How we compare prices and show the results
Our aim is to be a complete and unbiased price and product comparison service. We list all the shops and prices that we know of for any single product. We list both the shops that pay us for the traffic we send them (featured shops) as well as the shops that do not. We do not exclude any offers.
How prices are shown
By default, we display offers in order from the lowest to the highest price, with no beneficial ranking of featured shops. For shops that have the same price for a product, the list is sorted by:
- Price excluding shipping
- Price including shipping
- Stock status
- Shop rating
- Number of shop ratings
- Number of products of which the shop has the lowest price
In other listings or places where PriceSpy only displays a single price for a product, we always show the lowest price – the same sorting criteria apply.
The prices we show are excluding shipping, unless we specify otherwise. Keep in mind that shops may charge fees that we do not show, such as service fees, environmental fees, and deposit return fees.
How shops are displayed
A featured shop is displayed with its own logotype in our price lists. They also have a short description written by the shop itself. Featured shops have a green button that directs the visitor to the shop, or a link that differs from those of the non-featured shops.
Non-featured shops have no logotype in our price lists. They also have no description. Non-featured shops may have less distinctive links leading to the shop, or have no links at all.
There are no other differences in how offers from featured and non-featured shops are displayed.
In places where PriceSpy displays a single price for a product, with additional information about the shop, a featured shop is shown with a logotype while a non-featured shop has its name in text only.
A featured shop either pays us a fixed fee for each click we redirect to them or a small percentage of the order value (if an order was placed after being redirected from PriceSpy). PriceSpy has either direct contracts with the shops or utilises existing affiliate networks.
No fees or additional costs are added to the products listed at PriceSpy. The prices listed at PriceSpy should never be higher than if visiting the web shop directly without being redirected from our service.
Shops listed at PriceSpy
Our aim is to list all national shops that are offering products in any of the categories currently listed at PriceSpy.
We also list international shops in their own section. These are shops listed at other PriceSpy sites, that have stated that they ship to New Zealand, and might not display a comprehensive result.
We do our best to find all shops online ourselves, but if you own or know of a shop missing from our service, selling products in categories listed at PriceSpy, please let us know.
Price updates
Our product-related price information, including price and stock status, is usually updated three to five times a day. Under certain circumstances, information may be updated more often or more rarely. We receive product-related information from the shops themselves or collect it by automatic web scraping. Our aim is to always show every single product a shop lists in every product category that we have, but in rare cases, we will not be able to. The shop could have a structure too difficult to handle or they could actively be trying to block us. In these cases, we show as much information as we can while trying to work with the shop to find a better solution.
Featured shops have the ability to notify us if they make any price changes, speeding up the process.
Despite PriceSpy’s efforts to always show correct information about all products, the information (this applies not only to price, but pictures, product properties, availability and delivery time too) comes from the shops themselves. Therefore, even if we do our very best, errors may occur. Always check the shop’s own price and description of the product before making a final shopping decision.
If you find any incorrect information please use our feedback form to notify us of the error.
Product variants
The same shop may offer a product in many different variations. It can be anything from a variety of colours, language versions or packaged versions where the product comes with different accessories. In order to avoid information-heavy price lists, such list items can be expanded to show all variations of the product. All product variants from a single shop will be sorted according to price, from lowest to highest.
An exception to the bundling of product variants is when the product in some respect isn’t brand new. This could be used products, products with damaged packing or products used for display. These products have their own place in the price list and could even have a lower price than the lowest price we indicate for the product. The lowest price that we show for a specific product is always the lowest price where you as a consumer can be sure to get a brand-new item.