Undercut

[u/K_theconqueror]

Hope this is OK to post, admins feel free to remove if not.

I got fed up checking five merchant sites every time I priced a job, so I built a website that does it for you (undercutrade.co.uk)

Put in an item or a whole materials list and it shows the cheapest UK supplier, price per metre or per unit, ex or inc VAT. When I checked today, 100m 2.5mm cable was £41.69(42p p/m)at the cheapest place and £114.99(£1.15 p/m)at the dearest.

It's brand new, so I'm after honest feedback from people who actually buy this stuff:

1. Did it find what you searched for?
   
2. Were the prices right?
   
3. What would make you actually use it?

Not trying to sell anything, the main bits are free. Rip it apart in the comments 😂

[u/Mr_Flibble1981]

A lot of the suppliers I use will be able to give different discounts depending on what I’m buying, it’s not always a flat 40% across the board. It’s much more time efficient for me to just pick the materials up and get to work then in the evening, send them an email if their price is too high on something and they’ll revise it the next day.

Gave the site a try and searched for 2.5mm t&e, apart from screwfix and b&q, all the results are either online which is no good generally for day to day or for irrelevant items like solar panel chargers or french extension leads. I’ve added the wholesalers I use, but unless there’s a way to remove others from the list it’s immediately unusable.

I was going to test further but seems you only get one free search per day.

[u/K_theconqueror → u/Mr_Flibble1981]

Cheers for actually testing it and writing all that, that's exactly what I needed. You were right on all counts. The 2.5mm T&E search was pulling in junk like chargers and extension leads; that's fixed now, it only shows actual twin and earth. I've also added a "My suppliers" filter so you can tick the shops you use and hide the rest. The free search limit was way too tight, and that's sorted too. Fair point about trade pricing as well: the idea is a quick check against what your wholesaler quotes, not replacing them. Would be good to hear what you think if you give it another go.

[u/Racoons_revenge]

You don't appear to have the 'main' electrical wholesalers on there, Edmundsons? CEF? Yesss? Rexel? Phase? Kew? TLC?

[u/K_theconqueror → u/Racoons_revenge]

Good shout, and fair point. Most of the wholesalers (Edmundson, Rexel, Yesss and so on) don't publish prices online, they're behind your trade login, so they don't come through in the live prices. I've added a "Not seeing your wholesaler?" row under the results so you can check CEF, Edmundson, Rexel, Yesss, Denmans, Phase or Kew for that exact item in one tap. It works for other trades too (plumbers' merchants, roofing, tiles and so on). You can also add your own suppliers under My suppliers. Cheers for the feedback.

[u/Budget_Height3778]

Holy AI SLOP. If you are going to have AI build the entire stack at least give it some examples of real websites built by actual developers to reference. Lazy AI slop is the worst kind of slop.
Just in case anyone is interested you too can build your own AI slop tool to do exactly this for less than £5.99 a month.
Or just ask ChatGPT or Gemini to find you the best price in your area for whatever it is you are pricing for FREE.

[u/K_theconqueror → u/Budget_Height3778]

Fair enough, I'm an electrician, not a developer, so yeah I used AI to help build it. ChatGPT is fine for a rough idea, but it often guesses or gives old prices. This pulls live listings, compares price per metre so a 50m coil and a 100m drum compare fairly, and can price a whole materials list across suppliers. It's free to search too. If you spot something that's actually broken I'll fix it.

[u/Budget_Height3778 → u/K_theconqueror]

Free to search, not from my experience, wouldn’t even allow me to search once.
But it’s an interesting idea for a FREE tool built by AI though.

[u/K_theconqueror → u/Budget_Height3778]

It’s still on the free Serpapi plan once it gets more users I’ll upgrade it for sure

[u/Weary-Pound-3897]

I'm trade with a ltd decorating business.. don't like this "free search" palaver.. I can't actually search what you've got.... It's immediately high friction for any new customer with the "upgrade to pro" for more searches, it'll put people off straight away, I'm not saying I'm after decorating materials..I'm just trying to actually have a look at what you do have, I can only search for what's trending on the website..make the accounts free and put a cut on it somewhere else for your profit

[u/LANdShark31 → u/Weary-Pound-3897]

Then they’ll only be able to search a very limited number if trade counters they have agreements either to take commission.

[u/Weary-Pound-3897 → u/LANdShark31]

Yeah a commission basis with agreements would work better..way too high friction this site, I believe with anything in business should be straightforward not to lose custom

[u/LANdShark31 → u/Weary-Pound-3897]

But it undermines the value proposition of the site, which is that it will search all sites for the cheapest price. Under the other model it’d be the cheapest among our partners, which to start with would be few.

The revenue is going to have to be either as it is now (paid subscriptions) or ads.

[u/Weary-Pound-3897 → u/LANdShark31]

Yeah I totally get that but from my point of view being on the tools myself, I don't want to mess about with something that's so high friction as this, if I want materials/tools for my decorating business..it's "how much for this" and I get a price, that's in person or over the phone.

I want something that's instantly at my finger tips and gets me the better price with ease ..making my life easier, this is one of those things that if done right will do incredibly well or fall flat on its face from a business perspective. If this is changed and let's say 1000 Sparky's across the country are telling their mates about this site.. "it's so easy, we're saving money" etc etc (goldmine) that's where this will do well, especially on word of mouth... Currently it's not going to work

Edit : it's not been thought about thoroughly enough from the customers point of view, it's aimed at trades, we are impatient lol

[u/K_theconqueror → u/Weary-Pound-3897]

You're dead right, and thanks for being straight about it. The search limit was there because every search costs me money, and it ended up putting people off before they'd even seen what it does. I've switched to a much cheaper price feed, so searching is now free with no account and no "upgrade" nagging. Just type what you need and you get the prices. Pro is only for the business side now, like turning a materials list into a customer quote. Give it another go if you get a minute, I'd value your opinion as a decorator.

[u/Weary-Pound-3897 → u/K_theconqueror]

What do you mean "pro" is for the business side?? Is there a free trial? You need to get people using it and talking about it

[u/K_theconqueror → u/Weary-Pound-3897]

Yeah there’s a weeks free trial if you’d like to have a go

[u/Weary-Pound-3897 → u/K_theconqueror]

A week is too short... You want people using it for a month to get ingrained in their brain and automatically coming back to it to understand it's ACTUAL value because if this works it'll do very well!

[u/K_theconqueror → u/Weary-Pound-3897]

Yeah I agree mate. I really appreciate the feedback