanks to normalization, teams and analytical systems process more data with ever-increasing efficiency. Moreover, with already-structured data available, they spend little to no time in modifying and organizing data. Such datasets are easy to analyze, so you are able to reach more meaningful and insightful conclusions much quicker, saving valuable time and resources.

Improved lead segmentation

Lead segmentation is one of the most effective methods to grow your business, and normalization simplifies it manyfold. After normalizing the dataset, it becomes easier to segment your leads based on industries, job titles, or any other attribute. You are then able able to create specific campaigns and tailor experiences based on the specific needs of each target segment.


With data becoming increasing valuable to companies and brands worldwide, it is imperative to prioritize its quality to reap lasting benefits. Normalization ensures consistency across all of your datasets, so everyone in your organization is on the same page to move seamlessly towards achieving the common goal.

Hence, data normalization should not merely be one of the options or tools at your disposal, but one of the first processes that you employ to take your company to the next level.

About Grepsr

At Grepsr, we always strive to provide the highest quality data to our customers. The basic aspects of data normalization — deduplication, standardization, etc. — are always the first parts of our QA process. The datasets we deliver are therefore reliable and actionable straight out-of-the-box, so you’re able to quickly gather insights and charter the path of continued success.

Web data made accessible. At scale.
Tell us what you need. Let us ease your data sourcing pains!

BLOG

A collection of articles, announcements and updates from Grepsr

Car-rental-data-thumbnail

Drive Success with Car Rental Data Extraction

Tap into the capabilities of car rental data extraction with Grepsr. Outperform competitors, fine-tune fleet management, and just do more.

POI data enrichment

The Power of Web Scraping: Enriching POI Datasets

Discover how web scraping is revolutionizing the extraction and enrichment of POI data, ensuring accuracy and timeliness

Customer-reviews-scraping-banner

Customer Sentiment Analysis and the Role of Web Scraping

Web scraping is indispensable for any Customer Sentiment Analysis Project. Learn how you can leverage web scraping to your advantage.

Web-data-to-excel

Extracting Data from Websites to Excel: Web Scraping to Excel

Web scraping and Excel go hand in hand. After extracting the data from the web, you can then organize this data in Excel to capture actionable insights. The internet, by far, is the biggest source of information and data. Juggling through multiple sites to analyze data can be quite irksome. If you are analyzing vast […]

Web-scraping-terms

A Comprehensive Glossary of Terms for Web Scraping

Web scraping has become an essential tool for extracting data from websites in various industries.  However, understanding the terminology associated with web scraping can sometimes be challenging. In this blog post, we have endeavored to provide you with a comprehensive glossary of terms that will help you navigate the world of web scraping easily.  Whether […]

in-house vs external service provider

Five Reasons Why You Need an External Data Provider

Web data extraction of large datasets is almost impossible with in-house capabilities. Learn why you need an external data provider.

jobs-data-analysis

Analyzing US Job Postings Data to Understand Job Market & Economy

Leveraging one of Grepsr’s job postings data projects to gather insights — the hottest industries and employers, including working conditions

Web Scraping for Lead Generation: Open a Portal to Sales

Reaching out to leads and converting them into customers doesn’t have to be a shot in the dark. Web scraping can help you get access to high-quality leads databases and scale your lead generation process.

web scraping data solution

Web Scraping: An Unlikely Data Solution

Data has now become something of a currency in the twenty-first century. But, when you think of data, does web scraping come to your mind?  We’re here to tell you it should.

real estate prospecting

Zero-in on Your Real Estate Prospects with Data

Big Data technologies make real estate prospecting more credible and effective by giving you access to real-time web data. You can use web scraping to gather actionable web data and analyze the real estate market environment on a city block level.

web scraping with python

Web Scraping with Python: A How-To Guide

Most businesses (and people) today more or less understand the implications of data on their business. ERP systems enable companies to crunch their internal data and make decisions accordingly. Which would have been enough by and itself if the creation of web data did not rise exponentially as we speak. Some sources estimate it to […]

data quality metrics

Know Your Data Quality Metrics With Grepsr

The importance of data quality cannot be overstated. One wrong entry and the corruption will spread without exception. The best way to counter this threat is to set up effective data quality metrics. 

web-scraping-with-php

How to Perform Web Scraping with PHP

In this tutorial, you will learn what web scraping is and how you can do it using PHP. We will extract the top 250 highest-rated IMDB movies using PHP. By the end of this article, you will have sound knowledge to perform web scraping with PHP and understand the limitation of large-scale data acquisition and […]

service better than tools

Why Data Extraction Services are Better Than Tools for Enterprises

The key factors that set a data extraction service apart from its do-it-yourself variant

grepsr partners with datarade

Press Release: Grepsr joins Data Commerce Cloud (DCC) to meet global need for actionable, on-demand DaaS solutions

Dubai, UAE / Berlin, Germany. 1 December 2022 – Grepsr, provider of custom web-scraped data, has become a Premium Partner of Datarade’s Data Commerce Cloud™, the platform which makes data commerce easy. Grepsr’s data products are now available to buy on Datarade Marketplace and other DCC sales channels. Grepsr processes 500M+ records, parses 10K+ web sources, and extracts data […]

Screen Scraping: 4 Important Questions for Scoping your Web Project

Screen scraping should be easy. Often, however, it’s not. If you’ve ever used a data extraction software and then spent an hour learning/configuring XPaths and RegEx, you know how annoying web scraping can get. Even if you do manage to pull the data, it takes way more time to structure it than to make the […]

data refinement

Why Data Refinement is Important for Your Business

Did you know most analysts spend 50 to 80 percent of their time refining their data than any other function in the data lifecycle? Even when we include other steps like data extraction, data analysis, and data visualization? We’ve talked at length about the importance of data for your business. The only thing we’ve emphasized […]

data in travel & tourism

Significance of Big Data in the Tourism Industry

In a post-pandemic reality, big data helps travel agents and travelers make better decisions, minimize risks, and still have memorable holidays.

Grepsr’s 2021 — A Year in Review

Our growth and achievements of the past year, and reasons to get excited in 2022

Make Data Make Sense: Most-Used Techniques in Data Analysis

This is one piece of a three-part series that looks at the various methods, techniques, and essential steps to superior data analysis.

data normalization

Applications of Data Normalization in Retail & E-Commerce

From improving customer experience to establishing brand authority, data normalization has wide-ranging applications in retail and ecommerce.

web scraping

A Smarter MO for Data-Driven Businesses

Data is key to future-proofing your brand. Web scraping is the first step towards achieving long-term data-driven business success.

data analysis

Business Data Analytics — Why Enterprises Need It

Objectivity vs subjectivity The stories we hear as children have a way of mirroring the realities of everyday existence, unlike many things we experience as adults. An old folk tale from India is one of those stories. It goes something like this: A group of blind men goes to an elephant to find out its […]

data quality

Perfecting the 1:10:100 Rule in Data Quality

Never let bad data hurt your brand reputation again — get Grepsr’s expertise to ensure the highest data quality

data visualization

Data Visualization Is Critical to Your Business — Here Are 5 Reasons Why

Data visualization is a powerful tool. When done correctly, it is a much more elegant method of explaining even complex concepts compared to lengthy texts and paragraphs. Maps and graphs have existed since the 17th century as a means of visualizing data. It was in the mid-1800s that the world saw one the first examples […]

airfare data

Benefits of Using Web Scraping to Extract Airfare Data from OTAs

Use web scraping to extract airfare data from OTAs and airlines’ websites to give your customers the best possible start to their holiday experience.

legality of web scraping

Legality of Web Scraping — An Overview

Ever since the invention of the world wide web, web scraping has been one of its most integral facets. It is how search engines are able to gather and display hundreds of thousands of results instantaneously, and how companies build databases, develop marketing strategies, generate leads and so on. While its potentials are immense, there […]

image scraping

Image Scraping — What is It & How is It Done?

From retail and real estate to tourism and hospitality, images play a vital role in influencing customer decisions. Hence, it is important for brands to see what kinds of photos are turning prospects into customers. On the other side, customers go through numerous products and images before settling on a final choice. Similarly, analysts browse […]

data from alternate sources

Data Scraping from Alternate Sources — PDF, XML & JSON

An unconventional format — PDF, XML or JSON — is just as important a data source as a web page.

QA protocols at Grepsr

QA at Grepsr — How We Ensure Highest Quality Data

Ever since our founding, Grepsr has strived to become the go-to solution for the highest quality service in the data extraction business. In addition to the highly responsive and easy-to-communicate customer service, we pride ourselves in being able to offer the most reliable and quality data, at scale and on time, every single time. QA […]

benefits of high quality data

Benefits of High Quality Data to Any Data-Driven Business

From increased revenue to better customer relations, high quality data is key to your organization’s growth.

quality data

Five Primary Characteristics of High Quality Data

Big data is at the foundation of all the megatrends that are happening today. Chris Lynch, American writer More businesses worldwide in recent years are charting their course based on what data is telling them. With such reliance, it is imperative that the data you’re working with is of the highest quality. Grepsr provides data […]

11 Most Common Myths About Data Scraping Debunked

Data scraping is the technological process of extracting available web data in a structured format. More businesses globally are realizing the usefulness and potential of big data, and migrating towards data-driven decision-making. As a result, there’s been a huge rise in demand in recent years for tools and services offering data for businesses via Data […]

amazon scraping challenges

Common Challenges During Amazon Data Collection

Over the last twenty years, Amazon has established itself as the world’s largest ecommerce platform having started out as a humble online bookstore. With its presence and influence increasing in more countries, there’s huge demands for its inventory data from various industry verticals. Almost all of the time, this data is acquired via web scraping […]

amazon data extraction

Customer Review Insights: Analyzing Buyer Sentiments of Amazon Products

Actionable insights from Amazon reviews for better decision-making

A Look Back at Grepsr’s 2020

A brief look at Grepsr's achievements in data extraction and industry reach in 2020, and a glimpse into 2021 plans.

Importance of Data and Data Quality Assessment

According to Charles Babbage, one of the major inventors of computer technology, “Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.” Babbage lived in the 19th century when the world had not yet fully realized the importance of data — at least not in the commercial sense. Had Babbage been […]

Our Newly Redesigned Website is Live!

We’ve redesigned our website to make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for

Preview the New Look Grepsr App

Everybody’s favorite big data tool is getting a fresh coat of paint (and some behind-the-scenes tweaks)

data mining during covid

Role of Data Mining During the COVID-19 Outbreak

How web scraping and data mining can help predict, track and contain current and future disease outbreaks

Grepsr’s 2019 — A Year (and Decade) in Review

Time flies when you’re having fun

Introducing Grepsr’s New Slack-like Support

Making our data acquisition specialists more accessible to busy professionals

Getting an Unstructured Data Error Message? Here’s Why

When you tag data fields using our web scraping browser extension, you may get an error message sometimes that says “The data is unstructured. Please try again.” at the bottom-right corner of the screen. Cause The main reason this happens is that the selected fields are located in different containers within the website’s HTML code. This […]

Introducing Grepsr’s Data Quality Report

Quality assured data to help you make the best business decisions

APIfy the Web with Grepsr Realtime

Convert any website into easy-to-use APIs

Report History/Activity on the Grepsr App

A walk-through detailing your report history and how to access (and download) your report’s data from historic crawl runs

Grepsr’s 2018 — A Year in Review

As we say hello to 2019, everyone here at Grepsr firstly wishes our readers and valued customers a very Happy New Year! We look forward to your continued love and support in the new year and beyond. Here’s a look back at some of Grepsr’s highlights in 2018. New Product In addition to our existing […]

Data Retention in Grepsr

New policy announcement

Automate Future Crawls Using Scheduler

Configure and enable schedules to automate future crawls

Data Delivery via Email

Have your Grepsr files automatically delivered by email

Data Delivery via Dropbox

Have your Grepsr files synced automatically to your Dropbox

Data Delivery via FTP

Have your Grepsr files synced automatically to your FTP/SFTP server

Data Delivery via Webhooks

Get notified as soon as your Grepsr data is ready

Data Delivery via Google Drive

Have your Grepsr files synced automatically to your Google Drive

Data Delivery via Amazon S3

Have your Grepsr files synced automatically to your Amazon S3 bucket

Data Delivery via Box

Have your Grepsr files synced automatically to your Box account

Data Delivery via File Feed

Under File Feed, there are two URLs — marked ‘Latest’ and ‘All’. Here’s a brief demo:

Customized Data Extraction via Grepsr Concierge

Although Grepsr for Chrome is a powerful tool in itself, it sometimes lacks the capability to extract data from some websites that are poorly structured, where data fields are hidden, and so on. Here we give you a simple demonstration on how you can get data from these complex websites via our custom platform — Grepsr Concierge. […]

Web Scraping Tutorial for Grepsr Browser Extensions

We designed Grepsr Browser Extensions to make data extraction simple for all of our customers  —  whether they’re technically in tune or not so much.

Common Issues and Tips to Get the Best out of Grepsr

We know how annoying it is when you’ve spent time setting up Grepsr for Chrome to collect your data fields, and then you get back partial or no data at all.

A New Look to the Grepsr App

If you’re a regular Grepsr app user, you may have noticed a slightly modified navigation bar with some new icons at the top of the Grepsr data extraction platform. Previously, all projects would be listed in one place. Now, to make things simpler and more streamlined, we’ve separated the app into two parts based on […]

Grepsr — the Numbers That Matter

Our stats since the start of 2018

Feeds & Endpoint API for Your Data in Grepsr

In our last post, we showed you how to automate your data delivery process in the Grepsr app. This time let’s have a quick look at data feeds and endpoints[*]. Your scraped data’s Endpoint API is the final stop it makes in its journey— starting from the host website, then to your Grepsr account via our crawler, and […]

Automate Your Data Delivery on the Grepsr App

I’m sure you’ve already got the hang of Grepsr for Chrome by now. If you’re like some of our users who are inquiring about data delivery on the app, then this blog is for you! Once you’ve set up your project and the app starts to extract your data, depending on the volume of data requested, it might […]

Two Cool Features You May Have Missed in Grepsr for Chrome

If you’re in constant need of up-to-date and accurate data for your business, chances are you’re using our chrome extension, Grepsr for Chrome, to do the scraping. If you haven’t tried it yet, why haven’t you? It’s fun and easy to use! Although Grepsr for Chrome is already a powerful scraping tool, there might still be a few […]

web scraping with python

Track Changes in Your CSV Data Using Python and Pandas

So you’ve set up your online shop with your vendors’ data obtained via Grepsr for Chrome, and you’re receiving their inventory listings as a CSV file on a regular basis. Now you need to regularly monitor the data for changes on the vendors’ side — new additions, removals, price changes, and so on. While all this information […]

Kick-Start Your E-commerce Venture with Grepsr

400+ million entrepreneurs worldwide are attempting to start 300+ million companies, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. Approximately a hundred million new businesses start every year around the world, while a similar number also fold. What sets successful firms apart are the innovations and resources they utilize that help them stay healthy and relevant. Grepsr […]

How to Use Grepsr Browser Tool to Scrape the Web for Free

A beginner’s guide to your favorite DIY web scraping tool Just over a year ago, we introduced the all new Grepsr along with a beta launch of Chrome extension to fill the gap that Kimono Labs, a widely popular scraping tool, left since it’s closure. Now after a year of iteration on both the UI and UX along with shipping […]

Our Kimono Labs Replacement (Grepsr for Chrome) Levels Up

We’ve recently made a number of improvements to make Grepsr for Chrome that little bit easier, and more handy to use. We’ve also received tons of feature requests (keep ’em coming!), so we thought we’d share couple of our favorites that have most recently made it into Grepsr for Chrome. Infinite Scrolling and Enhanced Pagination Support From […]

Welcome To The (New) Grepsr Blog

Hello, Grepsr friends and family, and welcome to the next chapter of Grepsr Blog! It may not look much different yet, but we’re ramping up our editorial operation. Over the next few months you’ll see more posts, more announcements and analysis, more writing, and even new forms of content here. We’re still hammering out all the […]

Introducing the All New Grepsr

Chrome Extension, APIs, Better Support & Much More

Importance of Web Scraping in the Age of Big Data

Big Data has become an internet buzz lately. Not a day goes by without a mention of Big Data in many articles published by media or tech companies around the world.

FIVE Essential Questions for Assessing your Big Data Deployment Readiness

Big Data isn’t just a big buzzword. Nor is it merely a business ritual. Ask yourself these 5 essential questions to know if you business is ready for data-driven transformation in the Big Data era.

Seven Areas Where Big Data has Brought Big Transformations

As the volume, variety, and velocity of Big Data increases, so does its value and application. Today, there is a widespread use of Big Data, and the whole fabric of life has become increasingly data driven. Here is a brief review of 7 major areas which have gone through massive transformations driven by data:

Data Mining for Developing Business Intelligence

The growing use of digital technologies in every sphere of life has resulted in the rapid escalation of digital data. While digitization of the facilities of everyday use has given rise to datafication, the process of datafication has produced a byproduct known as big data, which is regarded as a new oil of the digital […]

How Grepsr Works: A Brief Introduction

Web crawling and data extraction services at Grepsr are simple, quick, hassle free and intuitive. We focus on providing top–quality services to our customers in the highly competitive rates. Our strong base–with cutting-edge technologies and advanced infrastructure–in Kathmandu and our maturing technical expertise in the area have helped us to compete with the top tire […]

11 Interesting Quotes about Data

These days, almost everybody—be it a casual technophile or a trailblazing technocrat—has something to say about the usefulness of data. Apparently, there is no area of human interest where you cannot achieve agility, efficiency, and better outcome by deploying data science. Business, astronomy, neuroscience and you name it. Data had never been generated with such […]

Big Data & Power of Personalization

According to Wikipedia, Big data is a field that treats ways to analyze, systematically extract information from, or otherwise deal with data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing application software. “Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else […]

Big Data is Redefining News & Journalism

If digital data were something physical, it would have massively altered the shape of our world, probably, with new data mountains rising every hour. Whether you browse the web or flip pages of print media, you are sure to stumble upon some news about big data, all the while feeding the web with your digital […]

Data Mining: How Can Businesses Capitalize on Big Data?

In the recent years, data mining has become a prickly issue. The big controversies and clamors it has gathered in the political and business arenas suggest its importance in our time. No wonder, it is used as a household name in the business world. Data mining, in fact, is an inevitable consequence of all the technological innovations […]

Web Scraping vs API

Every system you come across today has an API already developed for their customers or it is at least in their bucket list. While APIs are great if you really need to interact with the system but if you are only looking to extract data from the website, web scraping is a much better option. […]

Grepsr at Startup Asia event in Jakarta

We are just back from an awesome start-up event in Jakarta, Indonesia organized by TechInAsia. There were big investors and experts from the Asian tech industry at the event. We shared the stage with 15 other start-ups who pitched their product in front of a big crowd – it was an amazing experience! The reception […]

Web Crawling Software or Web Crawling Service

Some people ask us if we are a “service” or a “software”. We simply tell them – we are a service, with killer software that runs behind the scenes! 🙂 Also, lot of our customers ask us, why go for a Web Crawling Service over a Web Crawling Software? The answer is pretty straight forward. […]

Managed Data Extraction Service

Grepsr is what we like to call, “Managed Data Extraction Service”. Here are some of the reasons why we call it “managed”: We let you focus on your business and use the data — worrying about technical details of extraction is our job, and we will do it for you. We let you describe your […]

Official Launch of Grepsr (Beta)

We are immensely proud to launch Grepsr today. Grepsr is probably one of the first Web 2.0 Software as a Service (SaaS) products for website data extraction. So what does this mean for the customers? Cheaper costs – you pay a flat monthly fee no matter how big or small your extraction needs are. Fully […]

arrow-up-icon