Trends: Social Shopping
Yesterday ways of shopping seems to be replaced by the social shopping services of today. This services rely heavily on web technologies like social networking, crowdsourcing and smart phones functions like scanners and GPS localization.
Looking at the rising market of the web shopping, few trends are leading, already approaching to their tipping point: Daily Deals Websites like Groupon, LivingSocial, Dealster, SocialBuy, DealOn, BuyWithMe (and more, a lot more) leverage the power of collective bargaining to provide incredible local deals that offer huge savings for consumers while also promising spectacular sales numbers to participating merchants. As a result, these group deal sites have become immensely popular and successful for all parties involved.
Real-Time Social Shopping
Woot offers one highly discounted item for sale each day, until either time or inventory runs out. The items are of variable quality, but are often just good enough to buy.
Location Check-ins
After the huge success of the Foursquare platform, free iPhone apps, like Social Currency, track things users want to buy, upload photos of purchases, and comment on what their friends do - all the while pushing the updates to Twitter and Foursquare. Facebook Shopping Facebook pages can be quite a dynamic location for any brand and now there is a growing push towards monetizing pages from within Facebook. By utilizing shopping cart software built exclusively for Facebook, retailers can now sell products right on their Facebook pages – no need for users to ever exit Facebook.com. More then that, major players are now connecting to Facebook. Last year Amazon provided product suggestions based on likes and favorites pulled from your social graph.
Smart Phone shopping
The greatest improvement in the way people are hunting bargains is made by shopping apps like:
ShopSavvy: Scan barcodes with your phone and compare prices across 20,000 retailers. It also provides reviews. Available free for iPhone and Android.
Shop Nearby: Shop every store with every product on the web from your iPhone. Find out which stores near you carry the products you're looking for and compare prices. Available free for iPhone or mobile browser.
RedLaser: Similar to ShopSavvy, you can scan bar coded items and compare prices from GoogleProducts and TheFind database. Available for iPhone at $1.99.
Amazon: Search and compare prices from local retailers for over a million products sold on Amazon.com. Available free for iPhone, Blackberry, and Android.
Save Benjis: Search online vendors for virtually any product to compare prices. This app also provides product descriptions and reviews. Available free for iPhone.
Compare Me: If you've got two items of varying volume and need to figure out which is the better deal, CompareMe will tell you. Available for iPhone for $1.99.
Coupon Sherpa: Use this app to find coupons while on the go. Just show the coupon on your phone and it'll scan at the register! Available free for iPhone.
MobiQpons: This cool app will show you coupons available for stores, restaurants, and services near you. Available free for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry.
SnapTell: Take a photo of the cover of a CD, DVD, book, or video game and the app will identify the product and find ratings and pricing. Available free for iPhone and Android.
Compare Everywhere: Scan barcodes to get product prices and reviews. It can even use Android's GPS to tell you the location and directions to the nearest store that stocks the item. Available free for Android.
Buzzillions: Get product reviews on the go. Make sure the plasma TV you're eyeing at the store has user approval. Get all the reviews and ratings you need at your fingertips. Available free for iPhone.
GoodGuide: Scan a barcode to see if a product is safe, healthy, and green. See detailed ratings for health, environmental and social responsibility. Available free for iPhone.
Point Inside: Ever get lost while in a shopping mall, and can't even find the directory for a map? Take out your trusty phone and pull up the mall directory directly. Available free for iPhone.
Slifter: Get local product search, prices, images, maps, and a personalized shopping list with this neat app. Available free for iPhone and Blackberry.
Holiday Gift Guide: Browse through over a thousand items that are listed on popular holiday gift lists, and find them locally at nearby or online stores. Available free for iPhone.
Be Nice to Bunnies: Developed by PETA, you can use this app to check if a product was made cruelty-free. Available for iPhone for $1.99.
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No.
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