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 02/06/2017 - 11:32

          @stuckster: We can, and do, scrape some sites multiple times daily. Price Hipster was built on that and still has that capability. Officeworks put some things in place to prevent that a little while ago. While I could work around that, I decided that my time was better spent on improving Price Hipster. If they want their products on pricehipster.com then they will put them there. I believe that will be the case eventually.

          For now, they're just missing out on free traffic.

        • fredblogs on 02/06/2017 - 18:46

          @jazoom: Didn't realise they actively prevent scraping

  • Olokun on 05/04/2017 - 11:48

    Hi Jazoom

    Not sure if you are aware, the price history graph no longer displays.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/04/2017 - 12:02

      I was aware it doesn't display sometimes after a recent update, which I have to fix. I didn't realise it would happen all the time under some circumstances. I'll increase the priority of the fix. Thanks Olokun!

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/04/2017 - 20:14

      Hi mate, I just worked out that it happens whenever there is a slowish network. The product data doesn't arrive in time for the chart to draw so it gives up.

      I'm making an update now to give it more resilience and not give up so easily.

      • Olokun on 05/04/2017 - 20:35

        Cool. thanks for the update.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/04/2017 - 20:40

          No worries. I just pushed the update and it seems to be fixed. Let me know if you still see the error (no chart) after a full refresh.

  • sintro on 06/04/2017 - 09:19

    Nice site jazoom.

    Can these be added some time in the future? Thanks.

    http://www.cincottachemist.com.au
    https://www.mrvitamins.com.au/
    http://arc.com.au/
    http://www.msy.com.au/
    http://www.megabuy.com.au/
    or all the computer shops that are on http://staticice.com.au/

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 06/04/2017 - 09:25
      +2

      Hi sintro, thanks for the feedback. I've added those stores to the list of stores to invite. We're working on a few things at the moment in preparation of inviting a bunch more stores (e.g. all the stores on staticice.com.au) later this year.

      • sintro on 06/04/2017 - 09:57

        Nice one! Thanks

  • tonester on 22/05/2017 - 13:19

    belated thanks for my $13.50 30cm KitchenAid Anodised Frypan - keep up the good work :)

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 22/05/2017 - 16:04

      Wow, that's a nice deal. Great wok!

  • treeman on 12/06/2017 - 20:25

    Just a heads up Rosegal search doesn't seem to work anymore.
    Might need to fix the coding or remove the store.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/06/2017 - 20:27

      Hi treeman, do you not get this message?:

      "all selected stores are hidden behind the "Safe search" filter"

      Their products are essentially all considered NSFW since many of them do have NSFW images.

      • treeman on 12/06/2017 - 21:52

        Yes I do, I just assumed that meant that the safe search would identify those products not suitable not get rid of the whole stores inventory.
        Fixed now thanks!

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 12/06/2017 - 22:28

          I didn't change anything. 😁

          In this case the whole store's inventory is hidden because the database doesn't know which products are NSFW.

  • indium on 27/06/2017 - 19:05

    Will Dan Murphy's be coming back to price hipster?

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 27/06/2017 - 19:39
      +2

      I hope so. I had to remove them today because their product feed is mixing up the prices of single items with packs of items. They seem to have had a lot of difficulty with their product feed in the past so I can't really guess when they'll be back.

      • apey2000 on 04/07/2017 - 22:37

        Damn and Bugger! Your website got me some really nice bargains with DM! :(

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 05/07/2017 - 06:47

          Nice. I'm sure they'll be back, along with a bunch of other liquor stores.

        • BringAPlate on 20/07/2017 - 22:13

          @jazoom: No news on Dans yet?

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 20/07/2017 - 22:15

          @BringAPlate: Not yet

        • apey2000 on 29/08/2017 - 22:11

          @jazoom: Dan's out for the count?

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 30/08/2017 - 06:47

          @apey75: I'll shoot them a message again soon.

        • apey2000 on 31/08/2017 - 22:02

          @jazoom: Cheers mate!

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 31/08/2017 - 22:13

          @apey75: No probs. I've gotten a bunch of computer and electronics stores on board recently. Next is booze.

  • wombok2 on 28/06/2017 - 12:05

    Hi,

    How difficult would it be to host this for an overseas? Is it possible to PM me?

    Thanks

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 28/06/2017 - 12:08

      It doesn't appear that I can PM you.

      What do you mean? A version for another country?

  • fredblogs on 28/06/2017 - 14:56

    Is there a way to search with exact match?

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 28/06/2017 - 17:28

      Not presently. If you're after something specific you will probably be able to narrow it down better with price filtering than with text matching, since the same product is often called slightly different things at different stores.

      • fredblogs on 28/06/2017 - 18:57

        Is this something you're planning on adding?

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 28/06/2017 - 19:23

          No. I think I can do better than that.

        • fredblogs on 28/06/2017 - 21:20

          @jazoom: Do you? :) Some kind of Google PageRank algorithm?

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 29/06/2017 - 06:52

          @fredblogs: Ha. I'm always looking for ways to improve the experience. I do have some plans in the works but it may take a bit of time.

        • fredblogs on 29/06/2017 - 10:53

          @jazoom: Hope you'll reconsider - here's a couple of use-cases:

          What's the cheapest logitech k270?

          http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=logitech%20…
          https://www.google.com.au/search?q=google+maps&oq=google+&aq…
          https://pricehipster.com/?nameQuery=logitech%20k270&sortDire…

          Pricehipster has the best UI but the worst results. There is not a single logitech K270 on that page.

          Cheapest iPad 32GB 2017?

          https://staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=ipad+32gb+2017…
          https://www.google.com.au/search?q=iPad+32GB+2017+site%3Asta…
          https://pricehipster.com/?nameQuery=ipad%2032GB%202017&sortD…

          Google doesn't do so well here but still much better than pricehipster.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 29/06/2017 - 11:32

          @fredblogs: Good point. I'll address that issue. Thanks for the info. Sorted search is tricky to get right and it seems I've gone too far in favour of sort rather than search in that case.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 01/07/2017 - 10:33

          @fredblogs: Hi mate, just letting you know that I've just pushed an update. I created an implementation that I think strikes a good balance. Let me know if you find other searches that don't give the results you would expect.

        • fredblogs on 01/07/2017 - 11:02

          @jazoom: Much improved. Still not sure why you're against exact matching though - why show a Logitech k230 when I search for a Logitech k270?

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 01/07/2017 - 11:17
          +1

          @fredblogs: It's a trade-off for simplicity. I have to make many such trade-offs.

          And in answer to the K230 question: that particular case is due to allowing one character of typo. I could remove that, but then you need to be 100% exact, which is a trade-off that would make things difficult for many users. Consider that sometimes even stores have a typo in the product's name. Or, "tomatos" vs "tomatoes".

        • fredblogs on 01/07/2017 - 19:00

          @jazoom: A solution to that would be an exact match checkbox, or allowing the user to achieve that with quotes around the terms: "logitech" "k270"

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 01/07/2017 - 19:06

          @fredblogs: I actually considered that today when I was fixing the quoting behaviour for phrases.

          I think adding that check box would increase complexity (yet another box to draw attention and intimidate) with almost no benefit. I actually see it as a good thing that a similar model shows up in that search since there are very few results and the user might find themselves interested in the K230.

          Of course, you proved me wrong before and I'm happy to be proven wrong again.

          • fredblogs on 01/04/2019 - 19:52

            @jazoom: Ironically I'm looking for this keyboard again (kids broke the last one). JB have a very good deal on at the moment but noticed it's not in Price Hipster, probably intentionally. Is there a list of stores you're unable to have on there?

            • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 01/04/2019 - 21:18
              +1

              @fredblogs: Probably not intentional. JB Hi-Fi's website is awful to navigate, even as a human. They have an inconsistent organisation scheme. It's likely the crawler never makes it to some pages that are found via a product search.

  • goosegog on 30/06/2017 - 17:02
    -8

    How many more years do we all have to suffer your continual pleading that we use your site ?
    When we gave you the benefit when you first started it - it was soon apparent that your site is not sufficient.
    Re organise it or give up - fed up with hearing from you.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 30/06/2017 - 17:17
      +4

      Hmmm… since I've only ever made 2 posts about this website in 2 years, and the last one was nearly 18 months ago, you must be talking about something else. I'm not sure what that is so I can't help you. Sorry.

      Despite the apparent confusion about the posting, I'm still happy to hear from you what you would like improved on the website?

    • nocure on 30/06/2017 - 17:40
      +7

      whoa ,where did that come from…If you don't like it, don't use it, its not all about you,most of us find it very helpful and kudos to jazoom.

    • tightarse on 30/06/2017 - 17:53
      +5

      @goosegog Ungrateful and entitled. Two great qualities. You should be proud. And this after offering motherly support.

    • doweyy on 30/06/2017 - 18:18
      +4

      I've got no idea what you're on about, the platform works perfectly. And I hardly see jazoom advertising or posting on here about using the site. Just be happy you have a platform that compares prices and allows you to see in the past whether a deal is actually a deal.

    • Savas on 30/06/2017 - 18:28
      +3

      Are you subscribed to email notifications every time someone comments?

      • nocure on 30/06/2017 - 18:40
        +2

        Yes

  • sintro on 19/07/2017 - 16:21

    Not sure if anyone else suggested this but can you add an indicator on items that already has a price alert set when looking through search results?

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 19/07/2017 - 16:24

      There is a red bar that appears on the chart and also the "Set price alert" button changes. Do you not get that in your browser?

      Or do you mean on product tiles before you click them? That's a good idea. I might look into that.

      • sintro on 19/07/2017 - 16:27

        Yes. I meant on product tiles before you click them.

        Example:
        When I'm searching for "quilton" and the result comes up with a list of 20 items. I already have some of them set with price alerts and I want something to indicate that a price alert is set without actually clicking on each item to see whether a price alert has been set or not.

        Thanks.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 19/07/2017 - 17:25

          Noted. Thanks, sintro.

  • Olokun on 20/07/2017 - 17:58

    Just saw the news report. So you didn't give up your day job then. :)

    Would be good if you could keep the thread updated on how news report influences the increase in traffic over the next few days/weeks.

    Hopefully other retailers see the report and actively jump on board.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 20/07/2017 - 18:00

      Where did you see the report? It ran last night.

      I will be giving up the day job, but they didn't mention that in the report.

      • Bad Wolf on 20/07/2017 - 18:10
        +3

        I think your site is great.
        Just googled it so I could watch the report

        https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/36433124/price-hipster…

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 20/07/2017 - 18:23

          Thanks mate :)

      • sintro on 20/07/2017 - 18:23

        What's ur day job? Doctor?

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 20/07/2017 - 18:23
          +2

          Yes I'm a doctor.

        • sintro on 20/07/2017 - 18:47

          @jazoom:
          Cool.

          Could use your help with this to stop the Brauer or other homeopathic product lines from disappearing from pharmacies and no longer searchable via PriceHipster. (And yes I've searched for it many times on the site)

          Basically, On 22 June 2017, a government report (The King Review) stated that homeopathic products (eg hayfever drops, teething and colic formulas) should not be sold in Australian pharmacies.

          This report is the latest in an ongoing trend to remove homeopathy as a healthcare choice for Australians.

          Please read the King Report Review.

          Here is a Sample Letter

          Responses need to be received by Sunday 23rd July.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 20/07/2017 - 18:56
          +2

          @sintro: You know the official medical and prevailing scientific view is that homeopathy has zero evidence, right? I'm all for showing all products on Price Hipster, but appealing to a medical professional to support homeopathy probably is barking up the wrong tree.

      • doweyy on 20/07/2017 - 18:25
        +4

        Looking smart Jazoom, glad the media has finally picked up this awesome website. Hope you get heaps more traffic, and in turn more vendors. As more vendors = more bargains to be found.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 20/07/2017 - 18:58

          Thanks mate. More vendors is the current project. Was put on hold for a bit while doing some media-related stuff, but I'll get back on it soon.

      • Olokun on 20/07/2017 - 18:32

        Came up on facebook

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 20/07/2017 - 18:59

          Of course. I think I got confused cos you sent your message about the time that nightly news runs and I thought you meant you saw it there.

  • macca22 on 23/07/2017 - 06:09

    great website check it out every day and when in Shopping mode

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 23/07/2017 - 07:02

      Thanks for the support!

  • fredblogs on 24/09/2017 - 18:43

    Looks like it doesn't recognise David Jones sales: https://pricehipster.com/product/SwO7e6gxdr7hY6CvaY8Qjg~Hkk4… vs http://shop.davidjones.com.au/djs/ProductDisplay?catalogId=1…
    Probably due to DJ's feed…

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 24/09/2017 - 19:28

      Yeah that's a tricky one. They didn't apply it to the price and just have an image on the page suggesting 30% off. That's not conducive to showing sales on pricehipster.com unfortunately.

  • outlander on 24/09/2017 - 21:49

    Went to look up good guys recent drops, but nothing. Problems with the feed?

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 24/09/2017 - 22:11
      +1

      Darn. You're right. It seems their website changed. For some reason this slipped past my alerting conditions. I'll fix it soon.

      Thanks heaps for letting me know!

      • outlander on 26/09/2017 - 14:26

        No problem. If complaining about stuff helps that falls right in my wheelhouse :)

        Coles seems to be having issues too. A bunch of items rose radically in price mid august, and its distorting the discount calculations. Mistake or attack do you think?

  • outlander on 24/09/2017 - 21:53

    Btw love the site, you're a genius it's like your 5 years ahead of the curve. I used to cruise the coles and woolworths sites for all the hidden specials that never make the catalogue, but using your site is so much better, it cuts it from an hour to 5 minutes.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 24/09/2017 - 22:13
      +1

      Thanks man. I love hearing that Price Hipster is helping people to save time and money!

      • outlander on 26/09/2017 - 14:00

        Well it really is a wonderful site. I don't know what your end goal is (I'm very curious to see what happens with it) but you deserve whatever success comes your way. I'm as cheap as they come, but I would pay money for this no question. I can't give a greater compliment than that ;)

        Too bad you're in brisbane or I'd offer to pay you back in drinks haha

        I have a bit of a suggestion for you. I'll just say it and then explain the context afterwords or else it risks getting lost in waffling.

        Feature
        Slider that allows you to view deals based on percentage of lowest historical price

        Explanation: Most of the time when I'm looking for something on price hipster its to see the super deals, the times when its the lowest ever. But often the difference between 'low enough' and 'lowest ever' isn't all that great. So, it'd be great to see things that are close to the lowest price, and be able to control that proximity. This is especially useful for the supermarkets. Often I'll be $20 off a coupon target and struggling to find things on special to buy, but at the same time don't want to stock up on something full price and blow the savings.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 26/09/2017 - 14:44

          My end goal is pretty ambitious. I'm taking steps towards it every day. One step at a time. You don't need to buy me drinks, but feel free to keep using Price Hipster and keep telling people about it. The more users we have the faster I'll be able to push this vision forward.

          I understand what you are suggesting with the slider. I can see why that would be useful. I am obsessed over simplicity and ease-of-use, which is one of the things people love about Price Hipster. When I read your suggestion I see past the slider and see that the heart of what you really want is to see better deals, taking better consideration of price differences over time. You would get some use out of the slider but most people would find it confusing. New UI (a.k.a. "clutter") should be added with much care. I have plans to improve the products that are surfaced to the top and make it more tailored to the individual user, which may satiate you in this regard. This is important to do first because it will benefit every Price Hipster user without them even having to do anything.

          Of course, if you think the slider will offer much benefit after the changes you can feel free to push the idea to me again.

  • Olokun on 22/10/2017 - 11:36

    Hi Jazoom

    Notice the site has been down for the last couple of days. Hope all is ok?

    • nocure on 22/10/2017 - 12:01

      Working on mobile

      • Olokun on 22/10/2017 - 12:12

        Must be just me.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 22/10/2017 - 13:49

          I think it might be. There hasn't been a drop in traffic and everything has been working fine on all my devices.

          Do you reckon you could open the dev console in a desktop browser (F12) and tell me if you get any errors in the console tab?

          However, I don't know what "down" means at this stage. Maybe a screenshot would be more appropriate?

        • Olokun on 22/10/2017 - 13:53

          @jazoom:

          Will have a go of clearing my browsing history when I get back home and see if that fixes the issue. Will do as you ask if that doesn’t solve my issue.

          Cheers

        • Olokun on 22/10/2017 - 18:04

          @jazoom:

          Hi Jazoom

          There error I am getting in IE and Firefox on my desktop is tlserror?

          https://files.ozbargain.com.au/upload/121534/53218/pricehips…

          Page loads after about 10-20 refreshes. However even though the page loads, searching doesn't work.

          EDIT: works when connected to VPN. ISP is Bigpond.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 22/10/2017 - 18:18

          @Olokun: This is almost certainly a caching issue, and possibly related to the ServiceWorker. So clearing your browser's cache doesn't work?

        • Olokun on 22/10/2017 - 18:24

          @jazoom:

          Nope. Didnt work when I tried clearing it.. will try again with a more thorough cleaning.

          EDIT: Worked after a modem restart. Partner wasn't happy that Kodi went offline for that minute though lol.

          Cheers.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 22/10/2017 - 18:31

          @Olokun: Hey I just saw your edit saying it works with a VPN. Now I'm stumped why this would be happening to you. :-(

          Price Hipster doesn't use user sessions anywhere, so there's no reason why you would be served something different via a different IP address.

        • Olokun on 22/10/2017 - 18:32

          @jazoom:

          Just edited my last comment. was the modem :(

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 22/10/2017 - 18:35

          @Olokun: Interesting. Maybe your router is caching DNS queries or something. Weird that it happened intermittently.

  • treeman on 17/11/2017 - 10:05

    Hi Jazoom, just a question I have noticed today you have a couple of products 'Featured' but there is no discount.
    What are they and how do products get featured?

    Thanks.

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 17/11/2017 - 10:41

      Hey treeman,

      Those are paid promotions. Since paid promotions are new so far only one store is taking advantage of it. Once other stores get on board there will be competition so products with no discount will likely not make the cut.

      • treeman on 17/11/2017 - 11:04
        +1

        Sounds good. Happy for you to find a way to make money out of it.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 17/11/2017 - 11:44
          +2

          It had to happen some time haha. I have to make back some of the money I've spent to keep it running all this time.

        • Tyken on 20/11/2017 - 11:00

          @jazoom: Loving the website, I hope you get rich and expand the website to international vendors. A feature I would like to see: purchase international goods through pricehipster as a vendor, and pay using AUD without dealing with currency exchange through my financial institution.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 20/11/2017 - 13:17

          @Pao-yang yu: Hey, thanks for the support!

          There are a few general improvements I want to make but international expansion is in my plans.

          As for your current problem with currency conversion, I highly recommend getting yourself a credit card that doesn't have international transaction feeds or currency conversion fees. I used to use the Coles credit card, which was good except for one issue I had with them. Now I use the BankWest More Rewards card, which also supports Android Pay (I can't live without this now). Either of those would be good.

  • Olokun on 17/11/2017 - 10:47

    Hi Jazoom

    I was wondering if it is possible for PH to ignore $999999 type prices when working out what the normal selling price is?

    • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 17/11/2017 - 10:54

      Hey mate, it's always a battle. The balance is difficult because there are some products that have legit large price changes. Do we invalidate those along with the ridiculous ones? The line has to get drawn somewhere. Products that have ridiculous prices are permanently invalidated manually. If a store has consistent issues then they are removed from Price Hipster. This has seemed to work quite well up until now. $0 prices have been ignored for quite some time but stores are "creative" in using $0.01 to $99999 and everything in between as "placeholders". Why they don't just mark the product as "out of stock" I really don't understand.

      • Olokun on 17/11/2017 - 10:59

        Thanks for the quick reply.

        Perhaps they think their site is eBay :)

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 17/11/2017 - 11:42

          I don't use eBay much nowadays so I didn't realise that's a thing. Does eBay not have a way to mark a product as "out of stock"?

        • stuckster on 17/11/2017 - 12:02

          Most of the more established retailers would have centralised product databases that are linked to all their sales channels including Ebay. A couple of years ago Ebay used to end listings when items ran out of stock causing sellers to lose their precious recent sales history. So they would dramatically increase prices to preserve the last remaining stock until they could replenish their inventory. Now though Ebay has an "Out of Stock" feature which automatically manages this.

          So yeah this is a long way of me saying that I also don't know why retailers are using crazy prices rather than simply marking items as out of stock.

        • Store Repjazoom @ Price Hipster on 17/11/2017 - 12:14

          @stuckster: The thing is, it seems like a random assortment of items, too. I've yet to see a retailer that consistently uses the high pricing method. They always seems to have "out of stock" items and a smattering of the ridiculous prices.

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