Did you ever wish you had a little genie on your shoulder who could advise you on the best time to buy electronics and appliances?
Well now you do. It’s called Decide.com.
The site covers a wide variety of household items from technical gadgets such as televisions, computers, home audio, video games, etc. to kitchen and small appliances.
Here’s how it works:
Let’s say you’ve decided you want to buy a new TV. You might have an idea of what you’d like, but not sure if it’s a good buy or not at the price you’re seeing. You might also be curious as to what else might fit your needs that you’ve not seen yet. To educate yourself, you query Decide.com.
After clicking the TV link, you’re greeted by a number of possible options and searchable metrics. These include price (great for the budget-conscious), brand and other things relevant to a specific product (such as type, screen size, etc.). There is even a history chart showing all the prices a product has been sold for, which helps you determine if the current price is a good one or not. (Of course, this can trigger the “bummer” factor if you see it sold for less than where it is currently – and it’s unlikely to go back to the lower price.)
Smack in the middle of the screen is the recommendation – Buy or Wait. You are given a reason why such as, prices likely to drop, prices not likely to drop, prices holding steady, etc. You can also view a graph showing the price fluctuations over time.
Think the current price is too high? By setting up alerts, you can learn immediately when pricing changes are predicted for your item of interest. Another neat thing is the site allows you to localize your search (by inputting your location) to show you the best places to buy in your area as well as online (if that option makes sense). This can cut your travel and research time down significantly.
Decide.com bases its recommendations on sophisticated “machine learning,” a type of artificial intelligence that allows computers to evolve and learn with acquired data, and text mining algorithms that crunch billions of price points across millions of products, blog posts and articles on the web to enable shoppers to make the best buying decision possible.
By analyzing historical prices fluctuations and the timing of new or updated products, the site predicts what’s likely to happen with the price. On average, customers save about $87 using the site. However, with an accuracy rate of 77 percent, you probably don’t want to base your entire decision on Decide.com. But, if you’re looking for direction, it is a good place to consider your options.
While you can use the site without joining, being a member does have its privileges. For the people who register on the site, Decide.com provides 10 daily product recommendations. If you buy one of these and the price goes down within two weeks, Decide.com will automatically refund the difference.
Here is a screen shot of a TV page to give you an idea of what you’ll find at Decide.com.
