The Future Of ShopSavvy : More Power To The Consumer
Upon the initial unveiling of the apps being created on Android, there didn’t seem to be that much cause to loosen my kung-fu grip on the iPhone, until I saw a demo of one in particular…
GoCart. Just the potential of having such a robust shopping comparison system in my pocket when pottering around the shops rocked my world. Check it.
Specifically built for Android, GoCart allowed users to scan the barcode of any product using the phone’s camera, subsequently searching both online and local stores (using GPS to figure out your location) for the best prices.
Built by Texas-based mobile application devs Big In Japan, GoCart was good enough to earn $250,000 as a Android Developer Challenge winner for their efforts, and are currently seen as a standard bearer for the benefits and flexibility of creating for an open-source platform.
A name change to ShopSavvy and many cosmetic as well as technical updates later, it has become one of the most downloaded programs on the Android Market. This video depicting 2 minutes of scanning best illustrates how successful (and useful) the service has become!
Since the success in the US, a localised version of Shop Savvy for European currencies and stores was released on January 15th, making the app a truly transatlantic success.
So ShopSavvy is a success, but what of the future of the G1′s prime comparison engine? Well, if a chance e-mail discussion with co-founder of Big In Japan Alexander Muse is anything to go by, tons.
Future iterations of Shopsavvy will incorporate:
- improved location data (i.e. combining wifi/gps/celltower) to determine your exact location.
- ability to include easter eggs for certain items (retailers can offer specials to ShopSavvy users) when scanned in certain stores.
- we will be including the ability to instantly pay for items with ShopSavvy.
- we will be allowing users to submit prices, retailers, pictures and reviews.
- our iPhone version will be released (US only for now).
- additional product information will be included for items (i.e. food allergy and health info).
Wait, what? Instantly pay for items? Easter Eggs? iPhone version? Believe it or not, this only takes us to March 2oo9 in their plans…
These are some fairly seismic changes to an already robust application! The ability to offer easter eggs and vouchers for products transforms the use of ShopSavvy into a money saving program in itself as opposed to merely a facilitator. Imagine time or location specific offers causing hordes of T-Mobile G1 owners pouring into your local store to scan a bargain…ShopSavvy has the potential to make cheap deals fun!
The development of detailed product information, new merchants and user reviews will be a great weapon in the face of shop staff who are often economical with the truth when trying to make a sale…
“What? Wi-Fi? Has it got Wi-Fi? Has this one got Wi-Fi? Um…yes? Yes. Yes, yes it does.”
All these things in the palm of a shopper’s hand will make money saving a matter of course, and guaging my exact location via GPS becomes more important than ever during this recession. If I can get this thing cheaper next door, I want to know about it!
The biggest change…ShopSavvy on the iPhone. If it has seen successful thus far, then it is bound to run things on the massive stage of the App Store. However, there was word on the Big In Japan blog back in October 2008, suggesting that the iPhone’s SDK might prove difficult to work with…
I posed the question to Alexander and was met with this cryptic response:
“On the Apple stuff – you may be surprised…”
Has Apple helped them overcome the hindrances they felt would prevent them from creating the ‘REAL ShopSavvy experience’ on iPhone? Money is always a great motivator, and the potential to be a success for Big In Japan, Apple, and a victory for the consumer should be reason enough to see an excellent conversion of ShopSavvy soon enough!
The only downside is that Google must be sad to see another one of their ‘exclusive’ apps defect to the dark side…
Tags: android, app, g1, gocart, google, shop savvy, shopsavvy, t-mobile g1
[...] to an email exchange between Ernest Doku of omio and Big In Japan co-founder Alexander Muse, ShopSavvy will soon [...]
Any idea if and when ShopSavvy will be posted in the App store? It’s been some time since this was posted, and even longer since they submitted to Apple.