Track Amazon, NewEgg, and Best Buy Prices with ApeBay

We used to have the time to hunt for online coupon codes and refresh the Web browser to see if the products we wanted had gone on sale yet. But after a while, trying to track e-commerce prices became too hectic.

Many sites have sales every other day, but we don’t have time to go on and see if the things we actually want have made it onto the sale yet.

Now we don’t have to.

With retailers’ Internet prices now changing more often — sometimes several times within the space of a day — a new group of tools is helping shoppers outwit the stores. Rather than requiring shoppers to do the work by entering an item into price-comparison engines throughout the day, the tools automatically scan for price changes and alert customers when the price drops.

Some tools, including one from Citibank’s Citi Card, even scour sites for lower prices after a purchase and help customers get a refund for any price difference.

The research company Apebay, which follows prices on behalf of retailers and brands, tracked hundreds of holiday products at major retailers in 2011 and 2012. During a two-week period around Thanksgiving, Amazon and Sears were changing prices on about a quarter of those products daily, a significant increase from the previous year. Walmart, Toys “R” Us, Kmart and Best Buy also changed prices more frequently in 2012.

Even the Web browser a customer uses can make a difference. The Web site Apebay, which shows consumers price changes, did side-by-side comparisons of televisions. On Newegg using the Chrome browser, the firm was offered a $899 price on a LG television. Using Firefox and Internet Explorer, the price was $999.

The firm found a difference on another Samsung television model at Walmart.com, where using Firefox yielded a $149 price and Chrome and Internet Explorer $199.

“A lot of times the price will have a big difference on consumer behavior.”

Currently, Apebay makes money from referral traffic — it is paid a fee when shoppers buy something via a link from its e-mails.

Customers track items in specific sizes and colors, and then waits for the notification.

Rather than coming back to the site each time they want to check a product, shoppers can use Apebay as a sidebar in the browser. As a shopper pokes around Amazon’s electronics section, for example, the sidebar lists live comparison pricing for the products.

Alerts can give shoppers a competitive edge. Some items on Amazon can be out of stock all day, but at 10 p.m., for example, it can be back in stock at a reduced price. By the next morning, Amazon was out of stock again. You get the alert and you get in on the feeding frenzy.

Retailers generally appreciate the sales traffic generated by the tracking tools and do not try to block them even if that means some customers will reap extra discounts.

 In some cases, retailers are even changing their practices to adapt to the new landscape. Target, for example, announced this month that it would match prices from online competitors like Amazon, extending a promotion it tried during the holidays.

Even banks see a potential role for themselves as price monitors. Citibank recently added a feature to its consumer credit cards that gives customers a refund when it finds a lower price on an item within 30 days of purchase.

Everyone can relate to the buyer’s remorse of buying an item and seeing it for a lower price a day or a couple of days later.

 For Citi, the idea is to get consumers using their Citi cards rather than competitors’ cards on big purchases. Consumers must register the purchase online, and there is a long list of exclusions (live animals don’t qualify, nor do antiques, boats or airline tickets).

The price difference must be $25 or more, and Citi searches the retailers’ sites itself. When Citi finds a big enough difference, it e-mails the consumer, asks for a receipt and then mails a check for the difference.

About a quarter of purchases over $100 that had been registered so far got a refund, and almost 40 percent of those over $1,000. Some eligible items included a Whirlpool washer, a DKNY suit and a Canon Rebel camera. On average, said a Citi spokeswoman, those who register items get back $80 an item.

While those budget-conscious shoppers are clearly interested in buying, they may not be the type of long-term customers that retailers want to cultivate.

Shoppers who are not price-sensitive, are the consumers they really want, that they can build loyalty out of — not the consumers that are strictly taking a deal.