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

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 14:05

        Thanks for the feedback

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/12/2015 - 22:12

        I just made some changes to the header. Better?

    • VehemenceThePhoenix on 11/12/2015 - 09:16

      It's annoying that you can't set an alert for price drops less than the current price. For example, I would like to be able to get an alert every time Mother 4 packs are below $8, even though it is currently on special for $5.49

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 14:07

        Okay. I will change that. Thanks for the feedback.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/12/2015 - 22:12
        +1

        I just pushed an update. Now you can set any price you like. :-)

    • Bigfoot1 on 11/12/2015 - 09:20

      Fantastic Product. Any chance of getting per kilo pricing for fresh vegetables like brocolli ? At the moment it only shows single item pricing.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 14:08

        Thanks for the suggestion. It's something I might add in the future.

    • VehemenceThePhoenix on 11/12/2015 - 09:22

      Another feature for the future might be to group like products from different stores (and indicate it's available at multiple). Maybe it would be a view switch? Might be hard to automate that (unless you have access to common part numbers), so maybe users could match common products between stores.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 14:09

        Yup, that will be a challenge but it's on my radar.

    • Cooperellie on 11/12/2015 - 09:25
      +3

      Hi,
      I have just joined :)

      Is it possible to add a drop-down button so you can see the price of the selected search item from lowest to highest?

      eg I searched for iphone 6 plus and it's all over the place for an impatient shopper like myself :) - I just want to see the cheapest first.

      Cheers

      Coopy

      • fredblogs on 11/12/2015 - 10:09

        Was about to post the same thing. Typed "ipad air 2 64gb" and was surprised to see more expensive prices first. Imagine if staticice did that; absolutely mandatory feature IMHO.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/02/2016 - 11:47

          Hi fredblogs, just letting you know that you can now sort by price

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 14:10
        +1

        This appears to be a popular request. It's high on my to-do list now. Thanks for the feedback!

        • zoombie on 11/12/2015 - 15:01

          Hi,
          Instead of sorting from lowest to highest, you should group them together and display the lowest price. For example, iphone 6 plus, there are 3 sellers, the lowest price is $1000, the search result would display this price. When the user click on the item, it then display the other prices and which merchant is offering that price.

          • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 18/12/2015 - 12:31

            @zoombie: Hey sorry, just now saw your comment. That will take quite a bit of engineering and will likely come further down the track.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/02/2016 - 11:48

        Hi Cooperellie, just updating you that your request has been implemented and you can now sort by price!

    • ProjectZero on 11/12/2015 - 10:12

      Hey OP, just wanted to say thanks for the website! Save me some money on the JBL Horizon =)

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 15:15

        You're welcome

    • Jit0809 on 11/12/2015 - 10:38

      hey OP, 2 things that will be good to have on your website:
      1) a way to sort and filter the results returned
      2) Feedback link on the website or users wouldn't know where to leave feedback/suggestions

      eg: i was searching for a "TV" but i dont want to look at tv accessories, just the TVs in general. there is no way to do that unless i keep scrolling all the way down past the accessories list as it currently sorts based on price im assuming.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 15:16

        Yes, TV is a tricky one because many are called "television".

        A feedback link is something I might add later. Thanks!

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/02/2016 - 11:48

        jitesh_88, just updating you that you can now sort and filter results. Thanks for the feedback.

    • Mr BoMBAStiG on 11/12/2015 - 11:15

      Any plans to take on Boozle and track alcohol prices? Would be great to have price alerts for dramatic price drops on booze. I use Boozle to check current prices across the board but they don't monitor ALDI and don't have a feature like you have with the biggest discount option. You can choose brands to track but it would be great to select beer or whisky and see if anything has an unusually large price drop.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 17:22

        I do have plans to add liquor stores. I would hate to miss out on the opportunity to help fuel your habit. :-P

    • FrankMt on 11/12/2015 - 11:21
      -5

      I wonder if both this and plug hub have been coordinated community advertising campaigns. While obviously price hipster is a product ozbargain is interested in, its not often this sort of exposure of a product becomes free.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 17:26
        +1

        I'm just a dude who built something and is telling people about it. I don't know what Plug Hub is and a Google search didn't tell me?

        I would hope OzBargain is interested in Price Hipster, since I had you guys in mind while building it. If you guys weren't interested in it, I don't know who would be.

        • FrankMt on 12/12/2015 - 23:25
          -3

          sounds suss

    • Hirolol on 11/12/2015 - 12:16
      -6

      Are you just making these threads for extra free advertising?
      By asking for suggestions for what to put in yet you havent got something as essential as a sort feature.
      maybe i am just throwing accusations out here as it might be in the works (not sure hos much work is involved to implement such a feature) but there is no mention of it (maybe put a section for upcoming updates in description of the thread??)

      That being said i do love the site.
      Does it stock basically EVERYTHING that is on sale because as i go through it i see random stuff from bunnings and masters.

      One thing i would like to be able to do is exclude shops from search results.
      ie i search for $0 to $10 stuff but then get a bunch of really low priced items from certain shops that i know will most likely be out of stock or extremely hard to find. Lets say for example dick smith electronics (totally random choice of course) :)

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 17:31
        +7

        Hi Hirolol. Thanks for the feedback.

        I think it would be pretty silly to spend thousands of hours building something for this community and then not tell you about it. I also needed to update you all because most people have been holding off using it until more stores and functionality were added.

        I have replied to several comments about the sort feature before.

        It indexes everything, not just everything on sale.

        You can exclude stores by using filters and selecting only the stores you do want.

    • bigticket on 11/12/2015 - 12:33

      Great unique site and blazingly fast. A+++

      Would suggest as others have a 'price lowest first'.
      Also more options for price range and/or option to enter values manually like ebay.

      Would be maintenance nightmare to include all the stores selling alcohol and compete with boozle but it would be great to at least include Dan Murphy's and 1st Choice.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 17:34

        Hi bigticket, thanks for the suggestions!

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/02/2016 - 11:50

        Hi bigticket, just letting you know that you can now filter by any prices you like and also sort results. Thanks for the feedback!

    • slewis69au on 11/12/2015 - 13:19

      I vote for including the good guys in your stores. Great site, I love it!

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 17:35

        It's there :-)

        • slewis69au on 21/12/2015 - 17:30

          I can't find this tv there on price hipster.

          KD65X8500C

          It find the JB and Myer listings but not the good guys.

          Here it is as a result of a good guys search:

          http://www.thegoodguys.com.au/sony-65-inches165cm-uhd-led-lc…

          Thanks!

          Stephen

          • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 21/12/2015 - 23:42

            @slewis69au: I don't know why you're not getting it. When I search for "Sony 65"(165cm) UHD LED LCD 100Hz Smart TV" the ONLY result is this TV at TGG.

          • slewis69au on 22/12/2015 - 08:48

            @slewis69au: @jazoom:

            Thanks for the reply - i am searching for KD65X8500C

          • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 22/12/2015 - 08:53

            @slewis69au: @slewis69au: No probs.

            That will only find it if the model number is in the name of the product. With Price Hipster you are better off searching a product's name.

          • Olokun on 22/12/2015 - 11:15

            @slewis69au: @jazoom:

            Any intention for adding the model numbers (ie TGG use 'titleItems_model_digit'? as part of the search queries? Seems both TGG and HN like to do this and it does make search results a bit ambiguous, especially when looking at TVs.

          • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 22/12/2015 - 11:27

            @slewis69au: @Olokun: You're right, it would be useful. Those kinds of optimisations will come later, after all the big features etc. are done.

    • Dave Bowman on 11/12/2015 - 14:20

      Nice work!

      My only feedback is that you'll want to look at the site on a screen with a smaller height, like a laptop. The header takes up way too much space.

      Cheers,
      Klaye

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 17:36

        Hi Klaye. I agree. I will improve the header soon.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/12/2015 - 22:15

        Header improved. Is it better for you now?

    • tikei on 11/12/2015 - 15:12
      +1

      Keep up the great work!

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 17:37

        Thanks tikei!

    • [Deactivated] on 11/12/2015 - 19:22

      Awesome site. Can i ask what your background is? Did u study comp sci? Teach yourself? How long you been doing this for? Etc. Tips for aspiring web devs?

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 19:49
        +4

        I'm actually a doctor haha. I am self-taught with programming etc. I started by learning computer science and programming in Java (mostly from books) for making Android applications while I was in medical school. I dabbled in 3D games for a short while before deciding web dev was awesome. I have since taught myself server and database administration and web development (back and front end, obviously). Price Hipster started as a way for me to learn web dev while making something useful. I've obviously refined things as I've gone along.

        • unelectric on 12/12/2015 - 20:54

          Do you still practice as a Dr?

        • Mrgreenz on 13/12/2015 - 22:04

          Med school with a side serve of self taught computer sci/programing.

          • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 18/12/2015 - 07:51

            @Mrgreenz: Self-taught medicine too, if you ask anyone who went to my med school haha.

    • HuntsmanII on 11/12/2015 - 20:45
      +1

      Gotta say, whilst the site has great potential, the giant black logo/search header at the top annoys me to the point where I don't want to use the site. It is far too big, taking up a third of the usable space on my Macbook Air's browser window. Please either make it smaller, or make it retract as you scroll down (e.g. at the top of the page it is the full bar, as you scroll it transforms into a smaller search bar)

      Just my 2c.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 21:12
        +1

        That has been mentioned a lot. It wasn't such an issue before since you couldn't scroll down the front page anyway, and it always collapses on search. I will make some changes.

        • Olokun on 18/12/2015 - 07:42

          .wrong spot. deleted

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/12/2015 - 22:21

        Changes made. How's the header on your MacBook Air now?

    • JimmyJim on 11/12/2015 - 20:59

      Fantastic site! I was using it sporadically but as you increase the store count I'll end up using it more and more.

      A few feedback notes that might have already been covered.

      • The top logo/search bar takes about a lot of screen real estate.
      • I like to be able to open products in a new windows and this only allow me to open the image.
      • The price breakdowns are split either too big or too small.
      • Sorting by price ascending or descending would be amazing.
      • Options to display more items per line?

      All of these are just suggestions, if they drastically affect the speed of the site then it might not be worth it.

      Keep us the awesome work! :D

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 21:17

        Hi JimmyJim.

        1. That has been addressed and will be improved.
        2. What do you mean you can only open the image?
        3. Do you mean the search filter's price ranges?
        4. Sorting by price will come.
        5. That would be more work than you might realise, and I think the gain would be relatively small. I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.

        Thanks for the feedback. Clarify what you meant by those couple of points I didn't understand and I'll try to answer again. :)

        • JimmyJim on 11/12/2015 - 21:47

          2) I like to be able to right click (or middle mouse) the item I'm interested to open it in a new window. Currently the site just open the image in a new window and not a link to the item itself.

          3) The break downs of 0-10, 10-100 and 100-1000 seem too big. I'm not sure what the right amounts would be however and maybe they worked better for others. The feature will however be largely irrelevant for me once the sorting by price is available though.

          5) This was only a small thing so if its that big of an issue I wouldn't give it a second thought.

          Once price sorting hits this website it will become one of my top item search websites. Still a great site none-the-less and I look forward to future updates :)

          • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 21:51

            @JimmyJim: Thanks for the clarification. When you say "open the image" I'm assuming you mean the view with all the product details?

            Yup, I'll re-evaluate this when I have price sorting implemented.

            It's not yet one of your top item-search websites? I didn't realise the competition was so fierce. :P

          • JimmyJim on 11/12/2015 - 22:01

            @JimmyJim: @jazoom: Yep the view with the product details!

            Hah you got me there! The only other one I suppose I use regularly is StaticIce. Honestly though the more features and sites you keep adding the more it'll become my first stop for any product search. :)

            I appreciate your willingness to take on feedback, best of luck with it all in the future!

          • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 22:22

            @JimmyJim: @JimmyJim: Thanks. Keep a look out for more improvements.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/12/2015 - 22:21

        I've improved the header. Is it better for you now?

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/02/2016 - 11:52

        Hi JimmyJim, just letting you know that your request has been implemented. You can now input custom price ranges as well as sort the results. Thanks for the great feedback!

        • JimmyJim on 12/02/2016 - 12:31

          Awesome updates to the site Jazoom. Keep up the great work :)

          • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/02/2016 - 13:17

            @JimmyJim: Thanks for the support

    • Gina Rinehart on 11/12/2015 - 21:30

      Looks good compared to the last time you posted it! :)

      One suggestion I have is that when you scroll down on the main page, the top grey header area is a bit thick. I think it should (with a bit of css/js fiddling) slide up once you scroll down to be only a small grey header area with the search bar and smaller logo. It seems to take up quite a lot of room when scrolling, so you can only just fit 2 (on my 24" monitor) rows of products at a time.

      Otherwise, great improvements. Can't wait to see more stores appear on it in the future :)

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 11/12/2015 - 21:38

        Thanks brezzo. That's a very popular suggestion, and one that I will implement soon.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/12/2015 - 22:22

        I just pushed an update with improved header behaviour. How do you like it?

    • stickyfingers on 12/12/2015 - 02:06
      +1

      Awesome feeling site man. As others said, mainly the header is the biggest issue.

      A great feature would be to be able to make a shopping list of things you frequently buy and compare across stores.

      I made something similar a couple of months ago using some standard regex in PHP for Woolworths and Coles but Woolworths changed their layout and broke it -_- (I was scraping from the mobile site).
      How are you avoiding getting your server temporarily blocked from the stores sites from all the requests. Coles kept blocking me after 20 or 40 within a minute… Also, any tips for scraping from a bunch of different websites?

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/12/2015 - 07:26

        I have heaps of servers. As for tips: practice makes better. ;-)

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/12/2015 - 22:23

        I changed the header. Do you approve?

        • thecraw on 13/12/2015 - 22:05

          I logged in and went wtf the header isnt any smaller…scrolled…….. ahhhhh nice one

          • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 18/12/2015 - 12:37

            @thecraw: Haha yeah. Thanks for the feedback.

    • abh_gup on 12/12/2015 - 02:53

      your top banner area is really broad. reduce to 1/3 rd.
      filter options needed.
      Location option - Nationwide or specific location
      disclose your affiliations, if any.
      quick option to change thumbnail sizes, view more products on the screen
      small icon on the thumbnail for 'save to shopping list'
      use 'preload images' to fetch the next 8 thumbnails to memory. no user would like to wait on.
      consider your web site theme. will you use black/grey theme for the life of your website/brand / next so many years?
      good start, i see where u heading but a lot of work needed before people actually use it. best of luck.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/12/2015 - 07:31

        Hi abh. Thanks for the feedback. There are already filter options. The header issue has been mentioned at least 10 times in this thread and it's certainly something I'll improve soon.

        I like the "save to shopping list" idea. I'll add that to my to-do list.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/12/2015 - 22:24

        I just made the header better. Okay now?

        • abh_gup on 14/12/2015 - 01:37

          I like it!

          • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 14/12/2015 - 07:41

            @abh_gup: Awesome! Thanks for your feedback.

    • mrwoo on 12/12/2015 - 09:43
      +1

      If I could suggest an improvement: on my 13" laptop, the header part of the screen (logo and searchbox) take up 30%-40% of the screen. If I just want to browse products for a bargain (not that I would ever do that), it's annoying having so much of the screen blocking what I want to see - the products.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/12/2015 - 11:39

        Yup. I'll sort that out soon. Thanks.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/12/2015 - 22:25

        "Soon" has come. Is the new header good?

        • mrwoo on 23/12/2015 - 22:45

          Likey!

    • saddybedangdang on 12/12/2015 - 15:45

      Great site, now apart of my bookmarks bar!

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

        Awesome!

    • anonymous01 on 12/12/2015 - 23:06

      What a great site! I love the history timeline price chart as well. Also just wondering where do you pick up the product name from? I just saw Prisoners (2013) on front page for $10 at Big W. I couldn't tell if it's blu-ray or DVD.. I had to click on the Big W link and it said Prisoners (2013) DVD. I am guessing because DVD is under the movie title, it wasn't picked up by your script code?

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 13/12/2015 - 06:55
        +1

        Thanks. I'll look into it!

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 18/12/2015 - 12:39
        +1

        I believe I have fixed this and it now shows the medium. Thanks for the feedback!

        • anonymous01 on 18/12/2015 - 12:57

          Thankyou! working like a charm.

    • [Deactivated] on 13/12/2015 - 01:02

      Just a bit of feedback.
      Using your search text box last night, I entered a four letter term, but it would only search the first two letters. Highlighting those two letters on the page items.
      Nothing I did like retype the two missing letters, or refreshing webpage worked.
      Had to kill and reopen the browser to fix it.

      No probs, just letting you know. My OS is XP & browser is Palemoon, with everthing enabled.
      Also like the site.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 13/12/2015 - 07:00

        Hi, thanks for the feedback. That sounds to me like your connection was down, either at your network or just in your browser. Results are cached, which is why you would still be able to get the results for those 2 letters.

    • abh_gup on 14/12/2015 - 02:46

      your website is pretty good for sorting out xmas gift ideas.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 14/12/2015 - 14:35

        Thanks. I'm using it for that myself.

    • bozbargain on 14/12/2015 - 12:13

      Looking for 'fitted sheets' at Target returns items with prices like $119139 - looks like it struggles returning a price if the item has more than 1 price variant (eg $119 for queen, $139 for king). Great site nonetheless, really impressive, used it on the weekend whilst shopping.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 14/12/2015 - 14:36

        Thanks heaps for the feedback. I'll fix it today.

      • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 18/12/2015 - 12:41
        +1

        Just letting you know I fixed this, and thanks heaps for alerting me to the issue!

    • Hirolol on 14/12/2015 - 18:04

      Hi jazoom
      I just used the website while in a coles store and the price on the item was marked (and scanned) at $4.10 but the price on price hipster showed $4.51 (still showing as that)
      Incase i am missing something and you need to check the item is 5 gum 2 pack

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

        Hi Hirolol. You are probably not missing anything. Unfortunately some stores (including Coles) like to have local variability in their prices. At the moment Price Hipster only takes the general online prices. At least you were pleasantly surprised with a better price! :-)

        • Hirolol on 14/12/2015 - 23:33

          Haha
          Actually i was looking at the price thinking i wonder if safeway has it cheaper…
          Then thought of price hipster!
          I was secretly hoping that the price in store was wrong so that i would get a free pack of gum but it wasnt.. The ozbargainer in me was devistated.

          Ever since i can remember i have been wanting a website/app that will allow me to compare prices instore instead of going through the deal posts on this website for the weekly supermarket sales but now it has been done.

          Will you ever put ads on the page?
          Or even have a seperate page for people to go to and they can click the ad to support you?
          I know for a website that i plan to be using nearly everyday i would be more than happy to click the advetisement so support you.

          I wonder if you will be putting more filters in?
          I know i and many others have mentioned the sort by price but will there be others?
          I cant really think of what kind right now but maybe others have.

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