I spent the past year creating Price Hipster, a product search engine and price watching website for the OzBargain community!

Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 01/11/2015 - 11:45
Last edited 13/11/2015 - 12:45

Update 13/11/15: Thanks everyone for the support and feedback! I realise there are heaps of comments here and no one wants to read through them all. If you have a suggestion, it has probably already been raised. I'm currently working on a big update and I'll be sure to let you all know when I release it. I'll be keen to get further feedback and suggestions then. :-)

Hi fellow OzBargainers!

I've spent the past year creating a powerful tool for you all.

https://www.pricehipster.com.au/

These are the reasons I created Price Hipster:

  1. Searching for products across multiple stores is painful. Sometimes you don't even know which stores to check for a product. Wouldn't it be great to conveniently search all stores from one place?

  2. Even if you want to find a product in one particular store, most store websites are very bad at searching their own products, and they're slow at it.

  3. There is no convenient way to find out the previous prices of products, making it difficult to hold vendors accountable for false claims of discounts. Some products vary wildly in price. Some change price nearly every day. For example:

https://www.pricehipster.com.au/product?id=NJNmxsZ3k5n

I really appreciate those OzBargainers who have taken the time to use internet archives to dig up previous prices, but it's less than ideal, and hopefully will now be a thing of the past!

Price Hipster currently includes 5 websites in its index. That will expand in the near future.

Questions for you all:

  1. Which stores should be added next?

  2. OzBargainers in Western Australia, how is the search latency for you? The search servers are in Sydney. I live in Brisbane and the search is pretty much instantaneous here.

If you find any issues with the website or have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

General Discussion

Related Stores

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Comments

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 16/04/2016 - 17:40
          +1

          Yes. I've been an OzBargainer for many years and we've all been missing something like this. I decided to make it myself.

          It's not finished yet. I plan to make it into something truly great.

  • frewer on 18/04/2016 - 13:45

    I heard about your site not long ago, I think I will use it more often now ( if I do remember ). Thank you for the effort though

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 18/04/2016 - 14:09

      Nice. I hope you continue to get more and more use out of it :-)

  • eatwell365 on 19/04/2016 - 21:54

    server is currently down?!

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 19/04/2016 - 22:05

      Nope. Is it not working for you?

  • pyramid on 19/04/2016 - 22:10

    @Rep, when i hit "https://www.pricehipster.com.au/", it comes with few items by default. On what basis it shows me such default items?

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 19/04/2016 - 22:12

      Hi pyramid. There are multiple factors, including discount and popularity. I'll be improving the way it works soon.

  • eatwell365 on 20/04/2016 - 06:29

    Which stores should be added next?

    Bras n things

    Is it possible to have filter (checkboxes) on stores?

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 20/04/2016 - 06:34

      What do you mean? You can filter which stores by clicking the icon on the search bar.

      Thanks for the store suggestion!

      • eatwell365 on 20/04/2016 - 06:37

        Yes. Find it now on search bar. Thanks,

  • stuckster on 05/05/2016 - 13:12

    Hey jazoom
    Very cool site. Been using quite a bit.

    Looks like you have a bug with pricing data from Amcal.
    Huggies Nappies shows normal price of $49.95 for a 24 pack. Regular price is usually $9.99

    48 packs are usually double that at about $20

    • stuckster on 05/05/2016 - 13:37

      Some more "Was" pricing anomalies creeping in affecting % discounts.
      "Captain America Quilt Cover Set" Was $3,959. ;)

      I know the OzBargain crowd are pushing you to add more stores, but I reckon data integrity is far more important than adding more stores. I would much prefer 10 stores with rock solid data than 50 stores with sketchy data. I think when users start questioning the data is when they will stop using the site.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/05/2016 - 17:27

        I know about this and I'm hunting the bug. I already made some changes yesterday. Thanks for helping out. :)

        You don't have to worry since this isn't a "data integrity" issue as much as it is a display issue. The prices are correct. It's just the 'normal price' calculation appears to be going wrong somewhere. That figure is calculated fresh every time it's updated so an incorrect value doesn't affect future values.

        Edit: actually, it appears the calculation is correct. The "normal price" is calculated based on the most common price. If Amcal leaves the price at what it is it'll soon change to the lower value.

        The quilt is obviously the wrong 'normal price'. This is a relic from a previous bug that was resolved a long time ago. The data is actually all correct in the database, but the search database didn't get this one updated for some reason. I'll force a refresh tonight. Thanks for pointing it out!

        • stuckster on 05/05/2016 - 18:13

          No problem. Happy to help. Impossible for one person to catch everything :)

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/05/2016 - 18:14

          @stuckster: I appreciate it

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/05/2016 - 21:24

          @stuckster: Hey, just an update. I've refreshed the search database and it appears all the problems went away. I'm not sure why it was out of sync with the canonical database for a few items. :)

  • stuckster on 05/05/2016 - 13:16

    Also a UI suggestion…

    When using the filter, it would be great if it didn't scroll with the page. Kind of annoying when you get to the bottom to have to scroll all the way back to the top to change the filter.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/05/2016 - 17:29

      I'm currently working on a big overhaul of how all that works. It'll probably be completely different soon.

      • stuckster on 05/05/2016 - 18:13

        Sounds good. Look forward to seeing it. If you need some beta testers let us know.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/05/2016 - 18:14

          Thanks stuckster

  • stripe on 13/05/2016 - 18:39

    Love the site. Just have one suggestion: It would be great if we could click on a product on our price drop dashboard and be taken the item product page itself. I want to be able to look at price history, etc without having to search for the specific item again which can sometimes be a bit of a pain.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 13/05/2016 - 18:40
      +1

      I totally agree. That's on my to-do list. :-)

  • thrice-a on 16/05/2016 - 18:32

    Hey dude
    I am in love with this site. I use it daily. Thanks heaps.
    Wondering if you are planning to add msy/scorptec soon?

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 16/05/2016 - 19:35

      Hi thrice-a!

      Thanks for your support!

      Scorptec is on the cards to be added very soon, as long as the product feed they've supplied is accurate, you'll see them within the next couple of weeks.

  • lwinstan on 18/05/2016 - 08:24

    Hey Jazoom

    The site, at present, isn't updating search results automagically.

    Cheers!

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 18/05/2016 - 08:30

      Thanks for letting me know. Vultr has been having issues since yesterday. I just rebooted the server and it's working now.

  • SilentDissident on 20/05/2016 - 02:41

    I was looking at some items on Master's website, then I went to price hipster to set up a price drop subscription and those items do not come up in price hipster at all. Not sure what is going on but just thought I would let you know even though you have masters as a store on price hipster, not all of their products are coming up.

    The items in question are

    https://www.masters.com.au/product/100694652/bernzomatic-ts8…

    https://www.masters.com.au/product/100422876/bernzomatic-pro…

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 20/05/2016 - 06:28

      It seems you're right. Thanks for letting me know. The products for Masters are actually supplied to Price Hipster by Masters themselves. Are they new products?

      • SilentDissident on 20/05/2016 - 08:39

        Not sure how new they are, personally personally only became aware/ interested in them 10 mins before I made they post here.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 20/05/2016 - 08:40

          Maybe they haven't added them to the feed yet.

  • ang911 on 23/05/2016 - 19:46

    Is the site down? I am getting a 503 error

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 23/05/2016 - 20:18

      Yes it was. Sorry about that. I just pushed a big (under the hood) update and one little thing was out of place in the server. It should be back up now.

  • Olokun on 24/05/2016 - 06:58

    Hi Jazoom,

    It appears this morning that the 'hide' button to hide the filters doesn't work. tried on iPhone 5s, Safari and chrome

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 24/05/2016 - 07:28

      Thanks for letting me know. I am aware of this problem and will fix it soon. I pushed a major update last night to change the internals of how the site works and a few issues slipped through.

      Try it on a desktop and let me know what you think of the navigation/URL.

      • Olokun on 24/05/2016 - 10:01

        The 'x' button to remove all filtered stores does not work on Desktop browser (Firefox)

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 24/05/2016 - 12:11

          Thanks. I'll look into it.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 24/05/2016 - 17:34

          Fixed. I'll push the update tonight. Thanks again.

  • Olokun on 30/05/2016 - 12:56

    Just a heads up, it appears now that when you view a product, close the page and click/move back to the search bar the browser will then go back a page.

    This occurs on both my iphone and desktop.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 30/05/2016 - 12:59

      Thanks for letting me know. Actually I tried to find the cause of this last night but had no idea why it was happening.

      When I was lying in bed I realised the cause. I'll fix it later today. Hopefully I'm right. :-)

      • Olokun on 30/05/2016 - 13:00

        Cool, first couple of times it happened to me there were a few swear words under the breath as I thought I was slipping and hitting the back button. lol

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 30/05/2016 - 14:15

          Yes. It's super frustrating.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 30/05/2016 - 20:54

          It should be fixed now :-)

  • Islander on 03/06/2016 - 14:04

    Great work Jazoom, love the price history feature you have built in.
    Keep it up.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 03/06/2016 - 14:43

      Thanks, Islander!

  • stuckster on 22/06/2016 - 10:03

    Hey Jazoom
    Is it possible to use the search operator 'OR' in Price Hipster?
    eg: Bonds Trunk OR Trunks

    The problem is if I search for say Bonds Trunk it does not include results with the word Trunks (plural). Is there a way to make it do this? or to use the 'OR' search operator?

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 22/06/2016 - 10:17

      I'll have to make the search smarter. An OR operator would be patching up a dumbness in the search. Thanks for bringing this up.

  • No ONE on 03/08/2016 - 23:08

    Is something wrong with the website. It does not seem to load anything from mobile os neither iOS nor Andriod as at today 3/8/2016 11pm?

    • nocure on 03/08/2016 - 23:11

      Probably a bit of site maintenance.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 03/08/2016 - 23:20

        It WAS a bit of server maintenance, but Elasticsearch decided to be a bit lame in an update and now I'm staying up several hours late trying to get it all working again :(

        • No ONE on 03/08/2016 - 23:37

          I was wondering so thanks for the update and reply. cheers

          Edit: It's working now. Thanks.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 03/08/2016 - 23:38
          +2

          @Oz Bargain 3: Yeah, I just had a stroke of genius and got it going. I'm so glad I can now go to sleep haha. :)

  • Shiny Mew on 10/08/2016 - 22:09

    Needs more Aldi, though I understand the issue. I find the fact aldi doesn't list its products and prices online infuriating and is the reason I usually don't shop there.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 10/08/2016 - 22:20

      Since Aldi likes to say they beat everyone on price it would be great if they were more open about their prices.

  • thydzik on 14/08/2016 - 01:02

    I use price hipster so much for price comparisons, thanks again.

    what about Dymocks books and Ikea?

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 14/08/2016 - 06:17

      You're most welcome! At this stage Price Hipster is adding all stores that provide a feed of their products so the best way to get your favourite stores on board is by encouraging them to join Price Hipster. ☺

      • thydzik on 14/08/2016 - 14:52

        what about using the sitemaps?

        create a online partition for every store, I'm sure a lot of us would happily sign.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 14/08/2016 - 15:01

          They wouldn't see. The best is probably to post on their Facebook page.

        • thydzik on 14/08/2016 - 15:05

          @jazoom:

          or use the sitemaps, but don't link back to the stores, then send them details of missed traffic.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 14/08/2016 - 15:19

          @thydzik: The problem is that with hundreds of stores it's not sustainable to individually get products from each store. Sitemaps aren't as helpful as you might think. Most stores don't even have them either.

          Either I spend all my effort trying to add stores 1 by 1 or I create a platform that so many people use that stores want to join.

  • Neoika on 15/08/2016 - 18:50

    Hi,your site moved to domain .com?

    Great website,thanks again!

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 15/08/2016 - 19:01

      Yup. You are very observant!

  • stuckster on 16/08/2016 - 15:53

    Hey Jazoom,

    I just had to re-login to Price Hipster. Signed in with my old email but was resent confirmation email. After logging in I noticed that all my product alerts and store groups have now disappeared. ??

    • Olokun on 16/08/2016 - 16:02

      Same thing happened to me.. Just close your browser and re-load. They should eventually re-appear.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 16/08/2016 - 16:42

        Sorry it took a while to sync. That's not the behaviour I noticed when I had to login again.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 16/08/2016 - 16:41

      The email is how you login. No password, remember?

      I actually changed domain and somehow it slipped my mind that the data in your browser wouldn't come along for the ride. Otherwise I would have showed a notification or something.

      I don't know why your data didn't immediately resync with the server, but rest assured it's there. Nothing with the database was changed in this update. 😀

      • stuckster on 16/08/2016 - 16:46

        Cool will try it again now.

      • stuckster on 16/08/2016 - 16:52

        Hmm. Just shut down the browser and tried again. Each time I log in it sends me a new confirmation email…like it doesn't recognise that my email is already in the system. I am using the same email I am receiving daily alerts, price drops etc on.

        When I confirm my login using the email link it takes me to the site and says "Wecome Back Username". But none of my data is in there.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 16/08/2016 - 16:54

          Would you be so kind as to paste here the wording in that email? It's slightly different depending on whether or not you're a new user.

          Hmmm… I'll have to look into that. What browser and operating system are you on?

        • stuckster on 16/08/2016 - 16:56

          @jazoom: Yeah I'm getting

          Hi Username!

          Welcome back!

          Remember, Price Hipster uses a passwordless login system. This email is used as proof of your identity. Be sure the browser that loads is the one you want to be logged into.

          Click this button soon because it only lasts for 24 hours!

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 16/08/2016 - 17:02

          @stuckster: Yes that's right. That's the login email. It is different if you're a new user. So that just leaves the issue of you not getting your user data synced from the server.

          Could you please send me the link you get here: http://www.whatsmybrowser.org/

          You can PM me if you like.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 16/08/2016 - 17:23

          @stuckster: Oh! I've found what might be causing that. Thank you so much for bringing it to my attention! Give me a little while and I'll push an update.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 16/08/2016 - 18:46

          @stuckster: I think it's fixed now (along with a couple of other bugs). Thanks again for reporting it. It's very helpful!

        • stuckster on 16/08/2016 - 18:51

          @jazoom: Yep. It's back! Thx

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 16/08/2016 - 18:55

          @stuckster: :-)

  • stuckster on 19/08/2016 - 13:51

    Hi Jazoom,

    Just wanted to check how PH indexes products from a store such as Masters.

    Doing some research for a Tekraft tool chest and was wanting to set a price alert. I noticed that searching for "Tekraft" on the Masters website returns 51 products. While on PH the same search only shows 33 products (not including the tool chests I am interested in) https://pricehipster.com/?nameQuery=tekraft&stores=Masters

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 19/08/2016 - 13:53

      Hi stuckster,

      This would be because the products for Masters are provided to Price Hipster by Masters themselves. Apparently they have left a few products out of the feed. :-(

      • stuckster on 19/08/2016 - 14:07

        That's a pain. Is this a feed they provide specifically for PH or a general product feed that partner organisations can tap into? I it is the latter then I would have thought it would be completely automated running of their main product database. Odd (and a shame) that some products are missing from the feed.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 19/08/2016 - 14:23

          Mate, you wouldn't believe it. I am actually pleasantly surprised when a merchant is able to provide a feed with 0 problems. I'm just one dude making a database of millions of products from hundreds of different sources. If I can get that right, I don't see why large organisations couldn't just "tap into" their own database to fetch some products. But, it is what it is. I do my best to make everything smooth.

  • Olokun on 26/08/2016 - 08:38

    Hi Jazoom

    I was wondering if it was possible to allow keyword exclusion without the need for search for any keywords.

    As an example, if you conduct a 1 day price change on Harvey Norman, all you get are rugs. So I tried to use -rug in the search but it doesn't work.

    Cheers.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 26/08/2016 - 08:47

      Good point. I'll see what I can do about that. Thanks.

    • stuckster on 26/08/2016 - 09:37

      Yes I would fully support more search operators. Very powerful.
      "-" "OR" "AND" "Phrase" just to list some key ones.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 26/08/2016 - 12:04

        "-" actually already works, just not in the one case Olokun mentioned.

        I'm not convinced of the use of "AND"/"OR" since the search already works in that way by default. You can enclose terms in "" to search for an exact term.

        I know explicit boolean searches can be useful but the benefit would be so little for so few it's probably not worth it. Even Google took it away.

        It is on my list to improve searching in general, though.

        • stuckster on 29/08/2016 - 09:29

          I think Google still uses "OR" https://www.google.com.au/advanced_search

          I personally find AND/OR really useful.

          For example right now I was searching for pressure cleaners but discovered that some stores call them pressure cleaners while some call them pressure washers.

          Hence my preferred search would be [pressure cleaner OR washer] so I can bring them all up on one page and compare brands/prices etc.

          What did you mean about the search working in this way by default?
          If I search for [pressure cleaner OR washer] I get no results.
          If I search for [pressure cleaner washer] I get results with "pressure" and "washer" but no "cleaner".?

          cheers

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 29/08/2016 - 11:17

          @stuckster: Okay, I see what you mean. I didn't realise Google still did OR. Thanks for clearing that up.

          What I meant by "default" was that currently Price Hipster search will prioritise results that have all search terms (AND) and include results with any search terms (OR).

          Taking the example you gave, it seems to offer no huge advantage with an instant search service like Price Hipster. Type "pressure cleaner" to get results. Then change the search to "pressure washer" to get those results. It's essentially instant. Certainly quicker than typing out AND/OR syntax.

          I can see some appeal in scrolling down a list with the OR results, and it would make it shareable via URL.

          However, since less than 1% of people would ever use the AND/OR I feel it would be better for me to spend effort on improving the search overall.

          I'm happy for you to continue pleading the case, though. 😀

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 28/08/2016 - 18:40

      Okay, that should work now.

      As an added bonus, I've also made images load about 100x faster for most products. ;-)

  • Limitless on 27/08/2016 - 14:54

    Hi Jazoom is it just me or are the spotlight deals linking to the Singapore store? Loving the new updates by the way! The ability to search price drops for one day only is amazing!

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 27/08/2016 - 15:03

      Ha! Not just you. Good pick up. I'll get that fixed.

      And thanks. :-) More improvements are in the works.

      • Limitless on 27/08/2016 - 15:14

        Thank you :)
        Great news the site just keeps gettting better and better!

  • tanksinatra on 30/08/2016 - 12:12

    Has the site gone down? I can't reach it.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 30/08/2016 - 12:34

      It's working for me. Are you still having issues?

      • tanksinatra on 30/08/2016 - 13:50

        its working again.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 30/08/2016 - 14:14

          ☺

  • ebayer007 on 31/08/2016 - 08:56

    Can you guys add superamart to the list?

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 31/08/2016 - 09:05

      Hi james0360, at this point I'm happy to add pretty much any appropriate store that provides us with a product feed. Feel free to reach out to Super Amart and encourage them to come on board. ☺

  • matambanadzo on 21/09/2016 - 11:03
    +2

    In WA. Website is super responsive. And results are near-instant! Awesome.
    Love the price history graphs. Catch those companies that really aren't having a sale. :-)
    Thanks Jazoom.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 21/09/2016 - 11:53

      You're welcome ☺️

  • mmd on 11/10/2016 - 13:12

    Price hipster is fantastic but I noticed not all items appear from the store such as the good guys.
    I would like to know the history of a kitchen appliance but can't find it.

    As above, no issues in WA at all

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/10/2016 - 13:18

      Hi mmd! Unfortunately some items escape being found for one reason or another. It's something I'm always keen to improve. It does happen, but the vast majority (greater than 99%) of items should be there across all stores.

  • Olokun on 17/10/2016 - 07:37

    Hi Jazoom

    Just wondering if you had any new progress/thoughts about getting this add to Price Hipster?

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/3316613/redir

    I can't believe it's been almost a year since you launched the site. Congrats again on the fantastic site. Tears for DS and Masters :(

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 17/10/2016 - 08:01

      Hey Olokun,

      Thanks for the reminder. I am doing a major refresh of the website at the moment but after that I'll have a look at adding model numbers. I can think of a few reasons why it might be technically difficult and probably not worth the effort at this point, so I won't make any promises. That would only be for a few stores as well, since the vast majority of stores provide the product data directly. Something like this is probably best left to naturally fall into place as more stores provide good product data directly.

      I also can hardly believe it's been a year. I've been working non-stop making the site better but I feel like it's been mostly behind the scenes stuff just to keep it running smoothly. Some of those have been pretty big projects.

      Let me know what you think when I drop the new UI changes soon.

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