ShelfAware
How to Use ShelfAware
A step-by-step guide to checking real-time prices and in-store stock, reading price history, setting free alerts, and using the Chrome extension.
Find your product
On the ShelfAware homepage, paste the product's URL straight from a retailer's website: Canadian Tire, Best Buy, Walmart, Home Depot, Princess Auto, Canada Computers, Visions, Home Hardware, IKEA, RONA, Staples, Sport Chek, or Costco. ShelfAware reads the link and automatically detects both the retailer and the exact product, so there's nothing else to fill in.
Don't have the URL handy? Type the SKU or model number instead (Item ID for Walmart). For Walmart, Canadian Tire, and Best Buy, you can also enter the UPC barcode directly or scan it with your phone's camera, which comes in handy when you're already standing in a different store and want to check whether it's cheaper elsewhere.
Enter your postal code
Type your postal code, city, or neighbourhood into the location field. ShelfAware uses this to search stores around that point. Drag the distance slider to widen or narrow the search anywhere from 5 km to 100 km. Your location is only used to run the search; it isn't stored beyond that request (see the Privacy Policy).
See stock and prices near you, live
Hit search and ShelfAware scans every store in range, streaming results back as they come in instead of making you wait for the whole batch. Each result shows the store, its distance from you, the price, and whether it's currently in stock, sorted so the best nearby option is easy to spot at a glance.
Check the price history and the all-time low
Open any product to see its full price history as a chart, including the all-time low. That's what tells you whether a "sale" price is an actual discount or a price that was quietly bumped up first so it could be marked back down.
Set a free price drop alert
Tap the bell icon on a product to set a target price: a specific dollar amount, a percentage off (−5%, −10%, etc.), or the all-time low. You'll need to sign in with an email address so we know where to send the alert, but the alert itself is free. ShelfAware checks active alerts every few hours and emails you the moment your target is hit at any nearby store.
Using the ShelfAware Chrome extension
The extension does the same job as pasting a URL into the homepage, except it works right on a retailer's own website, so there's nothing to copy or paste. Browse to any product page at a supported retailer with the extension installed, and it checks nearby stock and price drops for that exact product in the background.
Click the extension icon to open a small overlay with the same live per-store price and stock results you'd get on ShelfAware.ca. Your last-used postal code is remembered locally in the browser for up to 24 hours, so you're not re-entering it on every product page. Selecting a result or setting an alert deep-links back into the full ShelfAware site, with the retailer, product, and location from your search already filled in.
The extension is free and doesn't track your browsing history or send it anywhere; it only acts on the product page you're currently viewing (see the Privacy Policy).
Good to know
- Searching prices and checking stock never requires an account. Only price alerts do.
- In-store stock is pulled live from each retailer's own system, but it can't fully rule out "ghost inventory" (an item shown in stock when the shelf is actually empty). For anything worth a special trip, it's still smart to call ahead.
- Already tracking clearance? The retailer pages and blog cover markdown patterns and deal-hunting strategy for specific stores.
- Still stuck? Check the FAQ or contact us.