Save Money with a FREE Price Tracker by Procurement Tactics

published – Sept 10th 2023

If you’re in any way frugal with your online shopping habits then you will likely think things through before buying. I’m sure one of your aims will be to spend as little money as possible on any given product.

In fact, there are several tried and tested methods that you can use to shave money off the price tag of your desired purchase. I bet you’ve used a few of these in the past.

How about comparing the price of an item to see how it has changed over time? To elaborate, if something is now more expensive than it was last week then why pay more?

How do I know where to check price history? Price tracking websites are already very much a thing. These can come in different forms from apps for download to browser plugins and Google Chrome extensions.

Nonetheless, there is a new kid on the block that just might pique your interest. Let me guide you through how this works. I will also demonstrate how it can help you gauge the best time and place to make your purchase.

a keyboard underneath a shopping basket and a mouse cursor — photo by geralt from pixabay

What are the differences between this price tracker and price comparison websites?

This isn’t quite the same as a conventional price comparison platform as it’s not as easy to compare different retailers. However, the price tracker tool will allow you to see the history of how the price has changed on the product page of a website.

This in itself allows you to see how good or bad the deal is at that point in time. If you enter several requests for a smattering of different websites then you will be able to compare and contrast easier that way.

Who would benefit most from using this free price tracker software?

Anybody can utilize this tool for pretty much any purpose. However, I can see it being primarily useful with the process of affordable procurement for small businesses.

This is especially true for retail businesses that are looking to source cheap inventory from wholesalers and other suppliers.

Can I use this price tracker for any website or URL?

This tool is said to work on approximately 4.3 billion web pages across the internet. Additionally, the price tracker scrapes information from URLs every 24 hours so the data will be up to date. It works on all different kinds of products from clothing to electronics.

Can you price track on Amazon? During my experimentation, I have personally submitted a few URLs from Amazon and eBay. The price tracker has worked fine for both of these sites.

When it comes to price tracker tools for Amazon products, this is one that you should prioritize. I can see it beating out other real-time price tracker platforms.

Are there any URLs that show no data when using this price tracker?

I haven’t found very many websites that this price tracker won’t work on. Although, there are one or two exceptions. I did try entering a URL from the Temu website but unfortunately, this didn’t work out. I even attempted this several times over with different web pages on the site with no luck.

In fairness, the Temu app and website are relatively new compared with the biggest eCommerce websites. This may be the reason for the issue. It could have also been an issue on my end so this is something else to think about

Commodities

This tool seems to be most helpful if you want pricing data specifically about commodities. I say this because there are occasional gaps in information when searching for other products by URL. This price tracker claims to be capable of checking the prices of commodities such as:

raw energy (oil, lumber & gas)
agricultural materials (coffee beans, rice, oats, sugar, wheat, tea, soybean & corn)
precious metals (gold, platinum, copper, silver)
a few other commodity types

Another feature that I like is that each commodity page has additional information underneath the price history and graph. This includes topics like:

what causes the price of that commodity to change and why
where the commodity is sourced
what the future holds for the commodity in question

Right now, the data around commodities is much more detailed as opposed to just inputting a random URL from the internet. Perhaps this could evolve into a price tracker for stock and investments too.

How effective are the search results on this price tracker website?

It only takes a couple of seconds to load up the price fluctuations. In addition, the speed at which the tool can compile data is pretty impressive.

The first number displayed seems to be the current price. I’m assuming that the rest of these figures are sorted from newest to oldest by default. The prices on the results page can occasionally fluctuate quite dramatically. Therefore, I am not entirely sure how accurate the data is at times.

How well organized is the pricing data on Procurement Tactics?

As far as the results page goes, I believe that the whole thing could be a little bit clearer. You will typically see several numbers that show up (indicating price) but I think that this could be better organized.

For instance, the type of currency doesn’t always appear before numbers which can be slightly confusing. This is especially true as some of the numbers are quite long and have decimal points in odd places.

The numbers in the results don’t appear to be arranged in any particular or obvious way. You can’t always match the dates with prices properly because of this.

Will the search results come with a graph?

Not only does this tool give you numbers, but it also offers up a graph in order to represent this visually. This chart shows you how the price has changed over:

weeks
months
years

Using Email Alerts for your Procurement Strategy and Execution

The price tracker can notify you with email updates if this is something that you want. Procurement tips and tricks like this will save you from having to repeatedly visit the website.

You can conveniently check your inbox instead as you are planning out your purchase. The email recipient will be alerted as soon as there are any changes (big or small). Having options like this can really help you focus on when or where to buy.

Who are Procurement Tactics?

Procurement Tactics is a business based in the Netherlands. Not only do they have a website that tracks price history, but they have other skills too. As the company name suggests, they specialize in negotiation and procurement for other businesses.

The folks at Procurement Tactics have more than 20 years of experience in their field. Moreover, I think this tool is well worth investigating. They even have associations with some big-name brands such as:

Could this become one of the best price tracker apps in the future?

I understand that the price tracker is still very much in its infancy. For this reason, I think functionality and performance will become more refined over time.

It will be very interesting to come back to this price tracker tool in a few months’ time. This way I will be able to see how much progress has been made since then. Having said all this, the tool still seems to be within the testing phase so I don’t want to be too harsh with any criticism I have.

Overall, I really like the price tracker and believe that it will be helpful for lots of different applications. There is a chance that it may one day be one of the top price trackers for online shopping.

As a bonus, you can save even more money. Once you have used the price tracker to find what you want to buy, you can cut the price of the purchase by taking a very simple step.

One can do this by checking out topcashback. This is basically a cashback platform that pays you money back whenever you shop. If you frequently purchase stuff online, it’s worth it to sign up today.

Interview with Procurement Tactics

I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to conduct an interview with Karen Mae Bonifacio and Ralph de Groot. For those who don’t know, she is the Content Manager and he is the CMO and co-founder of Procurement Tactics.

Karen was in fact the one who originally reached out to me about writing this article. We all agreed that it would be helpful to our respective communities. Here is a transcript of our conversation about the price tracker.

Hello Karen and Ralph. Can you describe how the price tracker works exactly? In as simple terms as possible, how do you process all those URLs for price fluctuations?

Yes sure!

Anyone who wants to track a price can use our price tracker to monitor price fluctuations on any page on the web
Go to https://procurementtactics.com/price-tracker/ and enter the URL of the price they want to track
The tool will scrape all the data on that page and will show you all the numbers it found, Select the price you want to monitor
Our price tracker will re-scrape that page every 24 hours and update the price it found

What was the inspiration for introducing a price tracking tool? How did you get the idea?

It actually started when I (Ralph de Groot) co-founder of Procurement Tactics wanted to buy a new Macbook and noticed the prices were changing every day. It got me thinking because I know price fluctuations have a huge impact on procurement decisions.

Of course, there are databases of price fluctuations of commodities, but it’s probably limited to less than 1% of all products out there. Instead of making a database ourselves, why not build a tool that lets people decide which prices they want to track?

Why did you want to develop the price tracker in the first place?

To track the price fluctuations of a Macbook, haha!

Did you put the price tracker through any kind of usability testing or quality control stage before launch? If so, can you expand on that process?

Yes! We tested it with a bunch of procurement professionals who are enrolled in our Procurement Academy. We asked them to open the Price Tracker and tell us what they see and what they think. This was very useful, as we got to see ‘real-life’ people using the tracker.

Have you personally tested out the price tracker yourself? If so, what did you search for and how did you feel about the results?

Definitely. Of course, I tracked the Macbook I wanted to buy. It was fun to see the daily fluctuations.

Are there any products that the price tracker doesn’t work on?

It should work on any product that has a price listed somewhere on the internet. As long as the price is communicated on a public page, you can track it.

Is the tool also compatible for people who want to track the price of services (rather than products) online? This might mean paying to hire a freelance worker or booking a flight, for example?

Great question. Yes! It works for services and products. Anything really!

Who did you initially have in mind as your ideal target audience for the price tracker?

Initially, I wanted to build the tool for myself, but the use case for procurement professionals is even more important.

Does this work for all internet users around the world or just for people in certain countries?

It works everywhere.

What are the names of the people who were responsible for creating this price tracker tool?

Sjoerd Raaijmakers – Coded the tool
Marijn Overvest – strategizing procurement use cases
Ralph de Groot – UX of the tool

What role did you personally play in the development of the price tracker?

I worked on the UX of the tool to make it as easy to use as possible.

Why did you decide to make the price tracker free to use? Are there any plans to monetize this tool in the future?

No, it will remain free. It’s just a nice tool that we see as a nice promotion for Procurement Tactics.

What makes your tool unique and different from all the other online price tracker programs that are out there?

It’s free, very light, and easy to use.

I was impressed when I saw that the price tracker has the ability to track the price of commodities. To your knowledge, has this helped the performance of any market traders or investors that you know of?

Thanks! Not that I’m aware of, but indeed I can imagine it’s very convenient to them.

Have users run into any bugs, glitches or other issues while using the tool?

Haha, yes! Sometimes the prices didn’t show for 24 hours. Luckily we did manage to scrape the data each day, so no data points were lost.

What kind of feedback have you had from users of the price tracker so far? Are you happy with the overall response?

So far the feedback has been really positive! The fact that it’s free seems to be appreciated, haha.

What about the price tracker tool in particular are you most proud of?

It allows you to do it yourself, and track prices beyond the main popular commodities.

How do you plan on promoting the price tracker tool so that you can attract even more users?

We run a big newsletter for procurement professionals which we used to promote the tool. In the first 30 days, we already got 1,200 users, which was a great start!

Are there any plans for Procurement Tactics to develop the tool further by adding new features in the future?

Yes, we are thinking about creating a dashboard that allows you to control all the prices you’re tracking at once.

Thank you very much for your time. Is there anything else you would like to tell our readers about the price tracker tool before we finish up here?

Since it’s free, I would recommend everyone who reads this to give it a try here:

https://procurementtactics.com/price-tracker/

I think I was able to get some useful and in-depth insights from this correspondence. I hope that you will get some value from this as well.

Conclusion

Are procurement and purchasing the same thing? Being able to view the price history of a product can be extremely useful. This is relevant whether you are simply a consumer or are acting as a business trying to procure stock for a low price.

Seeing a high or low price can go a long way in swaying your decision-making when it comes to pulling the trigger on a purchase. It may cause you to think twice.

Although not as polished as it could be, I can certainly see a lot of value and promise in this new price tracker. I am also excited to see how its development will unfold in the future.

Don’t just take me at my word. I would recommend personally testing out the price tracker. Think about a purchase you are planning or would like to make and enter the URL.

This could be a regular business expense like office supplies or anything else you need. You can then see for yourself what happens and examine the data that you can glean from the results.

It wouldn’t be a bad idea to read some procurement strategy books if you would like to learn more on the subject. If you want to utilize an alternative price tracking tool then you should explore pricetrakker and camelcamelcamel.

Are you now feeling inspired to try out the new price tracker by Procurement Tactics? What do you like best about this price tracker tool and why?

Please don’t forget to share this with your friends and like it on social media. You can subscribe to our newsletter and comment below too. Thanks for reading!

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