Shopsavvy - An App that is Changing the way we Shop!

One of the most frustrating aspects for me while shopping is an unending urge to compare prices across all buying touch points and trying to ensure that I am getting the best deal. Given that these touch points might range from retail stores to a plethora of online websites(dealers plus retailers) this task is invariably a challenging one. And if I am at a retail store and find a product I am interested in buying, it is an even more painful experience to somehow hook online and find whether there are any better deals.

But these days of struggle should hopefully soon be behind me. For the other day while browsing the web I came across an interesting mobile app – Shopsavvy. This app basically lets the user easily compare prices across the various points-of-sale. All you have to do is to scan a retail item's barcode using the phone camera. Shopsavvy then runs an automated search across a large number of online websites and retails stores and  brings up the best prices which the user can get. Not only this, it also shares with the user, information such as shopping offers, weekend sales, rebates, etc. Additionally the reviews provided for the product allows the customer to make an informed buying decision drawing on experiences of experts and fellow users. For local products, he can even get map directions or call a specific store. For online products, he can visit their website and place the order. The app even has an indicator for whether the product is currently in stock or out of stock.

Another interesting feature offered by the apps is the ability to define a price point alert for products. The app will alert the user whenever the product is available at the defined price. This frees the user from having to constantly monitor the prices while waiting for the desired level. Customers can also use Twitter or Facebook to share with friends any deals which they have discovered.

While retailers may hate something like this, because it gives shoppers all of their competitor’s information, increasingly, they have been working with ShopSavvy to come up with ways to make buying in their stores even easier. Currently more than 20000 retailers share their pricing data with Shopsavvy.  And anyways, what can the retailers do anyway? All of this information is out there on the web, ShopSavvy is just providing easy access to it.

Originally launched for Android this app is now also available for iPhone and RIM mobiles. Its popularity can be gauged from the fact that in a short duration of time it has become the 16^th most popular app on iTunes. Why not, for it is truly changing the way we shop!!