Holiday Shopping? It’s No Problem with a Smartphone!

My wife and I were driving back from Seattle last weekend, (thanks to Waze again for making it fun!) and we were talking about our Holiday budget. Currently, we’re three weeks away from the notorious “Black Friday” You know—the day where you don’t sleep for 24 hours and run on caffeine and fast food?

It’s a hugely stressful time. What to buy? Where to buy it? How to get the best price? But there IS good news—this year, your smartphone works better than ever to help alleviate some of that stress. It turns out that you have the best shopping tool right in your hand! Having the right smartphone apps will make your shopping easier, and you’ll be able to be confident that you’ll be getting the best price out there. Here’s a quick list of some of the best shopping apps out there.

Price Comparison Apps
Instead of going around to multiple stores, did you know you could use your smartphone to scan a product’s barcode, and then immediately have it check the prices for the same item at other stores? The future is now, and it’s time to make it work for you and your Holiday budget.

Google Shopper
Android, iOS
This Google app features voice recognition, so you can search for a product simply by saying its name. Additionally, like most other price comparison app, you can scan barcodes and get instant comparisons from other stores, as well as businesses that are a part of Google Places.

myShopanion
iOS
For iPhone users, the myShopanion app offers barcode scanning, social options (show your friends the deals you’ve gotten!), and search and browsing by category

PriceGrabber
Android, iOS
If you like PriceGrabber.com, you’ll be more than satisfied with their app. You can set up Price Alerts as well as save items to your “Favorites” list.

RedLaser
Android, iOS
With RedLaser, you can scar bar codes, and QR codes, and take advantage of location-based services to get the best price on products. Like all other apps in this category, RedLaser scans QR codes and offers price comparison for products both in stores and online. The app also uses location-based services to find nearby stores that match your search criteria. You can check out results from eBay, Google, Shopping.com, and more.

ShopSavvy
Android, iOS
ShopSavvy lets you do all of the things the other price comparison apps do, but with a slight difference: you can get coupons for the products that you’re looking for, as well as updates on discounts.

Coupon Apps
Giving a new meaning to the term “extreme couponing”, these apps let you find discounts from all over the Internet.

The Coupons App
Android, iOS
A great way to get coupons, share them (through Twitter, text, and email), or even get the cheapest gas, The Coupons App also includes barcode scanning and the ability to voice search.

Coupon Sherpa
Android, iOS
Coupon Sherpa gives you the best deals from all over the Web—you can get exclusive coupons, search on a map for the stores that honor them, and even make a list of your favorite stores.

Swagg
Android, iOS
With Swagg, you can go one step beyond regular coupons—you can enter your gift and rewards cards from various stores, and keep track of all of your balances in the same place. Swagg also offers coupons from more than 4,500 retailers!

Track My Coupons
iOS
For just $1.99, Track My Coupons will help you organize all the coupons you’ve been accruing from your other coupon apps (pretty nifty, right?) You’ll even get notifications and alerts when your coupons are about to expire.

Social Deals
We all know that shopping is more fun with other people—so take advantage of some of these great social sites.

BuyWithMe
Android, iOS
BuyWithMe is similar to LivingSocial and Groupon, but with a more limited range of cities (only 18 in the U.S.) However, you can take a week to decide if you’re interested in purchasing, and if you get three of your friends to take advantage of the deal, you can get it for free!

Groupon
Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Windows Phone
The biggest of all the daily deal coupon sites, Groupon continues to expand. They’ve introduced real-time deals, as well as travel deals.

LivingSocial
Android, iOS
LivingSocial is available in more than 350 cities across the US, and sends you deals directly through their app. Best of all, it incorporates location-based technology and shows you if you’re near any of the establishments that you’ve already bought coupons for.

shopkick
Android, iOS
The ultimate social shopping app? Might just be the one that gets you to a store in person. shopkick gives you “kicks” or rewards each time you walk into a brick-and-mortar store and open up the app. You can trade your “kicks” in for gift cards or even save up for high-end prizes.

Happy shopping! If you know of any other outstanding shopping apps, please let me know.

-Steve Murphy, CA CFO