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Cyber Security Threats and Measures for eCommerce Companies in 2021

Who does not shop online in this day and age to purchase products and services? Who does not want to be able to choose from a myriad of options, compare shapes, sizes, colors, and prices, all from the convenience of your home? The prevalence of online shopping today only continues to increase, and with that, the accessibility to products around the globe.

Worldwide eCommerce sales are expected to reach $4.9 trillion (USD) in 2021! The Covid-19 pandemic has only increased eCommerce relevance, as it drove people to start purchasing everyday goods online and forced even non-online shoppers to move to virtual retail.

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5 Cybersecurity Tips to Protect Yourself While Shopping Online

Christmas has always been a time when people stay away from work, relax, travel, and do a great deal of shopping, but 2020 has come with a difference. The first and second waves of COVID-19 have made it almost impossible for people to move around and shop at will. What people have to recourse to is online shopping. In 2019, according to a recent study, 93.4% of American consumers bought Christmas gifts, and the average consumer who bought Christmas gifts spent $928.76.

Most of these gifts were bought online. Buying from an eCommerce store, among other things, removes geographical limitations, reduces costs, and enhances comparison shopping. It also enables deals, bargains, coupons, group-buying in real-time and creates room for targeted communication. However, this comes with many cybersecurity risks. Cybercriminals catch in on the volume of data and personal information that have to be ferried during Christmas to wreak serious havoc.

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Digital Customer Experience Starts and Ends With Login

It is beneficial for businesses to implement a seamless authentication and login system for many reasons. From increasing traffic, reducing password fatigue, and improving security functions, a vastly convenient feature like Single Sign-On (SSO) can help to improve your consumer experience.

A large number of consumers will click away from an app or website to avoid filling out an online registration form. Many businesses simply abandon those consumers because their authentication systems are not efficient enough. 

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Conceptualization of IoT-Enabled Smart Kitchen

We all agree that COVID has turned our lives upside down. Each one of us is now under house arrest and struggling to adapt to this new lifestyle of managing home and work simultaneously.

This new lifestyle has not only taken a toll on our physical health but also on our mental health. I am no different, with the added household responsibilities, it has become arduous for me to manage it along with the office work especially when it comes to maintain a grocery list. Every time a grocery item was missed out of the list, the task became more daunting.

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How to Use Google Sheets as an Amazon Price Tracker

The prices of products listed on various Amazon shopping websites may vary every day and a simple Google Spreadsheet can help you monitor these price fluctuations via email. Just add the Amazon items in a spreadsheet and you’ll automatically get email alerts when their prices change on Amazon. You’ll thus never miss the deal again.

amazon price tracker

Track Amazon Prices with Google Sheets

The Amazon Price Tracker is easy to configure. All you have to do is add the links (URLs) of Amazon product pages inside a Google Spreadsheet. You can add monitor products across all Amazon.* websites. Here are the steps involved:

Step 1: Generate Amazon Access Keys

Open the Amazon Associates website and sign-in with your Amazon account. Next, click the Tools menu, choose Product Advertising API from the dropdown (link) and choose Manage Your Credentials under the Add Credentials section. Amazon will create an Access Key ID and a Secret Key that you’ll need in the next step.

Step 2: Copy the Google Spreadsheet

Click here to copy the Price Tracker Google Sheet in your Google Account. DO NOT change the layout of the Google Sheet as it may break the tracker.

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Now all you have to do is enter Amazon product URLs in column A of the Google Sheet, one per line. For instance, here’s the Amazon URL for iPad

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B07K344J3N/tajmahal020-20/

The URL contains the 10 digit ASIN code which is used by the Google Sheet to identify the specific Amazon product you are looking to monitor for price fluctuations.

In addition to prices, the Google Sheet lists several other useful attributes of Amazon Products including merchant’s name, sales rank, overall savings, Prime eligibility and whether the product qualifies for free shipping.

Step 3: Set Price Thresholds (optional)

With the Price Tracker, you can also set price thresholds for specific products and get automatic email alerts when the target price is reached. For instance, you can choose to receive alerts when the iPad price drops by 20% of the initial value. Or you can set a target price (alert when iPad drops to $399) and get automatic alerts when the price drops on Amazon.

To specify a threshold for any product, go to column B of the product row and enter the amount or percentage values as shown in the screenshot above.

Step 4: Configure Price Tracker inside Google Sheet

Inside the Google Sheets, go to the Amazon Price Tracker menu (near the Help menu) and choose Configure. You may have to authorize the Pricer Tracker script once to connect to Amazon API and send email alerts.

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Next enter your access keys, your email address and the time when you wish to receive the email alerts. Click Save to initialize the Amazon Price Tracker.

That’s it. You’ll receive a daily email digest with the price fluctuations as shown below.

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Monitor Amazon Products for Price Drops

Amazon Price Tracker can monitor prices of all products (including Kindle ebooks) listed on Amazon.com and the country-specific websites including amazon.fr, amazon.de, amazon.es, amazon.ca, amazon.it, amazon.in, amazon.co.jp and amazon.co.uk.

Also, you can add more Amazon URLs, or delete existing products, from the Google sheet and the script will automatically pick the changes in the next run. And if you ever wish to stop receiving those email alerts, just choose the Stop Tracking option from the Price Tracker menu in the same Google sheet.

The tracker is written in Google Scripts and uses Amazon’s Product Advertising API to fetch the latest prices at fixed intervals. The Price Tracker is completely free but if you chose to upgrade to premium, you get technical support and get to use your own Amazon Associate tags.

The post How to Use Google Sheets as an Amazon Price Tracker appeared first on Digital Inspiration.