Apps that make online Christmas shopping easier
There's a bewildering choice of online shopping apps, and if the predictions are accurate, more of us will be clicking on "buy" buttons from the comfort of our couches this holiday shopping season.
Adam Goetz is a Calgary Eyeopener tech expert who works at The Brigade, a Calgary digital advertising agency. He's compiled a list of mostly-free apps which suss out the best deals or help gift-buyers select the best presents for the people on your list.
New shopping apps
- Fancy is a Tinder-style product-recommendations app. Shoppers can filter gift ideas by your relationship with that person and it comes up with a list of ideas.
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Giftry is a social-networking app that keeps track of individual wish lists. Register yourself, upload photos of the items on your wish list and let people know what you want.
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Gift Finder categorizes the person you're buying for — house proud, hipster, chef, or adventure seeker, for example — and then gives a range of gift suggestions in your price range.
Price-drop notifiers
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SnapUp lets shoppers take a screen shot of a gift you want to give, and if the item goes on sale it will 'ping' the buyer.
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ShopSavvy keeps track of sales using your smartphone camera. Take a picture of a barcode or QR code and see if you're getting the best price in the store or at other retailers. It also sends alerts if a better deal comes along.
Checking off your list
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If you have a lengthy shopping list and you don't want to blow your budget, this app's for you. Santa's Bag is a gift manager that tracks all of your purchases and keeps you on budget. Enter your total Christmas budget, then subtract as you shop and it will calculate how much money you've got left to spend. It also keeps you up to date on how many shopping days you have left.
Digital flyers
- Yellowpages has entered the digital world with an app called YP Shopwise, which gathers flyers digitally from across Canada which you can filter geographically. It amalgamates printed flyers and turns them into a digital format that can be viewed on your phone. You can clip out products you want to buy and it creates a shopping list.
