How We Track Apple Prices

The Short Version

Which Retailers We Track

We maintain a curated database of authorized Apple retailers across six countries. Each retailer is individually verified before being added.

Vietnam (12 retailers)

Apple Vietnam, ShopDunk, FPT Shop, Thế Giới Di Động, CellphoneS, Di Động Việt, TopZone, Hoàng Hà Mobile, Minh Tuấn Mobile, MediaMart, Viettel Store, 24H Store

India (22 retailers)

Apple India, Amazon India, Flipkart, Croma, Reliance Digital, Vijay Sales, Imagine (Tresor Systems), Unicorn Store, iNvent Store, Aptronix, iStore by Reliance, Poorvika Mobiles, Sangeetha Mobiles, iDestiny, iDelta, iTech, iCrest, Maple, Tata CLiQ, IndiaiStore, JioMart, and more

Japan (14 retailers)

Apple Japan, Bic Camera, Yodobashi Camera, Yamada Denki, Amazon Japan, Edion, Joshin Denki, Kojima, Sofmap, Nojima, K's Denki, Rakuten, and more

Hong Kong (12 retailers)

Apple Hong Kong, Fortress, Broadway, csl, SmarTone, 3 Hong Kong, DG Lifestyle Store, HKTVmall, and more

Thailand (11 retailers)

Apple Thailand, iStudio by Com7, Banana IT, Power Buy, JayMart, AIS, True Corp, Lazada Thailand, Shopee Thailand, and more

United States (12 retailers)

Apple US, Amazon US, Best Buy, B&H Photo, Walmart, Target, Adorama, Costco, Micro Center, and more

How Often We Update

Every price on ApplePriceHunt is refreshed every 48 hours. Our scrapers run in rolling batches across time zones:

• Vietnam retailers: refreshed at 02:00 ICT daily
• India retailers: refreshed at 03:00 IST daily
• Japan retailers: refreshed at 02:00 JST daily
• Hong Kong retailers: refreshed at 02:00 HKT daily
• Thailand retailers: refreshed at 02:00 ICT daily
• US retailers: refreshed at 02:00 PT daily

Each price card displays the exact timestamp of its last refresh. If a refresh fails (retailer website down, rate limit hit), we retain the previous price and flag it as 'Last updated X hours ago' so you know the data might be stale.

We're working on reducing this to every 24 hours. For Featured Partners, we offer real-time updates.

How We Source Data

We use three methods depending on the retailer:

Direct API (preferred)

Many retailers expose product data through internal APIs that power their own websites. We call these APIs directly, which gives us structured data in JSON format. This is the most accurate and reliable method. Used for: Apple.com (all countries), FPT Shop, CellphoneS, Reliance Digital, Vijay Sales, and others.

HTML parsing

When a retailer doesn't have a clean API, we parse their public product pages. We extract product data from JSON-LD structured data, __NEXT_DATA__ embedded state, or HTML elements. Used for: Croma, Imagine, iNvent, and others.

Google Shopping via Serper.dev (fallback)

For retailers where direct API and HTML parsing aren't reliable, we use Google Shopping data via Serper. This catches prices from retailers we don't have dedicated integrations for yet. Only results from whitelisted authorized retailers are stored - we filter out shady sellers aggressively.

All three methods feed into the same deduplication layer: if two sources return a price for the same product and retailer, the direct API result wins (it's more accurate than parsed HTML, which is more accurate than Serper).

How We Verify Retailers

Being listed on ApplePriceHunt requires meeting strict criteria:

1. Authorized by Apple or Apple's national distributor. We cross-reference every retailer with Apple's public retailer locator (locate.apple.com) and the distributor lists (Ingram Micro, Redington for India).
2. Established business with a physical or major online presence. We exclude fly-by-night operations with no track record.
3. Transparent pricing and warranty terms. Retailers must display prices publicly and honor Apple's warranty policies.
4. No history of counterfeit sales or customer complaints. We check consumer review sites, Reddit, and regulatory databases.

If a retailer fails any check, they don't get listed - regardless of how much traffic or affiliate revenue they might generate. Trust is non-negotiable.

How We Calculate Savings

When we display 'Save ₹X vs India', here's exactly what we calculate:

Baseline price (India):

• We take the cheapest verified India price for the same product
• This is usually the best price among Apple India, Amazon India, Flipkart, and Croma (whichever is lowest that day)
• We do NOT use MRP - we use the actual best available price in India

Comparison price (Vietnam, Japan, etc.):

• We take the local store price
• Apply the country's VAT refund formula (see next section)
• Convert to INR (or the user's selected currency) using live exchange rates

Savings amount:

• Savings = (Baseline price) − (Comparison price after refund, in INR)
• If positive, we show it in green as savings
• If negative, we show nothing (or an 'actually more expensive here' note)

Every calculation is reproducible. Click any product to see the full breakdown of how we arrived at the savings figure.

How We Handle VAT and Tax Refunds

Here's each country's tax situation, with our calculation formulas:

These calculations are approximations based on current laws and typical processing. Actual refund amounts may vary depending on airport, paperwork completeness, and any fees charged by refund operators. Always verify with the retailer and customs authorities before traveling.

How We Convert Currencies

Exchange rates are pulled from Open Exchange Rates API, updated every 6 hours. When you view a price in a currency different from the store's native currency, we apply the current rate at the time of page load.

We do NOT factor in:

• Your bank's forex markup (typically 1-3.5%)
• ATM withdrawal fees
• Dynamic currency conversion (DCC) charges

This is intentional. Those costs vary per user, and padding our savings numbers with estimates would make them less trustworthy. We show the raw exchange rate and let you do your own math.

For the most accurate conversion, use a zero-forex card (Niyo, Fi, Wise) that applies the market rate directly.

What We Do With Errors

Scrapers break. Websites change. Sometimes we get prices wrong. Here's how we handle it:

• Price looks obviously wrong (e.g., 90% off, or 500% more than MSRP) → automatically excluded and flagged for manual review
• Product mismatch (we matched the wrong variant to a listing) → users can report via the 'Report incorrect price' option on every product page
• Retailer website down → we retain the previous price and display the timestamp
• Retailer changes their HTML/API structure → our scrapers will fail gracefully and stop returning that retailer's data until we fix the integration

We publicly log all scraper failures in our status monitoring. If a retailer has no prices for more than 7 days, we add a visible warning on the retailer profile page.

What We Don't Track

To be transparent about our limitations:

• Used and refurbished Apple products. We only track new, current-generation products from authorized retailers. If you want used, Apple's refurbished store and certified platforms are better.
• Third-party marketplaces' individual sellers. Amazon has thousands of sellers, many shady. We only track listings from Amazon itself and major authorized brands.
• Credit card offers and bank-specific promos. These change constantly and depend on your specific card. We may mention common offers in blog posts, but we don't factor them into our prices.
• Business/enterprise pricing. Apple offers bulk discounts for businesses. We track consumer pricing only.
• Student education pricing. Apple's education store isn't included in our tracked prices. We write about it in blogs for context.
• Retailer-specific promo codes. Unless the code is applied at checkout automatically, we don't factor in coupons.

Our Editorial Independence

ApplePriceHunt rankings are determined by one thing: the lowest verified price after applicable refunds.

We do earn affiliate commissions on some outbound links. We do accept Featured Partner payments for clearly-marked sponsored placements. But we have a strict policy:

Rankings are never sold. The cheapest verified retailer always ranks first in price sorts, regardless of whether we earn affiliate revenue from them.

Featured placements are always disclosed. Any sponsored listing shows a 'Featured' badge. They can appear in dedicated 'Featured' slots but never outrank organic lowest-price results.

Editorial content is independent. Our blog posts, buying guides, and retailer reviews are written without input from paid partners. If a partner pays us, we still publish criticism when it's warranted.

If you ever suspect a ranking has been manipulated for money, email [email protected] with details. We'll investigate and publish a public response.

Changelog

Every methodology update gets logged here. Transparency is a feature.

• April 8, 2026 - Added US retailers. Updated Vietnam VAT rate from 10% to 8% (Decree 181/2025).
• March 15, 2026 - Expanded India retailer coverage from 8 to 22 retailers.
• March 1, 2026 - Launched multi-language support in 5 languages.
• February 1, 2026 - Published first price comparison data publicly.