PRODUCT SOURCING

Differences in pricing

Back in the olden days (before online shopping) certain stores would sell certain brands. If you wanted xx, you knew to shop at yy.

These days and especially with the development of ‘drop shipping,’ tons of stores carry the exact same product but under different names AND sometimes with an unbelievable price difference!

Below is a piece I recently ordered for a client. I can’t remember where I first saw it, but the price was in the $600’s. As that wasn’t going to work with our budget, I Google Lens** checked it and it popped in a variety of store fronts. The. Exact, Same. Product, with several hundred dollars range of pricing.

(if you’re not familiar with Google Lens, boy do I have something to show you.)

Google Lens is an amazing tool. If you haven’t used it, you don’t need to download new software, it’s right there on your Google app. Take a look, and you’ll see a camera icon on the right of the search box.

You can do several things but these two are my faves: you can upload a photo of ANYTHING, let’s say for instance, the table above. Within a flash, Google will have found all the places that sell the item, along with the links and prices. Ta-da!

The second thing, and I’ve driven friends and family crazy with this: you can focus the camera on ANY item you have (or the antique things your mom has that might be worth some money lol) and it will tell you what it is and if places are selling it, it will tell you where to find it. You can do this for anything - see a magazine photo of a place you’d love to visit, bam … it will tell you where it is. Like the look of that woman’s lipstick on your fave tv show? It will tell you what color and brand it is. It’s endless and it’s fabulous!