Retail Frenzy: Prices on the Web Change Hourly | Hacker News Reader

Retail Frenzy: Prices on the Web Change Hourly

nytimes.com

21 pointsrmah12 comments

My startup* actually builds a Products API that provides constantly updated price histories for products sold across the major e-commerce sites (amazon, bestbuy, walmart,etc.. ).

We noticed a three-fold jump in the number of pricing points we collected during the Thanksgiving weekend. Some products actually changed prices in 10-minute intervals.

*Shameless plug: We just launched in closed beta and we have a pretty liberal free plan. Invite link: https://www.semantics3.com/signup?code=ramanujan Drop me a note and I would be most glad to bump up your free quota.

How about a SaaS company where I can drop my Amazon/Target and BestBuy account and have it scan (and lock in) the best possible price for me? It would be quite the answer to all those dynamic algorithm driven prices. A alogo to fight their algo and capture the lowest possible offer.

I like this concept (in fact, it's one I've been playing around with in my head for a while) but there are 2 major blocking-points you'll have with user-adoption:

1) People won't want to give their amazon credentials out to what may simply be a fly-by-night startup. Until you get some semblance of reputability, you'll have a hard time with UA.

2) Amazon could very easily write in a feature like "buy when < N dollars" and completely invalidate your startup.

Anyone have any ideas as to how to combat these issues? Would the general HN populace be interested in a service like this for say, either 10$ a month or X% of what you saved as a result of using the service?

I would definitely like a percentage of a sale (with a min/max amount) instead of the $X a/month.

I think think there's an inherent conflict in expecting those who price-shop for pennies between internet retail juggernauts like Amazon and Wal Mart and expecting these same people to pay.

As a consumer, price aggregation sites like Google Shopping and Pricewatch seem to be adequate for most things.

Interesting business here. Anyone know if there are companies who provide this service (price-scanning, recommendation, and adjustment according to a set of business rules) to non-huge retailers?

Amazon, Walmart and Target have the resources to develop this internally, but I wonder if smaller guys might be willing to buy in to a system that lets them compete on a similar playing field...

You could have problems with competing services using your services.

Until September 2008, Amazon actually had a post-order price-match guarantee, where they'd refund the difference between what you paid and the new price, if the item dropped in price within 30 days after you ordered it. Seems they're taking full advantage of the pricing flexibility they gained by dropping the guarantee.

Maybe that is only in the US. I can remember being refunded within the last year, here in the UK, under that policy.

Was it a pre-order? They still have a price-drop guarantee for pre-orders, if the price drops between when you place the order and when the product becomes actually available. That's the only guarantee I can still find mentioned on either the .com or the .co.uk pages.

I think it was a pre-order. That makes sense, then.

Looks like the techniques of the world of High Frequency Trading are migrating into the wider universe. Except now the customers may benefit if the prices are lowered by someone who wouldn't sell at that price (by, say, showing that the product is in stock, but showing an error when you try to add it to your cart) in an attempt to make their competitors' algorithms follow the price drop, in order to deplete the stocks of goods in the process.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com