Search for one product and you can find it at several prices on the same afternoon. It feels like someone must be overcharging. Usually the explanation is simpler, and knowing it makes comparing much faster.
These are the four reasons we run into most while matching prices between Canadian stores for SaveIQ, and what to look at for each.
The seller is not always the store
Amazon.ca, Best Buy and Walmart all host other companies’ listings beside their own. A price on Bestbuy.ca may come from a marketplace seller, with that seller’s shipping time, return rules and customer service.
This matters twice. The service you get is the seller’s, not the store’s. And retailers that price match, such as Best Buy and Staples, do not match marketplace sellers. Look for the “sold by” line before comparing two prices.
It is not quite the same product
A 6-quart pressure cooker and the 8-quart one share a name and a photo. Headphones in white can cost less than the same pair in black. A pack of four and a single item appear under almost the same title.
We see this constantly when matching listings: the name agrees and the product does not. Compare the model number, the size or capacity, the colour and the pack count. For anything sold by weight or count, divide the price by the quantity and compare that.
The price on the page is not the price you pay
Shipping can turn the cheapest listing into the most expensive one, especially under a free-shipping minimum. Some products also carry an environmental handling fee that varies by province.
Walmart.ca says the price of some products varies with your shipping location, which it takes from your postal code. Two people can see two prices for the same item on the same day.
Compare the total at checkout, with shipping and fees, before tax. Add the return policy to the comparison: a store that takes returns for free is cheaper for anything you might send back.
You looked on a different day
Online prices are not fixed. In the 90-day histories SaveIQ reads, it is common for the same Amazon.ca listing to change price several times.
So two stores can each be the cheapest, a week apart. A single comparison tells you about today; the price history tells you whether today is a normal day.
A short routine that covers all four
Confirm who the seller is. Confirm the model number, size, colour and pack count. Compare the total with shipping and fees. Then check the price history to see whether today’s price is low, normal or high for this product.
A SaveIQ price check does the last step and part of the others: it reads the history, lists other Canadian stores it could match to the same product, and notes when a store’s listing is for another colour. The first two steps are still worth thirty seconds of your own eyes.