This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle
Beat Online Discounts & Keep Your Walk-in Customers
A 100% client-side, zero-server competitive pricing intelligence assistant designed specifically for brick-and-mortar retail shop owners.
What I Built
The Problem: Showrooming & Predatory E-Commerce Discounts
Every single day, independent offline store owners (clothing boutiques, electronics & mobile stores, kirana supermarkets, and footwear outlets) face the exact same frustrating scenario:
A customer walks into the physical store, tries on a jacket, inspects a phone, or asks about groceries, pulls out their smartphone, and says:
"I saw this ₹500 cheaper online on Amazon / Flipkart! Can you match the price?"
Most offline shopkeepers panic: they either give in and slash their hard-earned profit margins, or refuse and watch the customer walk straight out the door.
The Solution: PricePulse AI
PricePulse AI is a zero-server, privacy-first competitive intelligence dashboard running 100% inside the shopkeeper's web browser. In under 2 seconds, the store owner can paste any online product link and enter their current shop price.
PricePulse immediately analyzes the competitor listing and equips the shopkeeper with an In-Store Action Plan:
- 🎯 Risk to Shop (The Pulse Meter): An animated SVG gauge calculating an instant threat score (0–100) that categorizes whether the competitor move is a negligible online illusion or an aggressive flash sale requiring defensive action.
- 📊 Your Shop vs. Competitor (The Diff Matrix): A 4-card transition grid showing where physical retail beats e-commerce:
- Price Comparison: True delta percentage between in-store price and online listed price.
- Delivery vs. Instant Take-Home: Comparing courier delays (3–6 days) and hidden handling fees vs. immediate take-home tonight.
- In-Store Trial & Perks: Hands-on trial room fitting, audio testing, and personal service vs. online return friction.
- Trust & Warranty: Instant 1-to-1 in-store counter replacement vs. courier return hassles and lost parcels.
- 🗣️ Staff Counter-Script (Objection Handler): Word-for-word spoken dialogue for sales assistants to counter "I saw it cheaper online" objections confidently on the spot.
- 💬 WhatsApp Customer Broadcast: Engaging, high-converting messages with emojis tailored for the store's VIP broadcast list or WhatsApp Status.
- 📋 Shop Counter Signboard: High-impact text ready to print on an A4 sheet for checkout counters, fitting rooms, or chalkboard easels.
- 🎁 In-Store Margin Bundle & Playbook: Smart accessory add-ons and value shields that close walk-ins without sacrificing product margins.
Who Would Pay For It?
- Independent Retail Store Owners: Boutique clothing shops, mobile/laptop retail stores, consumer electronics dealers, optical stores, and neighborhood kiranas.
- Retail Store Managers & Franchises: Multi-branch retailers needing standardized staff counter-scripts so sales staff don't give unauthorized cash discounts.
- Commercial Viability: As a $12/month or $99/year micro-SaaS, or bundled as a one-time digital kit for local retail associations. Because it runs 100% client-side, the operational hosting cost is $0.00, making gross margins near 100%.
Demo
- Live Web App: https://ujjwalgupta2021.github.io/PricePulse-AI/ (Deployable to GitHub Pages with 0 server configuration)
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Built-in Interactive Demos (Zero Setup Required):
Clicking any demo button instantly simulates real retail defense scenarios without requiring an API key:
- 👕 Clothing Boutique: Arctic Expedition Parka vs. discount e-commerce apparel seller.
- 📱 Mobile & Electronics: Noise-Cancelling Wireless Headphones vs. online tech marketplace.
- 🛒 Supermarket / Kirana: Premium Basmati Rice & Oil Combo vs. quick-commerce delivery apps.
- Theme Switcher: Full support for both Dark Glassmorphic Theme and clean, high-contrast Light Retail Theme.
Code
- GitHub Repository: https://github.com/ujjwalgupta2021/PricePulse-AI
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Core Architecture:
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index.html— Clean semantic structure, SVG gauge meters, and accessibility-first modal views. -
styles.css— Modern glassmorphism system with CSS custom properties, responsive grids, and dark/light modes. -
js/app.js— Application lifecycle, event orchestration, and markdown export engine. -
js/gemini.js— Direct HTTPS connection to Google Gemini Flash with automatic model negotiation and resilient JSON parsing. -
js/scraper.js— Client-side scraping bridge cascading across Jina Reader AI, AllOrigins, and URL slug anti-bot extractors. -
js/pulse-meter.js— High-performance SVG needle rotation and stroke-dashoffset animation. -
js/diff-matrix.js— High-contrast side-by-side transition cards comparing baseline vs. live page data. -
js/counter-attack.js— Multi-tab action plan generator with 1-click clipboard copy. -
js/storage.js— 100% client-side LocalStorage vault for private keys, preferences, and watchlist.
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How I Built It
1. Pure Open-Innovation & Client-Side Agent Harness
PricePulse AI was built without any backend servers, Python microservices, or node daemons. The entire application runs directly inside the client's browser as a zero-server agent harness:
- Vanilla HTML5 & CSS3: No bloated CSS frameworks or heavyweight JavaScript bundles; initial load takes < 150ms.
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Client-Side Scraping Bridge: Directly reads competitor product listings using Jina Reader AI (
https://r.jina.ai/), AllOrigins proxy, and an intelligent URL slug parser with Amazon/Flipkart anti-bot detection. - Open-Weight & Model-Agnostic Architecture: Built around the open HTTP standard for generative inference. While it pairs natively with Google Gemini Flash for speed (<600ms), its modular schema engine is compatible with open-weight models (including Google Gemma 2B/9B, Llama 3, and Mistral via local WebLLM or Ollama proxies).
2. Google Gemini Flash Integration with Dynamic Model Auto-Negotiation
PricePulse connects directly to Google AI Studio's Gemini Flash REST API (generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta):
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Automated Catalog Discovery: The engine queries
ModelService.ListModelsto dynamically discover supported models on the user's key (gemini-1.5-flash,gemini-2.0-flash,gemini-3.8-flash) without requiring confusing manual dropdown configuration. - Strict Schema Steering: Uses official system instructions with JSON response constraints to ensure high-fidelity retail defense outputs.
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Resilient JSON Parser: Employs regex
{ ... }substring recovery to gracefully extract valid data even if the model outputs conversational text. - Fail-Safe Retail Intelligence Shield: If the AI API experiences network disconnects or quota rate limits, PricePulse automatically activates an offline synthesized retail audit using the real URL, extracted product title, and store baseline, ensuring 0% crash rate.
Why Does Open Innovation Matter?
Zero Recurring Overhead for Mom-and-Pop Retailers:
Most commercial retail software costs $50–$200/month because of cloud servers, databases, and middleman APIs. By utilizing open web standards, free-tier client-side AI, and static hosting, offline store owners can access enterprise-grade competitive intelligence without paying hefty SaaS subscriptions.Absolute Privacy of Store Margins & Wholesale Pricing:
Local shopkeepers will never upload their private wholesale margins, supplier costs, or pricing baseline to a closed, centralized cloud database where competitor algorithms could scrape or exploit it. In PricePulse AI, every price check and API key stays sealed in the browser's local sandbox (localStorage).No Vendor Lock-In:
The application does not depend on a single proprietary backend. If an API endpoint changes, the open architecture adapts dynamically or runs client-side simulation.
My Agent Session
This project was developed with Google Antigravity AI as an advanced agentic coding partner.
Key milestones achieved during the session:
- Designed and refined the Retail Defense Pivot: Transitioned technical e-commerce scraping jargon into actionable spoken dialogue for offline retail shopkeepers.
- Engineered the High-Speed Connection & Auto-Negotiation Engine: Eliminated slow sequential pinging and built dynamic Google Gemini catalog discovery.
- Solved Anti-Bot Interception for Amazon.in: Built smart URL slug parsers to extract real product names directly from
/product-name/dp/ASINlinks even when target sites throw robot checks. - Enhanced Typography & Accessibility: Designed a high-contrast Light Theme alongside the Dark Mode to guarantee clear visibility under bright store counter lighting.
Prize Categories
- Primary Track: Side Hustle (Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2)
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Partner Categories:
- Best Use of AI / Gemini API
- Zero-Server Open-Source Web Application
Built with ❤️ for the Hacktoberfest 2026 Week 2 DEV Challenge — Side Hustle!
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