How to Set Up Free Price Drop Alerts

Set up a free price-drop email alert on ShelfAware in about a minute, plus a worked example of picking a target price that will actually fire.

A price alert watches a product so you don't have to, and emails you when the price reaches a number you picked. Setting one up takes about a minute. Choosing the number takes a little more thought, and it decides whether the alert ends up useful.

Setting one up

Search the product with the scanner on the homepage, for the retailer and location you care about. You don't need an account for this.
Open the price alert from the scan result.
Sign in with Google or email.Alerts need an account so there's somewhere to send them. Verify your email address if you haven't already.
Enter your target price.
Save it.ShelfAware checks the price in the background and emails you when it hits your target. You don't need to come back until then.

Picking a target that actually fires

Look at the item's price history before you type a number. Here's a made-up example. Say a vacuum is $399 today. Its chart shows it dropped to $299 twice in the last few months, and its lowest ever is $279.

$250will probably never fire. It's below anything the vacuum has sold for.
$300 catches the next ordinary sale, which the chart suggests comes around fairly often.
$280 holds out for something near the all-time low. It may take a while, and the model could be discontinued first.

Choose based on how soon you need the thing, not on how good the number looks.

Store prices and national prices

At retailers that price nationally, such as Best Buy, Staples, and Sport Chek, there's one price to watch. At Canadian Tire and Home Depot, prices can differ from store to store, so search from the location you'd actually shop at. That way the prices you see while choosing a target are ones you can get.

Alerts are free, and there's no limit on how many products you track. Search a product to set your first one, or read how to read a price history chart first.