Question 1

How do I add competitor product pages?

Accepted Answer

Save a readable URL for a public product page, or import product-page URLs from a CSV file. A URL that already has a monitor in your workspace is skipped when imported; a URL repeated within one CSV file is flagged during validation. A URL already saved cannot be added as a second monitor. Active, non-archived monitors count toward the selected plan limit. Private or unreadable pages are not successful complete captures.

Question 2

What happens when I save a product URL?

Accepted Answer

ShelfSkein attempts an initial read of the page title, current price, availability, and a short page snapshot. A readable page may remain saved even when price or availability extraction fails; unavailable fields stay marked unavailable. If the page itself cannot be read, the result is not a successful complete capture.

Question 3

When are saved product pages checked again?

Accepted Answer

Scheduled checks run daily at 08:00 UTC for non-archived monitors whose daily checks are active. You can pause or resume scheduled checks for a monitor. Check now runs one check without changing that preference, including while scheduled checks are paused.

Question 4

How reliable are the price and availability readings?

Accepted Answer

ShelfSkein labels each reading reliable, ambiguous, or unavailable and shows source evidence. A price or availability value is marked reliable only when it is supported by a matching quote from the current page. ShelfSkein does not infer a missing value, and a readable page does not guarantee that every field can be extracted.

Question 5

How do price alerts work?

Accepted Answer

For a monitor, choose a minimum confirmed price change from 0% to 100%. When a daily check finds a reliable, comparable price move that meets the threshold, ShelfSkein queues an email alert; smaller moves do not generate an alert email. A 0% threshold still requires a confirmed, non-zero move. Queueing an email does not guarantee inbox delivery. With no threshold set, confirmed price changes go to the daily digest when price is enabled in that monitor’s digest preferences.

Question 6

What appears in the daily email digest?

Accepted Answer

The digest is scheduled for 09:00 UTC and reports confirmed changes from successful checks, not every capture. For each monitor, you can include or exclude price, availability, and page-text changes; all three are included by default. When a price threshold is set, price changes use the alert path instead of the digest. Availability and page-text changes can appear in the digest when included in that monitor’s preferences.

Question 7

What do the current monthly plans include?

Accepted Answer

Current monthly USD plans are Starter at $19 per month for 25 active product monitors, Growth at $49 per month for 100, and Pro at $99 per month for 500. Each plan lists an initial price and availability read plus a saved source-page snapshot; individual fields may still be unavailable when a page does not support a reliable read. Archived monitors do not count toward the plan limit, and existing capture history stays in your workspace.

ShelfSkein monitoring questions and answers