Introducing Price Watcher – Track Prices across Multiple Stores

Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 02/02/2025 - 11:37

Hey everyone,

Happy Sunday!

I've been working on a new project called Price Watcher. It is new, and there are some things to improve, but I want to get traction to ensure it is really worth pursuing.

Price Watcher is a tool that tracks the price of specific products across multiple retailers, making it easier to find the best deal. Unlike CamelCamelCamel, which focuses on Amazon, or Price Hipster, which covers select stores like Bunnings, Price Watcher monitors products across multiple retailers at the same time. Also tracking the All Time Low (ATL) pricing.

How It Works

If you're looking for a specific product—like engine oil, car wash, or a security camera—Price Watcher checks the price across different stores where it's available, so you can see where it's cheapest.

Stores We Track

We also include some specialty retailers that other trackers don’t:

4WD Supacentre (camping and off-road gear)
Reolink (security cameras)
iTechWorld (portable power – coming soon)

Some of the core stores already set up for tracking:

BCF
Autobarn
Supercheap Auto
Repco
Sparesbox
Auto One

Missing a Product?

More stores will be added over time, and suggestions are always welcome.

If a product isn't listed yet (which is likely as I have only added some for testing), you can submit it here and we’ll add it.

I'm not looking to reinvent the wheel or compete with existing price trackers—I just want to fill the gaps and track prices where other tools don’t. I suggested Supercheap to PriceHipster ages ago and never got a response. I also found this forum, and it seems like there's demand for this kind of tracking.

I will eventually add account registration to track pricing and get alerts when there is a price drop. But for now, it is only manual monitoring.

Let me know what you think or if there's anything you'd like to see added!

Visit Price Watcher

Please don't be a smart ass or post stupid stuff, open to genuine feedback and thoughts. I am looking at how to add more value and finding great deals for OzBargain

General Discussion

Related Stores

pricewatcher.au

Comments

simplystu on 02/02/2025 - 11:43

how do you source your data ???
"screen-scrape" ? or VIA some sort of API ?

just saying … as that determines - how "trustworthy" your website is … compared to others already doing similar to you.
- Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 02/02/2025 - 11:45
  
  Without giving it away to the stores directly on how and then they change/block me. I am scraping the HTML via a Proxy Solution.
  
  Currently, no APIs are being used directly to the stores.
simplystu on 02/02/2025 - 11:46

-1

why .AU only and not … .COM.AU ???
- Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 02/02/2025 - 11:49
  
  +1
  
  Shorter the better and .com.au was already taken.
- jjjaar on 02/02/2025 - 12:08
  
  Because you need an ABN to get a .com.au.
  - Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 02/02/2025 - 12:11
    
    and you still need an ABN for .au.
    - jjjaar on 02/02/2025 - 12:28
      
      Did not realise, appreciate the clarification.
      - jv on 02/02/2025 - 16:32
        
        -1
        
        @jjjaar: ABN's are free !!!
        
        freefall101 on 02/02/2025 - 16:46
        
        +6
        
        @jv: Thanks, bought 17.
        
        jv on 02/02/2025 - 16:47
        
        -2
        
        @freefall101: You can only get one.
    - Thrift on 02/02/2025 - 21:02
      
      +1
      
      You don't need an ABN for .au, just an Australian presence (eg, simply be an Australian citizen/resident).
simplystu on 02/02/2025 - 11:56

after having look at website … seems very "cookie cutter" style.
best of luck on your ventures though.
- Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 02/02/2025 - 11:57
  
  100% agree. But as I said:
  
  It is new, and there are some things to improve, but I want to get traction to ensure it is really worth pursuing.
  
  If it does take off and has a lot of interest, then it will definitely get improvements. I think the key though is getting the price tracking right. If that isn't right, it could look amazing but mean nothing.
  - simplystu on 02/02/2025 - 12:03
    
    OK.
    my take on the website +++ your initial scope/idea …
    
    it "almost" reminds me - of the sort of project that I had to do in uni (back in early 2000's).
    some thought has gone into it (will give you that) … but you really haven't thought things through (goals/etc).
    
    Anyway, that is my take.
    I've been a coder/website designer for 20+ years (hence why I also hit up about domain names).
    - Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 02/02/2025 - 12:06
      
      Yeah, I am a Developer but terrible at Design.
      
      Thanks for the feedback, it will get better, just need to give it time and get other feedback on what people want which aligns with what you mean about goals. I have some goals, but I don't want it all to be about me.
      
      hence why I also hit up about domain names
      
      I always go .au now since it has been released. Converted most of my stuff/projects to .au, the shorter the better.
      - simplystu on 02/02/2025 - 12:11
        
        @geekcohen: as to .AU domain name space …it has been a "balls up".
        
        with the 3 main websites I run … (I own .com. + .com.au + .au) … ALL of which then redirect to the .com
        .AU has less than 3% reach (/hits) … .com.au == where most of traffic is generated from (but then I'm targeting an AU audience).
        
        just saying.
        
        Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 02/02/2025 - 12:16
        
        @simplystu: Each to their own and we all have our opinions. One of my websites/business brands has been very successful with .au.
jjjaar on 02/02/2025 - 12:27

+2

Love the idea, for sure.

I think the big issue with CCC and PH is that you do have to use both of them if the product you want is across the various stores they each cover. Appreciate you’re bridging the gap in what those stores don’t currently cover, and I’m sure there’s reasons for not including the stores they do cover. But at the moment you’re just a third site to visit on top of CCC and PH - if you covered the stores they do, you’d be a one stop shop.

I only clicked on a few products so obviously it depends on each product, but it wasn’t clear where the products had been listed for the various prices. I may have only clicked on products that can only be found at one store, but would be good to maybe have a heading that says “available at” with the list of stores/links. As opposed to “buy from BCF” which doesn’t necessarily confirm it’s not available elsewhere.

On mobile (iPhone 14 (not pro, so smaller screen), iOS, safari), the home page image takes up a lot of initial space before scrolling to the text below, and then it’s a lot of text (ironically, like my comment).

Basically, I think it could benefit from a punchy one liner that is visible straight away (below the logo, above the header image) that says what the site is. It’s in mostly the wall of text below (bolded is what you already have): “stay informed about the latest product price changes”.

You should also probably put the product search more front and centre - are you expecting people to come here for a specific product, or to browse? You need to make it easy for them.

The category and product images also take up a lot of screen real estate, which feels more annoying when there’s no product image.

These are all very nitpicky, but I genuinely see the potential in something like this and think that the UI is key to having people want to use it.
- Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 02/02/2025 - 12:35
  
  Thanks for the feedback, I will take it onboard and make some adjustments.
Guybrush57 on 02/02/2025 - 12:49

+1

Price Hipster lost its way when Colesworth blocked whatever method he used to track proces. If you can support those two without functionality breaking then you've got my vote.
- Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 02/02/2025 - 12:58
  
  I did think about this. Supermarket Price tracking is something you would like?
  
  I haven't tried it yet to see if it is achievable, but happy to investigate if it a popular choice. It just seems there are some other solutions out there for Supermarkets. Not sure who good they are, but a quick google showed some options.
barge-in hunter on 02/02/2025 - 13:40
Firstly @geekcohen - nice work. I like the premise

A couple of random thoughts:

I like the concept - I could imagine this being a “Wishlist of every non essential thing I want to buy”, and it tells me when something’s on sale, or available at the “buy price” I set

the ui; on mobile (your main audience I assume), the first thing you see is an off centre logo and a decent chunk of text describing 3+ value props. I would try to simplify this (and the product messaging) as much as possible. If the value prop is simple and clear, you won’t need to explain it

i tried a few different search terms and it kept returning nothing… ended up just navigating through the 4wd supa category. Expect your largest search to be expensive products like “iPhone x” - and make sure you solve for that (which will be harder) rather than building out a catalog of retailer specific items (which is easy). If it’s not technically feasible, genuinely reconsider the idea. Understand a lot of this will be due to your currently limited catalog so far, but focus on solving key user demands first even if they’re hard

Again, well done getting this far. Bravo
- Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 02/02/2025 - 13:57
  
  +1
  
  Thanks for the UI, I will definitely work on it and have updated some of it already but will need to do more. Its just tweaking elements for mobile vs desktop.
  
  i tried a few different search terms and it kept returning nothing… ended up just navigating through the 4wd supa category.
  
  As more search data is built, I'll be able to modify this. Its trying to find the balance between the right results, a lot of results that are pointless or very specific. Working on tweaks at the moment.
  
  I like the concept - I could imagine this being a “Wishlist of every non essential thing I want to buy”, and it tells me when something’s on sale, or available at the “buy price” I set
  
  Exactly what I hope it can become.
  - barge-in hunter on 02/02/2025 - 14:07
    
    Awesome - good luck with it all!
    
    Just in this;
    
    As more search data is built, I'll be able to modify this. Its trying to find the balance between the right results, a lot of results that are pointless or very specific. Working on tweaks at the moment.
    
    Understand that you can add more and more and tweak the search. My recommendation is not to both with any of that until you can prove that this basic concept can be done for a specific and popular product that is available across many multiple retailers - my example was a iPhone. Trust me when I say that it could save you heaps of time proving/disproving the viability of the website
    - Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 02/02/2025 - 14:19
      
      Yeah, so I have made it keyword-specific so that you cannot write car and then return results with cart products, for example.
      
      I can see some of the blank search queries and will build on it.
      - barge-in hunter on 02/02/2025 - 14:26
        
        @geekcohen: Ok cool.
        
        FWIW “Apple iPhone 15” returns 1 result…. A head unit
        
        https://pricewatcher.au/automotive/sony-xav-ax3200/&_rt_…
        
        Best of luck
        
        Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 02/02/2025 - 14:30
        
        +1
        
        @barge-in hunter: Thanks. Thats because "apple" is within the URL of one of the stores. I've fixed it now.
elgrande on 02/02/2025 - 13:57

-1

Does it price track security camera installation quotes?
- Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 02/02/2025 - 13:57
  
  No.
AustriaBargain on 02/02/2025 - 18:19

Would be nice if you could track things that Google Shopping won't show, like video game backup devices, medicinal herb instruments, and electronic nicotine quitting aides.
coffeeinmyveins on 02/02/2025 - 19:12

very few people will care about price tracking autobahn and supercheap auto compared to those that want coles/woolworths.

you've picked the niche of the niche and if you want traction, you'll have to go after groceries.

It's been tried before, and they get blocked etc because of the amount of money in it.
- Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 02/02/2025 - 19:27
  
  -1
  
  I can add Groceries and see how it goes. Others might've failed because of the solutions they were using to get the data and then never bothered to look for alternatives.
  - mikekiwimike on 03/02/2025 - 09:05
    
    As soon as they work out how you are scraping the data and where the requests come from they will start to work on blocking you as they want traffic to their site so we don't know that we could find cheaper elsewhere, not to mention the "if you like this, then you will want that" results.
    
    Good luck with your venture, I personally go to Amazon, eBay, big names like OW, JB, HN and Aliexpress to check price comparisons of most items, with groceries I tend to buy all that I can from a specialist asian vegetable place (or grow them) and then one supermarket for everything else - so the value of supermarket price comparison for my use case would not be something I would bother with.
    
    Yes Aliexpress is not your target here, simply giving my process of purchasing decisions.
  - coffeeinmyveins on 03/02/2025 - 09:40
    
    Others might've failed because of the solutions they were using to get the data and then never bothered to look for alternatives.
    
    Lol. Someone thinks highly of themselves. Are you a recent uni grad by chance?
    
    You're up against two companies that are worth billions of dollars and have thousands of highly skilled engineers working against you and your HTML scraping code. Who do you think is going to give up first?
    - Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 03/02/2025 - 09:43
      
      Are you a recent uni grad by chance?
      
      No.
      
      Lol. Someone thinks highly of themselves.
      
      No, just willing to give something a shot.
      
      You're up against two companies that are worth billions of dollars and have thousands of highly skilled engineers working against you and your HTML scraping code. Who do you think is going to give up first?
      
      Who says I am not a highly skilled engineer? I was referring to the cost and effort to find solutions. Some might not be willing to fund it and just go, "its all too hard".
      - coffeeinmyveins on 03/02/2025 - 10:39
        
        @geekcohen:
        
        Who says I am not a highly skilled engineer?
        
        Looking at the website mate.
        
        It's a good first stab as a junior or someone testing things out.
        
        Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 03/02/2025 - 11:20
        
        @coffeeinmyveins:
        
        someone testing things out
        
        Exactly this and I am no designer either.
        
        As I said above:
        
        Please don't be a smart ass or post stupid stuff, open to genuine feedback and thoughts. I am looking at how to add more value and finding great deals for OzBargain.
    - warkolm on 03/02/2025 - 10:34
      
      you obviously haven't worked with either of their it depts have you, cause they're as bad as banks
      - coffeeinmyveins on 03/02/2025 - 10:37
        
        @warkolm: "IT department" is not the same as the ones doing product development and loss prevention for online scanners like this one.
OBEY YOUR MASTERS on 03/02/2025 - 12:04

Looks interesting. I tried searching for "5w-30" and got no hits. Then I tried searching for "5w-30 oil" and got many types of oil. Maybe there's a good way to refine searches to get more accurate hits?
- Associatedgeekcohen @ pricewatcher.au on 03/02/2025 - 12:15
  
  Fixed. Hyphens and dashes was set to removed.
  
  5W-30 now works, only issue is we only have one product at the moment. I will add more. If there are specifics you want to track, either PM or comment a link and I will add them in for the stores available.