Get the stuff you want at prices you can afford with a new bargain alert service from Stuffster.
Are you tired of missing out on discounts? I know I am. Sadly I don’t get to spend every waking hour shopping and hunting for the best deals on the things I want.
But now you can entrust your bargain hunting to a new website called Stuffster.com which promises to let you know as soon as the price of the items on your wishlist fall to a price you can afford.
How it works
Stuffster works by tracking the prices of items you have saved on a ‘Stufflist’.
The site alerts you via email when any of your saved products fall to the price you’ve specified you’d be willing to pay for it.
The tool will track the price of any product on any website in the world and is completely free to use.
All you need to do is sign up and get the +STUFF button to sit on your toolbar. This enables you to add items to your Stufflist while browsing online.
You can organise everything you want onto Stuffboards, using common categories like Fashion or Beauty but also personalised shopping lists for things like gifts or items you need for a holiday.
Price changes
[SPOTLIGHT]Of course we all know bargains are likely to peak around big sales periods and that’s when most of us keep our eyes peeled.
But according to Keir McConomy, CEO at Stuffster, products undergo price changes more often than you might think.
He said that retailers adjust the prices of products multiple times a day based on supply, fluctuating by as much as 30%. Flash sales can also happen out of the blue and provide big savings to those lucky enough to catch them.
One example is the Samsung NX 1000 Digital Compact Camera, which dropped from £399.99 on Amazon to £329.99, only to return to the original price of £399.99 just six hours later.
The biggest price drops
To mark its launch the website has released a Fastest Fallers Index which has tracked the prices of 691 online products between December 2012 and January 2013.
Fashion, beauty and technology items saw the most significant price reductions over this period. Here are ten items that experienced the biggest drops:
|
Item |
Online retailer |
Original price |
Sales price |
Saving |
|
Karen Millen Black Organza prom dress |
karenmillen.com |
£190 |
£55 |
£135 (71.05%) |
|
Ted Baker Quilted Jacket |
houseoffraser.co.uk |
£175 |
£62.50 |
£112.50 (64.29%) |
|
Sony HDRPJ260VE Full HD Camcorder |
Currys |
£799.99 |
£349.99 |
£450 (56.25%) |
|
River Island Leather Biker Jacket |
River Island |
£170 |
£75 |
£95 (55.88%) |
|
LG 47LM620T Full HD 47" LED 3D TV |
Currys |
£1,299.00 |
£649.00 |
£650 (50.04%) |
|
Mulberry | The Bayswater |
Net-a-porter.com |
£895 |
£447.50 |
£447.50 (50.00%) |
|
SONY HDRTD20VES Full HD 3D Camcorder |
Currys |
£1,699.99 |
£999.97 |
£700.02 (41.18%) |
|
D&G Sicily embroidered tote bag |
DolceGabbana.com |
£1,525.00 |
£915 |
£610 (40.00%) |
|
Blackberry PlayBook 7 " Tablet, 64 GB with Playbook Leather Journal Case |
PC World |
£249 |
£159 |
£90 (36.14%) |
|
Samsung WB150F Digital Camera |
Amazon |
£169.99 |
£109.99 |
£60 (35.30%) |
Source: Stuffster.com
Prices tracked from 24th December 2012 to 22nd January 2013 on 691 items from 83 retailers.
The price drops are staggering - no doubt boosted by the January sales. But the Stuffster tool can be useful outside popular discounting periods and can help you nab a bargain for things you aren’t willing to pay full price for.
Downsides
Personally I would have loved to know that the Mulberry Bayswater bag was available half price – it’s an item I have hankered after for a while now. According to Stuffster the Mulberry Bayswater handbag fell from £895 to £447.50. So if you had set this bargain price you would have been alerted.
But what if you hadn’t entered such a specific sum? The alerts only come through if the price you have indicated you'd be willing to pay is reached. For some this may never happen.
Stuffster told us that weekly emails keep you updated on price changes of all your products so you can keep up that way, but that won’t help with a product that is discounted for a short amount of time.
Another problem is you can’t compare prices; you can only watch the price on a particular website not on a particular product across retailers. Aside from Net-a-Porter, John Lewis and Selfridges also sell the Mulberry Bayswater bag. It would be good to monitor these prices as well, in case one decides to slash the price. This would mean adding each retailer to the Stufflist rather than the product itself.
Stuffster says that a price comparison service is coming soon but until then you will have to clog up your list with multiple retailers to ensure you're getting the best price.
Verdict
I think Stuffster is a handy addition to help us save money on our online shopping. But it should be used with other shopping tools like price comparison, cashback and voucher websites for full effect.
Stuffster is free to use so you won't lose anything trying it out. Give it a go and let us know how you get on.