Shopster – A Social Mobile App

This Android application  lets you create search queries for products on Craigslist and then it notifies you when they’re discovered. You can limit queries to a specific category and location or filter search results by titles, images, and a minimum/maximum price. Once you’re notified of a result, you can click on it to launch your browser and see the full listing at Craigslist. From there you can utilize the native functions from the Android browser to share the page with a friend.

Useful features for Shopster:
-Users can search for something and if it is not currently available, when it is available, the application will send a notification to them.
-This application uses map to show where to find a deal. So deals near a user can be presented using their location on the map.
Pros:
-User interface is simple .
-It is easy to start using this application
-Deals can be found not only clothes, but for jobs, services etc.

source:https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mufumbo.craigslist.notification.android

The Coupons is  a simple but very useful Android app that lists the day’s promotional codes, free stuff, discounts, and online coupons for various merchants. Features include the ability to search coupons by title or barcode, submit coupons, and login to your account. If you own a business you can get your local deal listed in their database of discounts. Users can subscribe to the service as well as comment and rate the various deals and freebies in the list.

Useful features for Shopster:
-A user can send coupons to others so application can become popular very easy.
-Users can get coupons or search for coupons about something they probably want to buy.

source:https://market.android.com/details?id=thecouponsapp.coupon&feature=search_result

The find, is an android application which offers search for the best deals based on users location. Also can advanced search can be made based on shop, product brand or friends favourites.

Useful features for Shopster:
-Application can show shops with the best offers in the map.
-A user can like shops on facebook.

Pros:
-Excellent accuracy on finding search results

source: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.thefind.shoppingaio&feature=search_result

This application offers alerts for special sales, style guides, catalog search and secure purchasing through your iPhone.  Geomapping tools help users find shops or offers near them. Also, Product Catalogs searchable by keyword categories is offered, along with  Filters to narrow down on specific items, allowing users to retrieve relevant data.

source:  http://www.3esolutions.net/services/mobile-application-development/case-studies/shop-and-style-guide

The Target application makes shopping easier for you by giving you products to browse and search, ability to check item availability and aisle location, view the weekly ad, manage your lists and registries, and discover daily deals.

source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/target/id297430070?mt=8#

The Buy.com is a mobile application for iPhone that help you find various products anywhere, anytime. Reviews of products can be readead but also it is possible to find video reviews for thousands of products
Useful features for Shopster:
– Voice search. Could help users use application while driving or doing something else at the same time.
– Can compare prices from this application and thousands of other merchants while shopping in local stores.
-Video reviews for products are preferred by some users.
-Can find Top Sellers or special deals of the week.
Pros:
– Big Variety of products in different categories.
– Community driven reviews can help in making the best purchasing decisions.

source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/buy-com/id403446100?mt=8#

Free OfficeMax App is another famous mobile application for shopping purposes

In this application, users are able to view exclusive offers provided by each store with sells the specific searched item.

As you can see from the screenshots, a category of deals has been created to view further information about the deals for each product. That can be classified in weekly deals (2nd screenshot) and it will improve the effectiveness of our project because user will be more satisfied.

Screenshots

Source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/officemax/id384132666?mt=8

Google Shopper is a new mobile application for Android devices that offers a variety of different ways to search for products.

The basic feature in Google Shopper is the barcode scanner as the ShopSavvy which it retrieves the information about the scanned product.  Additionally there is a function which scan the covers of books and then finds the relevant product. So this can be added as an additional component into our project beside the barcode scanning.

Google provides the ability of searching by voice. It seeks a product according to the voice taken by the user using the internet. That feature makes the difference between the Google Shopper and the other published mobile applications related to shopping. Honestly, it would be great if it will be added to our application…

After a search of a product a list of items is presented for the specific item from various sites. Therefore, the item along with their price is being showed per stored shop in order to find the best price. Actually this feature belongs to the main requirements of our project and should be included.

The history of the search item can be saved and each user is able to give stars to their favorites. Obviously that will really assist the users to find all their relative products and handle them in the future.

Moreover, Google Shopper represents the nearby local stores which have the specific item and then via Google Maps there are directions how to get there. That specification will be helpful in our case because it will be a assistive way for the interactive users to get all the required information about the item.

Lastly, the social component that comes out from that application is sharing of all the resulted information with the relevant link to GMail, Facebook, Instant Messaging etc.. I think that integration will improve the social aspect of our implementation.

Source: http://www.google.com/mobile/shopper/

Source: http://shopsavvy.mobi/