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January 17, 2011

happybuy – Save Yourself Some Money

Happybuy is a web-app that saves its users money by tracking the retail prices of millions of products online and offering customized recommendations on the best possible time to buy. From digital cameras to netbooks, vacations in Italy to designer watches, people can use happybuy to track the price of virtually any product that has ever been sold online.

What are you looking for? If you can answer that question, then you can get started using happybuy. Just type in the name of the product you’d like – feeling free to be as specific or generic as you want – and let happybuy search for the item online. If you’ve been hesitating to buy a Macbook Air or a Nikon camera because you’re worried that prices will come down soon, for example, then you can use happybuy to help guide your decision on when to buy. In an instant, happybuy will let you see the pricing history for the products you want and give you a thumbs up or thumbs down rating that indicates whether it’s best to buy now or hold off until later. If happybuy recommends you buy now, the web-app will offer up a link to the cheapest place to buy the product on the web. In times when happybuy recommends waiting for the price to drop further, you can enter your email address to receive immediate notice whenever the price does eventually go down.

Happybuy’s recommendations are based on its PricePredict pricing analysis algorithm, which analyses historical, seasonal, and categorical pricing data to determine future pricing events. This information is then used to help happybuy make its customized recommendations. For times when you don’t mind waiting a couple extra days or weeks to purchase an item if it means saving a couple dollars in the process, happybuy is an excellent tool to use.

Practical Uses:

  • Save money when buying gifts for friends
  • See how much extra you’ll pay for a DVD if you make the purchase next week
  • Don’t overpay when buying a new computer
  • Get the same watch your sister has, for half the price

Insider Tips:

  • Generic search terms usually produce better results than specific product names
  • Price history graphs show the lowest, highest, and average prices for an item
  • Users can read product descriptions on happybuy without visiting any retail site
  • Pricing recommendations are based on the PricePredict pricing analysis algorithm

What we liked:

  • Happybuy helps people plan when to buy everyday items
  • Users can sign up to receive email notices when products they want go on sale
  • The PricePredict algorithm will continue getting fine-tuned as time goes on
  • Happybuy can predict when the current price will rise, and by how much

What we didn’t like:

  • The prices of many products aren’t yet being tracked on happybuy

Alternatives:

Company Info:

Costs:

  • Free

Comments

  1. This site held a lot of potential. There are plenty of price comparison websites out there, but they are mostly focused on a certain category of products. I like that you can search for a product and it automatically finds the best deals for you. But like what the review said, the actual number of product offerings is not that vast.

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