Shopping Apps to Make Holiday Shopping Easier

I have once again used the cuteness of Quinn to get your attention! Shameless, aren’t I? In my defense, this post DOES have something to do with the holidays and I DO love shopping for my littlest love! The following article was provided by Robin Baran of Wintrust Mortgage. It gives some great tips for shopping with our Smart phones. My favorite just might be Coupon Sherpa because I LOVE a great deal! From Robin:

With the most wonderful time of year upon us, finding the best deals or actually shopping can be exhausting. Here are some “SMART” phone ways to make the experience more enjoyable and actually fun! Warning: Some of these apps can be helpful and others can be harmful to your wallets!

 1. Google Shopper. Shopping has never been easier with the Google Shopper. Simply take a picture of anything or the barcode of an item. Another fun way to shop is the voice recognition feature. You can speak the name of the product and watch Google shopper work its magic in locating it!

2. Coupon Sherpa Say goodbye to coupon clipping. Download Coupon Sherpa and have instant access to coupons at major retailers like Coach Outlet, Banana Republic, Gap, Bath and Body Works, Ann Taylor and more. The cashier simply scans the coupon right from your phone!

3. Shopkick Shopkick turns shopping into a game. You rack up rewards with “kicks” or points just for visiting a store. Just walk into one of 1,300 Best Buy stores and almost 1,000 Old Navy stores in all 50 states, and hundreds of Target stores, Macy’s, American Eagle, Sports Authority, Crate&Barrel, West Elm, Wet Seal and the largest Simon malls! Open the shopkick app on your iPhone or Android phone in the entrance area, and wait for a few seconds. That’s it! Your shopkick app will reward you instantly. It’s fun. shopkick is adding more stores in more cities every month.

4. Gift Plan I am not sure how most people manage gift giving, but I like to brainstorm in advance and come up with multiple gift ideas, eventually narrowing the list down to the cheapest and most practical option. Gift Plan allows you to add any number of people manually, or by importing birthdays from your Contacts or Facebook. Do any of you need my info? Anyway, this app allows you to jot down ideas, sizes, likes and dislikes. The app’s “Occasions” tabs shows upcoming birthdays or holiday’s color coded. The “shopping tab” helps keep track of gifts you play to buy and the best part: password protected from prying eyes! Gift Plan keeps you organized! (NOTE from TERRY: I could only find this app for iPhone.)

5. Lemon Epic! Digitalize your receipts with Lemon. Scan your receipts with phone cameras and the service automatically identifies the name and location of stores along with the amount and the date of purchase. You can see the whole receipt if you want. It’s also great for online shopping. Online retailers can send your receipt to your lemon.com address so they are easier to keep track of.

6. Amazon Mobile One stop shopping! No need to worry if you are getting the best price or not. Amazon Mobile App allows you to quickly search and compare by barcode, text or snapping a picture. Great feature also is access to product reviews.

7. Redlaser Owned by E-Bay, Redlaser is amazing at finding items online and in nearby brick and mortar stores. Has a feature for making lists and “history” that records all items you looked up so you can find them later! You can also use this app to scan food items for allergy and nutrition information. This feature works with almost every brand name packaged food in the US.

8. Starbucks Mobile Maybe the most important Holiday app out there! Starbucks Mobile allows you to check your balances, gives you discounts, reload your card or just have the ease of scanning your phone.

If a new home is on your holiday list, I am always here to assist! If a refinance is in your plan, give me a call and I can give you contact information for Robin. Thanks, Robin, for sharing this article.