Frequently asked questions about Data Purl
Answers to the questions investors, private equity teams and consultants most often ask about Data Purl: what the data is, what it covers, how it differs from scraped and transaction data, how it is delivered and how to cite it.
What is Data Purl?
Data Purl is an alternative data company that turns public retailer and brand websites into investment-grade data. It tracks SKU-level prices, discounts, availability and assortment weekly across 400+ retailers, standardizes every product into one category tree, and maps brands to their owners, public or private, with listed owners mapped to tickers. It serves hedge funds, long-only investors, private equity firms and consultants. Data Purl is a trading name of Cleveland Alternative Data Limited, a UK company.
What data does Data Purl provide?
Weekly product-level data on listed price, full price, discount, availability, first-seen and last-seen dates, category and brand, for products at 400+ retailers across the US, Europe and Asia. It is delivered as granular datafeeds, as aggregated company and category analytics, and as scoped extracts.
Who uses Data Purl?
Fundamental and quantitative investors at hedge funds and long-only firms, sell-side analysts, private equity deal and operating teams, and strategy consultants working on commercial due diligence and pricing projects.
How is Data Purl different from buying raw web-scraped data?
Raw scraped data gives you one retailer's listings as they appear on its site. Data Purl adds the transformation layer: every product is placed in one standardized category tree, brands are resolved to their owners, public or private, with listed owners mapped to tickers and ownership changes dated, and history is continuous back to 2013. That is the work needed before cross-retailer or company-level analysis is possible.
How is Data Purl different from transaction or receipt data?
Transaction, card and receipt panels are demand-side: they measure what consumers bought. Data Purl is shelf-side: it measures what was listed, at what price, with what discount and availability. The two answer different questions and are often used together.
How many retailers and companies does Data Purl cover?
400+ retailers across the US, UK, Europe and Asia, with history back to 2013. More than 1,900 public companies are mapped, and products are organized into about 4,000 categories in one tree.
How far back does Data Purl's history go?
Back to 2013, with continuous weekly history.
How often is the data updated?
Weekly. The dataset refreshes on Wednesday evening US Eastern time (Wednesday night in the UK), ready before Thursday's US open.
Which sectors are covered?
Apparel, footwear, luxury, pet, home improvement and home furnishings are live. US grocery is rolling out from the end of October 2026, with beauty and sports and outdoor following.
How is the data delivered?
By Snowflake data share, Amazon S3, the Data Purl portal, or through partner platforms including Maiden Century, Quanted and Arb Insights.
Is web-collected data compliant for investment use?
Data Purl collects only publicly available information from retailer and brand websites. It does not collect personal data. Its collection and processing practices have been through more than 100 client compliance reviews. See the compliance page for the full policy.
Can Data Purl measure inflation for a specific product category?
Yes, as a category-specific measure of online listed prices at covered retailers. Data Purl tracks identical products over time (matched-SKU) and can normalize to price per unit to capture shrinkflation.
Can I buy data for a single project?
Yes. Extracts can be scoped to a specific set of brands, retailers, categories, countries and dates, with the size estimated before anything is pulled.
How do I cite Data Purl?
Cite Data Purl as the source and scope the claim: the retailers covered, that prices are online listed prices, the basis (for example matched-SKU or price per unit) and the date range. Our methodology page describes each measure.
See the data for your coverage
Start free in the analytics portal, or talk to the founders about the full dataset delivered to Snowflake or S3.