Here's a neat idea: I just read in an article in today's Wall Street Journal (Nov. 10, 2014) that this year the Journal was introducing a tool called the "Christmas Sale Tracker," at http://graphics.wsj.com/Christmas-Sale-Tracker/KitchenAid-Mixer.
As the article explains, "This holiday season, The Wall Street Journal will monitor those strategies with a new online tool - the Christmas Sale Tracker - which will follow the prices of 10 popular holiday gifts, including a doll set from the Walt Disney Co. movie “Frozen” and a Razor electric scooter, at big retailers such as Amazon.com Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Toys ‘R’ Us."
"The tracker will collect prices once an hour from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31 to determine the best times to buy those products, how early retailers offer their best deals and how quickly rivals match lower offers.
Already, the WSJ Christmas Sale Tracker shows that retailers seem to be testing how directly price cuts drive traffic and Web sales, by changing prices on popular items such as the Jawbone Up24 fitness tracker and a KitchenAid mixer in the weeks leading up to the holiday-shopping bonanza."
And what's the best day to snag low prices? Not Black Friday. According to the Journal piece, "Instead, retailers’ biggest price cuts last year came on the Monday before Thanksgiving, and shoppers who bought items on Thanksgiving Day snapped up the season’s lowest prices, according to Adobe."
So if you want to get a sense of how prices for top items change over time, check out the tracker! And if you want to get low-priced holiday deals, it really does pay to shop early...before or on Thanksgiving Day!
As the article explains, "This holiday season, The Wall Street Journal will monitor those strategies with a new online tool - the Christmas Sale Tracker - which will follow the prices of 10 popular holiday gifts, including a doll set from the Walt Disney Co. movie “Frozen” and a Razor electric scooter, at big retailers such as Amazon.com Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Toys ‘R’ Us."
"The tracker will collect prices once an hour from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31 to determine the best times to buy those products, how early retailers offer their best deals and how quickly rivals match lower offers.
Already, the WSJ Christmas Sale Tracker shows that retailers seem to be testing how directly price cuts drive traffic and Web sales, by changing prices on popular items such as the Jawbone Up24 fitness tracker and a KitchenAid mixer in the weeks leading up to the holiday-shopping bonanza."
And what's the best day to snag low prices? Not Black Friday. According to the Journal piece, "Instead, retailers’ biggest price cuts last year came on the Monday before Thanksgiving, and shoppers who bought items on Thanksgiving Day snapped up the season’s lowest prices, according to Adobe."
So if you want to get a sense of how prices for top items change over time, check out the tracker! And if you want to get low-priced holiday deals, it really does pay to shop early...before or on Thanksgiving Day!
