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

Price Hipster
Price Hipster

Comments

  • auna on 05/11/2015 - 03:09

    Looks amazing so far!

    Just wondering about things like Woolworths dollars. If it's $1.00 at woolworths and has $0.72 reward dollars it looks way more enticing. Is it possible to detect that?

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/11/2015 - 09:21

      I'm not sure, but those kinds of idiosyncrasies will have to wait until other, more important features are in place.

  • Ametric on 05/11/2015 - 09:25

    Well done, OP, your website works really nice!

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/11/2015 - 09:28

      thanks :)

  • lysp on 05/11/2015 - 10:57

    A suggestion:

    Under the price, put some history information.

    eg:
    * (in red) 10% more than average
    * (in green) 15% lower than average
    * (bright green) historic low

    The was/now doesn't show you any indication if its higher or lower than normal.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/11/2015 - 12:24

      That's a good idea. I'll probably adjust the colours or something else like it.

  • Danthemanz on 05/11/2015 - 12:41

    Can we have a sort by price option?
    Thanks, love the speed of the site!

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/11/2015 - 13:33

      Those kinds of features are on the way. :-)

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 10/12/2015 - 18:49

      Search filters are now in place, among other things. :)

      • Danthemanz on 11/12/2015 - 10:52

        Great.
        I would LOVE a sort by low to high price option! Please….
        Dam this site is fast, its quite amazing.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 12:32

          Thanks. That's on my to-do list. :-)

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/02/2016 - 10:03

          Hi Danthemanz. Just letting you know that your request has now been granted. Search is much more flexible and you can sort in a few different ways. Thanks for your feedback!

        • Danthemanz on 11/02/2016 - 19:34

          @jazoom:

          Great work mate!

  • pwalia on 05/11/2015 - 20:03
    +1

    First impression, WOW! its fast. Well done mate, its on my Bookmark and Favourites bar already, will keep using going forward. Good Job!

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/11/2015 - 22:30

      Thanks for your support!

  • thrice-a on 05/11/2015 - 20:25

    This site excites me. Great work mate.
    This might have been asked already (I haven't read every comment), but when can we expect updates?

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/11/2015 - 22:32

      I've spent the last couple of days fixing bugs that you guys have reported. Updates will be coming pretty quickly.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 10/12/2015 - 18:50

      Now! :)

  • matt777 on 05/11/2015 - 20:47

    Great work. Love it

  • GourmetFoodie on 05/11/2015 - 21:43

    Amazing site. Great work! The speed is impressive.

    Pretty please add David Jones, Myer, Priceline, Adore Beauty! Thank you!

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/11/2015 - 22:35

      I've never heard of Adore Beauty. Free shipping is cool. I added them to the list.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 10/12/2015 - 18:51

      Hi GourmetFoodie! Myer and David Jones made the list this time. More will be added in future. Thanks for your suggestion!

  • rgr on 05/11/2015 - 22:20
    +1

    you're getting insane reception @jazoom, good luck in a couple years when price hipster becomes a full blown business with an ABN :). you've got good traction and the potential to create a large user base. you might think about looking for ways to grow it make some revenue off of it to invest back into the product.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/11/2015 - 22:38

      As I was making it I knew it was something the OzBargain community would like but I'm surprised by just how supportive you've all been with it. The reception and feedback has been great. I'll definitely keep developing Price Hipster into the best product it can be.

  • [Deactivated] on 05/11/2015 - 22:47

    Haven't read the entire thread - only bits 'n pieces - so don't know if anyone else is having the same result… When I click the link, Firefox says the site certificate can't be verified (or something similar) - warns me it's a security risk, etc.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/11/2015 - 22:52

      Hey that's really strange. You're actually connecting to CloudFlare's servers and they handle more SSL connections than anyone else in the world. If you have trouble with them you must have issues on a lot of websites?

      • [Deactivated] on 06/11/2015 - 00:00

        Nope, it rarely happens. Except on dodgy sites with free ebooks/torrents and the like. Here's what it says:

        This Connection is Untrusted

        You have asked Firefox to connect securely to www.pricehipster.com.au, but we can't confirm that your connection is secure.

        Normally, when you try to connect securely, sites will present trusted identification to prove that you are going to the right place. However, this site's identity can't be verified.

        What Should I Do?

        If you usually connect to this site without problems, this error could mean that someone is trying to impersonate the site, and you shouldn't continue.

        www.pricehipster.com.au uses an invalid security certificate. The certificate is not trusted because the issuer certificate is unknown. The server might not be sending the appropriate intermediate certificates. An additional root certificate may need to be imported. (Error code: sec_error_unknown_issuer)

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 06/11/2015 - 07:53

          That's not good for business, haha. Is it still happening? I'll have to get in contact with CloudFlare if it is.

          What's your browser version?

        • [Deactivated] on 06/11/2015 - 11:55

          @jazoom: Yep still the same just now. Firefox v41.0.2 - could be just me? (I'm running XP!?)

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 06/11/2015 - 18:07

          @realfamilyman: Same version as my Firefox and I don't get that issue. Ugh…

          Does it persist if you clear your cache?

        • [Deactivated] on 06/11/2015 - 18:43

          @jazoom: Just did so - and yep, still the same.

          I tried using my smartphone…

          Firefox browswer works.
          Google browser doesn't!?
          HTC browser does.
          Opera (which I installed a few days ago) says:

          Hey there, Thanks for visiting Price Hipster! Unfortunately, we have detected that your browser is behind the times and does not know how to display modern websites like Price Hipster. etc.

          Edit: (Via Wi-Fi - through the same modem/router.) Oh well. Haven't tried Chrome on this desktop yet, because my computer grinds to a halt when I open it.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 06/11/2015 - 23:24

          @realfamilyman: It doesn't work in Chrome on phone or Firefox on desktop but it does work on Firefox on your phone. Also, no one else has had this problem as far as I am aware. I don't know if I'm going to be able to fix this for you. :S I have no idea what's going on there. Time will tell, I suppose.

          You sure it's not Opera Mini? Opera should support Price Hipster. Opera Mini is seriously outdated in what it supports.

        • [Deactivated] on 07/11/2015 - 00:56

          @jazoom: Yeah, mini - I just shortened it. Outdated eh? I only installed it because I was getting suggestions constantly to install it, saying it was this and that - great, etc. LOL.

        • [Deactivated] on 07/11/2015 - 01:03

          @jazoom: Hm… Now that's interesting… I have two desktop computers running. This one (Pentium 4, WinXP, 1GB RAM). And a second one (PIII, WinXP, 500MB RAM). Both have the same version of Firefox installed. This one (the 'faster'/'newer' one) pops up that message. The second one connects without whinging!?

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 07/11/2015 - 07:04

          @realfamilyman: Wow. I'm impressed you're using a Pentium and Windows XP. Something tells me if you upgrade to an operating system from the last decade some of the issues might disappear. I can't be sure though, since I don't know what the cause is. But then there's your mobile device saying the same thing? Is your router really old?

        • [Deactivated] on 07/11/2015 - 12:11

          @jazoom: A year or two maybe. Draytek Vigor 2710n.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 07/11/2015 - 15:35

          @realfamilyman: I'll keep pondering on this to see if I can determine the cause.

        • [Deactivated] on 07/11/2015 - 18:44

          @jazoom: Thanks. I'll probably just click the 'make exception' button. I just wanted to let you know first before I did - but if it's working with the same version of firefox for others, and the PC right next to me which is older but same version too… Must be something on this particular computer only.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 07/11/2015 - 19:04

          @realfamilyman: Thanks for the feedback!

  • agentsmith on 06/11/2015 - 11:10
    +2

    Features and sites I would like added have all been mentioned in the thread already, so I'll just say that you're on a winner here. I've bookmarked the site already. Once more stores are added (any timeline for that?) it will be great. Just this morning I was checking around the various websites to price a game - no more of that!

    Love the speed / ease of use. Looking forward to seeing how it develops.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 06/11/2015 - 18:08

      Timeline is soon, but after I sort out search filters and price drop notifications.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 10/12/2015 - 18:52

      Okay, all of the above is now implemented. Enjoy!

  • brainactive on 06/11/2015 - 14:12

    Very curious how the items on the front page are determined (search frequency, discount %, or some other combination)? A lot of the items on there seem very heavily discounted and unlikely to be searched a lot. There is obviously no way for me to tell which items are searched most frequently but just my gut feeling.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 06/11/2015 - 18:10

      Ah, the secret sauce. That all happens in a dark room on a bunch of locked-down servers. ;-)

  • dbun1 on 06/11/2015 - 15:06
    +1

    Just had a play with this and it is very good.
    I typed in a few products and could quickly see which store had the best deal, or the item on special.

    I've already shared the link with friends who are keen shoppers.

    Good luck and I hope you succeed in developing it further!

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 06/11/2015 - 18:11

      Thanks for the support!

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 10/12/2015 - 18:53

      Further development granted. :)

  • sonic2011 on 06/11/2015 - 19:25
    +1

    good job mate…really useful and potential website to get hit. Little bit slow and I'd like to see a filter to sort the price. May be you can add binglee, goodguys, myer, davidjones, officeworks, target, bigw etc. More accurate with the "search words".

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 06/11/2015 - 23:25

      What's slow for you?

      • sonic2011 on 07/11/2015 - 08:55

        loading the page..especially the pics of the products.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 07/11/2015 - 15:35
          +2

          That means your internet is slow. The website and the product images are all loaded from different sources.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 10/12/2015 - 18:54

      Hi sonic2011. All those stores except one have now been added!

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/02/2016 - 10:05

      Just updating you that your request has been granted and you can now sort by price. Thanks for your feedback!

  • No ONE on 06/11/2015 - 23:47
    -1

    Op, when are we expecting to see other online store like officeworks, msy, pclan etc. Do you have an estimate date as yet?

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 07/11/2015 - 07:06

      Soon. Can't give an exact date.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 10/12/2015 - 18:54

      Exact date: TODAY :-)

  • nookie on 07/11/2015 - 00:40

    Awesome site mate. Well done. Not sure if this been brought up. How about offering selection of searches like an auto complete when typing in the search engine box. Just like when we search on google.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 07/11/2015 - 07:09

      I think this is essentially what happens with the products that load below. It would just be doubling up and confuse people.

      I know it's a little different, but probably not different enough.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 07/11/2015 - 07:12

      All 3 of those just loaded for me. I suspect Woolworth's site was down for a bit. I can tell you that between 4am and 6am Woolworth's website often has issues.

      • chipstss on 07/11/2015 - 11:50

        You're right, weird.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 07/11/2015 - 15:37

          Yes. I can't imagine why the Woolworths site needs to break almost every morning at that time.

        • Kevan2 on 15/11/2015 - 09:37

          @jazoom: national data line dump left over from older programme? Or shifting funds from short term investment sites?

  • jetfar on 07/11/2015 - 20:04

    Hey well done this is fantastic! Really fast and nice to use :)

    My suggestion is to log all of the searches (and ideally number of results) so that you can analyse the the querystrings later and use that as an input for your roadmap.

    Personal wishlist: Officeworks!

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 07/11/2015 - 20:40

      Thanks for the feedback, jetfar.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 10/12/2015 - 18:55

      Your wish has been granted :)

  • Rozza on 08/11/2015 - 03:14

    Looks like a pretty cool website. Do you have some kind of API planned? I'd love to be able to integrate it into my bot to save the hassle of loading websites up. :)

    I don't know if you've already got it on the list, but adding support for IGA might be nice, depending on what kind of consumers you're targeting. That's the only shop around me, so that's where I shop the most for example. Maybe also Kogan, if possible.

    I noticed a bug though: if you type fast enough when searching, it searches for something else. A search for "fitbit" returned fisher and paykel items, guessing because of the "fi".

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 08/11/2015 - 07:52

      Hi, thanks for the bug report. Do you have relatively slow internet? (Trying to narrow down the reason for the bug).

      Not planning that kind of API.

      • Rozza on 08/11/2015 - 14:35

        Nope, I've got 24/1 and wasn't downloading/uploading anything at the time.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 08/11/2015 - 16:35

          Hm… I can't reproduce this at home, but on slow computers or internet connections if I type quickly I can make it happen.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 10/12/2015 - 18:56

      Hi Rozza! Big update today. I looked into IGA but unfortunately it seems they don't yet believe in putting their products online.

  • matt_will_fix_it on 08/11/2015 - 07:25

    Great website :) well done.

    It would be great if it were to integrate with ozbargain - sort of like camelcamelcamel is for amazon posts (eg see this deal under "Price History" https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/218601)

    Also it would be good if it tracks prices at
    Anaconda
    OfficeWorks
    Bunnings
    Masters

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 08/11/2015 - 07:55

      That integration would be handy, but I suppose that's up to OzBargain.

      Thanks for the feedback.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 10/12/2015 - 18:57

      Officeworks, Bunnings and Masters are now indexed. More info here. :)

  • thecraw on 08/11/2015 - 09:39

    I am actually enjoying the random daily emails. Its like an email from aldi I go..awesome 75% of chick peas…to sweet bluetooth speaker…too wow those bathroom taps look great..

    This website has some great potential. I find i am already using it when out and about. Jumped onto it yesterday whilst in HN to confirm some sale pricing as the product wasnt tagged correctly :)

    Similar to the what the guy said above. I saw the deal on OzBargains then used Pricehipster whilst on the go to confirm.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 08/11/2015 - 16:38

      Thanks for the feedback.

      I've been tweaking the daily deals a bit (preventing all products being from same store, preventing doubles, etc.). Hopefully the bugs are worked out and they'll get much better as more stores are added.

  • salem on 08/11/2015 - 12:07

    Ridiculously fast on my nbn connection and mediocre PC running Ubuntu 14.04 with Chrome 46.0.2490.71. Also running Adblock and not seeing any issues. Good job!

    • salem on 08/11/2015 - 12:10

      OK one issue. I dismissed the email subscription pop up when I first went there. Now I can't see how to subscribe now that I changed my mind. I tried ctrl-f5 but it still hasn't popped back up.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 08/11/2015 - 16:39

        Yeah, it only pops up one in 4 loads. Just load the page a few more times. This is only temporary while I build out the account UI. Sorry for the confusion.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 10/12/2015 - 18:57

        UI is now built out. More info here. :)

  • [Deactivated] on 08/11/2015 - 17:56

    Two things - I think one has already been mentioned:

    1. When you enter your email address, and then receive the email confirmation link, one says you have 10 minutes - the other says 15.

    2. Because I filled that in last night and wasn't paying attention, I clicked it, but the confirmation link had obviously timed out. It said to sign up again. But I couldn't find a way to get the popup window to appear. In the end I had to clear the browser history.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 08/11/2015 - 18:01

      Yup, the answer to the second one is just above, and pretty much what you did. It's a temporary faff.

      The answer to the first one has been mentioned too and it's a bug. It has already been fixed but not pushed to production.

      Thanks for the info!

      • [Deactivated] on 08/11/2015 - 18:08

        May I just point out… When I sign up for such things - sometimes - gmail doesn't receive the email for quite some time. (Some folks may not receive it in time to click it before it expires.)

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 08/11/2015 - 18:11

          Well I can't make them last forever since they are access tokens. It may not seem like it at the moment but when other functionality like price drop notifications are added, it will make sense.

          I use Gmail and have tested hundreds of emails and they've all arrived very quickly.

          Do you think making it 1 hour would be better?

        • [Deactivated] on 08/11/2015 - 21:39

          @jazoom: Purely up to yourself. I just have too much time on my hands, and thought I'd point it out in case you wished to know.

          In most cases such signups do arrive quickly. Now and again one will take hours. (I have no idea why - maybe it was something that had to be approved manually in those cases.)

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 08/11/2015 - 21:42

          @realfamilyman: Yeah. I agree it seems unnecessary just for an email signup, but there isn't any way around it when there is more functionality involved.

          Overall, I think the system is much simpler than others because it doesn't require the user to create and remember a password.

          I'll think about increasing the time, but the longer it gets, the less secure it gets.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 10/12/2015 - 18:58

          @realfamilyman: Hi realfamilyman. Big update today, which hopefully makes the login stuff more accessible and more useful.

  • DaaC on 12/11/2015 - 10:22

    Hi Jazoom

    Great work with the website and looks good. Really like the price history graph popping up before opening the corresponding web portal. I did not read all the 6 page comments here and so, if this question was asked before, please ignore.

    Is there a reason to why there is no list of stores to choose instead of just searching for item?

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/11/2015 - 10:25

      Hi Daac. The reason is: I am currently building that feature, among others.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 10/12/2015 - 18:59

      Feature is now built. :)

  • pwalia on 12/11/2015 - 13:26

    Hi jazoom, Its amazing how I go to pricehipster automatically now whenever I want to check the best price, great work with the website. One small thing i wanted to mention is that DSE prices are not showing same for me when I searched for BROTHER DCP-J552DW, any suggestions?

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/11/2015 - 14:01

      Yup. That's because the price of it changed today and this morning I paused the crawler while I fix some bugs. It'll be working again by tonight.

  • Olokun on 12/11/2015 - 14:09

    So when I search for eg. 'Moccona' I can see all the results which in the description has the different weights. However when I search for eg. 'Moccona 400g' or 'Moccona (400g)' nothing comes up. Is there an explanation for this or is it a bug?

    Edit. Just realized it is not part of the description when I then click on the item. Is it possible to add the weight to the search.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/11/2015 - 14:18

      Yeah, I add it to the name for display. Good point. I can see why that's confusing. I'll look into searching the size as well. Thanks for the feedback.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 10/12/2015 - 19:00

      Hi Olokun. I know you know about the update but I'm just replying to your comment here because I actually did implement this for you. :)

      • Olokun on 10/12/2015 - 19:18

        Legend. Keep up the good work and hopefully the community accepts your site and utilise it as the great tool that it is.

        I have already posted 2 great bargains based on your sites suggestions.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 10/12/2015 - 19:21

          Thanks for the support :-)

  • Olokun on 12/11/2015 - 19:55

    Hey Jazoom,

    I think it may be a good idea to perhaps change the OP with a list your To do list / changelog so users don't keep suggesting the same things. I have so many ideas I want to through your way but aren't sure if they have already been suggested.

    I feel like your website is something that we could get behind as I can see a lot of potential if done right.

    Keep up the good work

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