The short version
We re-read the price of every product in our catalogue once a day and keep the result forever. Over time that builds a record of what a product has actually cost, rather than what a retailer says it is worth today. On a product page, that record becomes five figures: how long we have tracked it, its lowest, average and highest recorded price, and how today’s price compares with that average.
We do not sell anything. We hold no stock, set no prices and take no payments. When you buy, you buy from the retailer, at the retailer’s price, on the retailer’s terms.
Where the data comes from
An automated job runs daily against our catalogue. For each product it records the current selling price, the currency, and whether the product is still available, and appends a dated row to that product’s price history. Nothing is overwritten, so a product listed since early 2023 has well over a thousand dated rows behind it.
If a scan fails, or a product is temporarily unavailable, no row is written for that day. A gap in the history is a gap — it is never treated as a price of zero, and it never drags an average down.
How each figure is calculated
| Figure | Definition |
|---|---|
| Days price tracked | Calendar days between the first and the most recent recorded price. Not a count of scans, and not a count of price changes. |
| Lowest tracked price | The lowest price in the recorded history, including the current price. |
| Average tracked price | The mean of every recorded price, including the current price. Days with no data point are excluded. |
| Highest tracked price | The highest price in the recorded history, including the current price. |
| Current price vs tracked average | How far today’s price sits below (or above) the tracked average, rounded to the nearest whole percent. |
A product is described as being near its lowest price when today’s price is within 5% of the lowest figure we have ever recorded for it.
We only publish these figures when we have at least two dated prices on record. A brand-new product whose entire history is today would otherwise show a “low”, an “average” and a “high” that are all the same number, which tells you nothing.
Published as structured data
The same figures appear twice on each product page: in plain English in the price verdict, and in machine-readable form in the page’s JSON-LD, as Product.additionalProperty entries named Days price tracked, Lowest tracked price, Average tracked price, Highest tracked price, Current price vs tracked average and Price first tracked. Both are generated from the same calculation, so they cannot disagree.
If you are quoting one of our figures, please link to the product page it came from. Prices move daily and a figure quoted without its source ages badly.
What these numbers do not tell you
- They describe the price at one retailer, the one we link to for that product. They are not a market-wide average across every UK seller.
- They start when we started tracking, which is not the same as when the product went on sale.
- They cover the listed price only. Retailer-side voucher codes, basket discounts and delivery charges are not part of the recorded figure.
Price alerts
The same daily scan drives price alerts. Set a target price on any product page with a free account, and when a scan finds the price at or below your target, we email you. Because alerts run off the daily scan, the shortest possible delay between a price dropping and you hearing about it is one scan cycle.
Corrections
If a price on this site looks wrong, tell us and include the product URL — use the contact form and select “Technical Issue”. We re-scan reported products ahead of the normal cycle.
Frequently asked
How often do you check prices?
Once a day. An automated job re-reads every product in the catalogue and writes that day’s selling price to our price history table, so each product accumulates one data point per day for as long as it stays listed.
What does "tracked for X days" mean?
It is the number of calendar days between the first price we recorded for that product and the most recent one — not the number of price changes, and not the number of successful scans. A product first seen in January 2023 and still tracked today shows a span of over 1,100 days.
Is the average price the average of every day?
It is the mean of every price we have on record for that product plus its current price. Days where the scan failed or the product was unavailable contribute no data point, so they are not counted as a price of zero.
Can the price on your site be out of date?
Yes, briefly. Retailers can change a price at any moment; we re-check daily. The price on the retailer’s own page at the moment you check out is always the price you pay, and it is the one that counts.
Where do the star ratings come from?
Only from reviews left on 7 Interior Design itself. We do not republish retailer or marketplace star ratings as our own, so a product page with no rating simply has no first-party reviews yet.