Shopping Without the Tabs

The shopping bot

• Its description might read:
• "You help me shop. When I need something, find good options, compare prices across stores, check reviews and price history and tell me whether to buy now or wait. Build a cart when I ask. Never buy anything, enter payment details or sign up for accounts without my approval."

Telling the bot what you want

The more you say, the better the results. Not just "a kettle", but what matters to you.

The comparison

A few minutes later, the bot comes back with a short list. Three to five options, each with:

• The price at a few stores, with links.
• What reviewers like and dislike, with examples.
• Any common problems, like "several reviews mention it leaks after a year".
• How the price has changed recently, if it can find that.

Reviews, carefully

Reviews are useful but not perfect. Some are fake.

Buy now or wait

Prices go up and down. Some products go on sale at predictable times.

Price watches

If you're not in a hurry, the bot can watch a price for you. "Tell me if this vacuum drops below $200 at any of these three stores." It checks on a schedule and sends you a note when it does.

Building the cart

When you've decided, the bot can go to the store and put the item in a cart for you. For groceries or a list of household things, it can build a whole cart from a list.

Groceries

Grocery shopping is a big weekly job for many households, and it's a good fit for a bot.

Returns

Returns are pure admin. Find the order.

Tracking orders

When several orders are on the way, the bot can keep track of them. A short list each morning in your brief.

Spending

Shopping bots make buying easier. That's a double-edged thing.

Walkthrough: buying a vacuum

Here's how the Parks finally bought one.

What went wrong: the substitution

The first grocery order the bot built had "any brand" set for everything. The delivery came with a gluten-containing pasta in place of the gluten-free one.

A worked example: the returns month

After the holidays, the Parks had five things to return: a sweater, two toys, a kitchen gadget and a phone case. The errands bot found each order email, checked each store's return window and listed them by deadline.

A worked example: the price watch that paid off

The Parks wanted a new mattress but weren't in a hurry. They set the shopping bot to watch two models at three stores for a month.

Questions people ask

Should the bot ever buy without asking? Not at the start.