How do you stalk an item?

bella

I know that there are some ladies here who are great at following the sales and snatch their favorite items at reduced prices. How do you do it? Do you just check the website everyday? Do you have other strategies that you can share?

14 years ago

Shopping

12 replies

Latest reply was from Kari

Marvel Girl

Active Member

I don't do a lot of stalking but I rarely purchase without some sort of discount code. I'm a big online shopper and I'm registered with several store sites so I get coupon codes and special offers sent right to my inbox.

If I really love something, I will 'visit' it every day online to see how the stock is. If sizes and colors are selling out, I tend to just purchase with whatever discount is currently running rather than risk losing out on the item. My lovely SIL is really good at scoring clearance items for cheap but she tends to go to the stores all the time because she stays at home with my niece.

14 years ago

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

Some sites will allow you to put items in a shopping cart and leave them there for long periods of time (Nordstrom's and the Gap families both do this). I don't check every single day, but a couple of times a week to see where prices are at. Favorites lists on ebay and etsy are another way to do this.
There are also downloadable aps for your computer (or smartphone I am sure) that allow you to keep track of items online.

14 years ago

Beth

Veteran

Oooh Khris! What are these apps you speak of?

14 years ago

taylor

Veteran

I am really interested in this too!!

I am a short term stalker......If I really want something I ususally buy...If I can't afford it that week I will check back once a week or so to see if the price has dropped.

14 years ago

rae

(website)

Veteran

If I can't find the item for the price I want right away (by googling, using coupon codes, etc), I will sometimes put it on my Amazon wish list or create a Saved Search for it on Ebay.

14 years ago

(website)

Veteran

I'm with Rae - Amazon and eBay have been my biggest deal scoring sites. Amazon I just seem to luck out and find boots on ridiculous discount and just days later, they go back up a hundred or more dollars. I guess I'm just lucky with my timing? I do shop off season regularly, so perhaps that helps.

14 years ago

Diana

Veteran

I love Amazon.com's shopping cart. If you put things in it (you can click "save for later" so you don't accidentally purchase anything!) it will tell you everytime you go to the shopping cart page whether the price of something has changed. Amazon prices fluctuate wildly...
Anthropologie is another site where it's worth it to save things in the shopping cart, as they frequently have "popbacks" where people will return things that were previously out of stock and they sometimes show up in the shopping cart at very low prices. As far as I know, popbacks ONLY show up in the shopping cart or if you specifically search the style number - they do not show up on the regular site.

14 years ago

Lena

Active Member

Hi Bella!

Usually I just bookmark items and check up on them once in a while. Or use shopping carts.

I used to use savvycircle.com but they don't seem to work well and have lots of glitches.

Recently I discovered that Shopbop will e-mail you when items on your wishlist go on sale. (Of course this doesn't help much when you don't check your e-mail frequently. I have an e-mail filter for such things, but don't check it frequently, so I just missed out something I wanted)

Also, Shopstyle has a very extensive e-mail alert system you can set up here http://www.shopstyle.com/salealerts The number of brands it lists is frankly overwhelming. I tried it out for fun, and couldn't keep up.

14 years ago

bella

(website)

Veteran

Thanks for your suggestions. I think I still have a lot to learn because the item I was planning to stalk is already sold out in my size. Oh well, this is info will be useful for next time.

14 years ago

Lisa

Veteran

I'm not great at stalking items, I'm too much an instant gratification shopper. Great question though! I would expect daily check ins and a personal cut off for a price one wishes to pay are the keys to successful stalking.

14 years ago

Kate

Veteran

I use the amazon wish list. Whenever I see anything I want I click on the button on my browser (chrome extension here: https://chrome.google.com/webs.....ahnjgiaced) and it adds it to the list. Then periodically I go back through the list to track price changes.

14 years ago

Kari

Veteran

The trick is all in being very, very quiet and sneaky, and carrying a giant lasso...

Kidding aside, I'm old-school and don't usually utilize auto-notifications. Depending on the retailer, I usually put the item I'm stalking in a "saved" shopping cart - Nordstrom lets you do this, for example, to "save and buy later" - which usually means that your items stay in your cart or wish list longer without being periodically deleted. If it's an item that I'm really interested in I'll periodically check the website, like every week or so. Or I'll let friends that shop there know that I'm scoping out a certain item if it falls below a certain price range so that they can help me keep an eye out.

14 years ago

Category