Shopping Notes is a site that will email you when a particular product goes on sale. Just plug in the Web site address of the item you want and your email and it sends you a note when the item goes on sale. I tried it with a two-piece suit from Target that is $15 per piece.

Shopping notes also will accept Web site addresses for non-product URLs (like the home page for Bell Bike Helmets) so make sure you have the Web site address for the specific item you want.

The downside to the site is that you cannot ask it to track sales for categories of items, like a red top or black pumps.

Zingsale may be the answer to this oversight! On Zingsale you enter an item description and chose one of 27 departments it falls into (for example, TV – electronics). Then click search and browse the results.

Strangely, a search for bikini swim suit in the apparel department returned many pet items. Women’s swim bikini narrowed it down a bit. I signed up for an alert when the price of this pink bikini, above, drops by at least 10%. The starting price is $68 so it’s going to have to drop by a LOT more for me to consider buying it.