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Prices rise, prices fall, and retailers set their prices according to what they believe the market is willing to pay. When there is high demand and scarcity, prices are high, and when stock is plentiful, and demand is low, prices come down. This concept most of us understand already, but online eCommerce shopping only sometimes seems to fit this predictable pattern. Online shopping seems a little more designed to hijack our human phycology and get us to spend more than we need to, despite market demand and availability. This is why price track apps are so important to monitor what and how much you want to spend on an item.
What someone is willing to pay for an item online on any given day can involve rational thinking, like it being a necessity and convenient. But, more so, it tends to be our irrational thinking that dominates our purchase-making decisions online because that's precisely how advertisers have designed it.
You've probably heard the quote, "We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like." this is very true, but we also have a myriad of other irrational spending behaviours. We buy things solely based on them being a "bargain" without considering the lifetime value of the item. We are willing to spend a lot more money to get discounts, free shipping, and small bonuses, and we also have this weird thing called the left digit effect, where we prefer numbers ending in .99 over .00.
Much of our irrationality towards money comes from our cognitive biases and tendency to make emotional decisions to avoid pain and gain pleasure. So how do we help our brains into making better purchasing decisions? How can we adopt a more forward-thinking approach and stop giving in to our emotions? Well, the answer may lie in some simple disciplines, which over time, really add up.
If you have read the popular book "Barefoot Investor", you may be familiar with the concept of paying yourself first and setting up "buckets".
Other strategies for avoiding unnecessary emotional spending include waiting 48 hours before purchasing items that just caught your attention (and reflecting on why you feel they are necessary). Sticking to a weekly grocery shopping list rather than popping into the shops daily, and also by placing more value on having fewer possessions rather than more. If you've watched any popular home organisation shows, you will have heard the phrase "you get the stuff, or you get the space; you don't get both." Or "Only keep that which brings you joy or is known to be useful". The more awareness you have towards the emotional reasons you make purchases, the better you can make more rational decisions.
Maybe you want to know Top Shopping Assistant Apps in 2023
So how do we decide what to spend our hard-earned money on and avoid paying top price for the items we want and need?
It comes down to a bit of research, and luckily for us, in our modern world of online shopping, new technology is helping automate the process of price comparison and price track apps.
An online price tracking tool monitors, analyses, and compares product prices across different websites. It sends notifications to users when product prices change or information becomes available about online deals.
There are many price tracking tools. Some tools allow you to compare prices from different retailers, while others provide a detailed price history for specific products. Some apps can even help you locate the best deals from nearby shops.
Here are our picks of the price monitoring apps and websites that are true game changers and can help make your 2023 one of "price awareness".
Your Personal Price Tracker and furry companion. Save items from different retail stores in one place and wait for Fetchie to dig up-to-date pricing, pricing history, and price drop alerts. Add as many favourites as you want to your Fetch List, and it will automatically track the prices for you. Get instant price drop alerts and pricing history for your items; that way, you'll know when and if there's a good deal.
Why we love this: It’s free, and you can monitor prices from any product item URL on the internet. Simply paste the URL link, or tap the share button and send to the App. You can create lists for monitoring your everyday essentials, or track items you want to buy “when they go on sale”. The app is very easy to use, and provides a direct link to buy from the retailer, saving you time searching for it on the retail website.
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Google's shopping tool can help savvy consumers save money and get the products they want. The redesigned Google Shopping experience lets you track prices on items you want to buy. Google already tracks the prices of flights you might be interested in for your next vacation, and now the company can track prices for individual products you may be interested in purchasing.
Why we love this: It’s free, and you can monitor prices from any product item URL on the internet.Simply paste the URL link, or tap the share button and send to the App. You can create lists for monitoring your everyday essentials, or track items you want to buy “when they go on sale”. The app is very easy to use, and provides a direct link to buy from the retailer, saving you time searching for it on the retail website.
How to price track with Google Shopping
Website change detection, monitoring and alerts. Visualping is a handy web monitoring program. It has helped over 1 million users effortlessly detect changes on web pages. At the time of this blog, their website says that a mobile app is coming soon. They currently offer a website, browser extension, and web widget.
Why we love this: Enter a website you want to start tracking. When a change on the page is detected, Visualping will send you a screenshot of the page, highlighting what's changed. You can dig deeper into the changes on the website dashboard. For personal use, for up to 5 pages a day checked once a day, it's completely free, which makes it an excellent recommendation.
My only problem with Visualping is that in its simplicity of sending you updates on website changes, the changes made on the website might be insignificant to you. In other words, it doesn't use (to the best of my knowledge) any AI intelligence and machine learning to understand if changes made on the website are significant to YOU.
Here are the use cases as explained on their website similar to price track apps:
If you are a fan of shopping on Amazon, here are tools you should check out these price track apps:
Our Pick: Pricepulse
Track any product on Amazon, and get push notifications when prices drop to find the best deal. Save hundreds of dollars every time you shop with Pricepulse, a new shopping app that instantly checks every product's price history and determines if you're buying at the lowest price. Pricepulse uses Artificial Intelligence technology to create a price tracker that tells you the best time to buy and deals across millions of products. From nappies to laptops to pet food, check Pricepulse before you buy on Amazon.
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We search for the internet's best coupons so you can stop wasting time and money. PayPal Honey is one of the best price track apps that helps you find coupon codes on 30,000+ sites.
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