1. On Dallas-area shopping trip, smart phone apps prove to be handy com… News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Dallas Business News 12/19/10 7:25 PM
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On Dallas-area shopping trip, smart phone
apps prove to be handy companions
12:15 AM CST on Sunday, December 19, 2010
By MARIA HALKIAS / The Dallas Morning News
Three Dallasites went on a shopping mission last week to discover what's up with all of these smart phone
apps.
We tagged along to find out whether the tools save time and money.
Each shopper was armed with an Android, a BlackBerry or an iPhone, plus
decades of personal and professional retail experience among them at
Bloomingdale's, Lands' End, Sears and Neiman Marcus.
David Altman, chief executive of Dallas-based MarketShare Advisors, used his
BlackBerry; Sally McDonald Berven, a financial adviser, toted her Android; and
Steven Dennis, president of Dallas-based SageBerry Consulting, had his iPhone. KYE R. LEE/DMN
Armed with apps on their
Six hours of shopping revealed a huge limitation in smart phones: Applications Samsung Android and
that search, scan and locate deals at nearby stores, generate lists of coupons or iPhone, financial adviser
pinpoint your location to offer discounts at nearby stores burn battery time faster Sally McDonald Berven
than talking and texting. Finding a signal in cavernous, multilevel department and Steven Dennis,
stores can be a problem, too. president of Dallas-based
SageBerry Consulting,
Not all the new shopping apps were available for all smart phones or worked on checked the prices of toys
all of them. Altman found the lack of options for his BlackBerry frustrating. last week on a trip to
While preparing her phone to go shopping, Berven spent two days at the Sprint SuperTarget at Skillman
store resolving software issues caused by downloading certain apps. and Abrams in Dallas.
Berven ended up being a natural at using the apps; the guys were more suspect and critical. Regardless, the
familiar act of shopping morphed into a new and improved experience each time a new application was
tried.
Berven spoke – yes spoke – into the Google Shopper app to find out where to buy Waterford's 2010
Christmas ornament, and 16 stores showed up on her screen. The SnapTell app on Dennis' iPhone took a
photo of Maroon 5's new CD in Best Buy and found it at Walmart for a lower price. And self-proclaimed
Amazon.com-devotee Altman discovered Chanel No. 5 was cheaper at Macy's than anywhere the ScanLife
application on his BlackBerry could find.
Several times, shoppers were reassured that they were getting a good price in the brick-and-mortar world,
too.
The group started at 9 a.m. at NorthPark Center; then went to SuperTarget at Skillman and Abrams; Borders
on Greenville and Lovers Lane; Best Buy on North Central Expressway; and ended at 3 p.m. at Sears and
J.C. Penney in Plano's Collin Creek Mall.
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2. On Dallas-area shopping trip, smart phone apps prove to be handy com… News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Dallas Business News 12/19/10 7:25 PM
The mission was to discover whether smart phones have the potential to be the next big game changer (since
the Internet and, before that, the credit card). Here's some shopping play-by-play for a sport with new rules:
Berven enters the Apple store to try out Google Shopper's picture-search capabilities. After shooting a
photo of an iPad, an Apple employee informs her "that Sprint-powered Droid won't work in here." The
minute she exits the store, the app lists prices and places to buy it.
Altman and Dennis turn to their Armadealo app , which says the nearest mall is 9.7 miles away – Town
East Mall in Mesquite . (An Armadealo spokesman said shoppers have to request malls before they're
added.) They find 20 percent off at Kenneth Cole through Dec. 24 and say they may be back for that.
In front of the Coach store, Dennis calls up the Coach app, and he and Altman score it high for having a
gift-finder feature that carves up options by gender, price and personality. Dennis picks "Sporty Girl" from
six personality options. "Go see if they have that hat," Altman says. Dennis shows the clerk. He reports
back that they don't have that color, but have others.
Moving on to Williams-Sonoma, Berven pops in to look for Ina Garten's new cookbook, How Easy Is
That . It's $35, and when asked if she wants it, she replies, "I'm going to comparison search on my phone
first." The clerk slowly backs away, as if Berven has said something awful. Amazon has the Ina Garten
book for $17.62. Berven looks up the Coupons App and finds 33 percent off the book at Borders. "I have to
join the rewards program," Berven says. "I'll do it at lunch." On the way there, she checks again and finds a
40 percent-off coupon. Final price: $21.
Altman and Dennis check out the $39.99 Chef's Choice knife sharpener. Dennis scans it with RedLaser and
finds it for $26.45 at an Internet-only site he's never seen. Altman finds it for $5 less on Amazon with
ScanLife.
Within the first hour, Altman compares his experience to the others: "The interface is wonky on this
BlackBerry and not as fun and engaging as yours," he says.
Bath & Body Works promotions on GeoQpons and the Coupons App are better than the in-store offers.
Altman and Berven pick up some gifts.
Berven uses the Coupons App offer for $10 off a $30 purchase. "The minimum-wage college student may
be the savior for retailers. She knew exactly what to do when I handed her my phone," Berven says.
Dennis checks out the Guess app. "It's just pretty," he says. He walks into the Limited and finds out from
the clerk that people are using their Armadealo promotions, which offer deeper discounts than the ones
advertised in the store. On this day, all sweaters are 30 percent off in the store and 50 percent off with
Armadealo.
"There's a problem with these coupons because the store doesn't seem to have a way to know who is using
them," Dennis says. "Is it their regular customer? Or are they getting new, price-sensitive customers?"
In Macy's and later at J.C. Penney, the bar-code-reader apps don't work because the UPC codes are store
codes, not manufacturer codes. So there's no way to comparison shop the Ralph Lauren or Nike
windbreakers.
At this point, batteries are dangerously low and it's not even noon. From here on out, they take turns
charging their phones in the car.
Entering SuperTarget, the iPhone Shopkick app records 60 points toward future rewards. The entourage
heads to the electronics department for the Nintendo DS on sale for $127. Each shopper scans with a
different app and finds it is $169 at Toys R Us and $145.88 at Sam's. Happy to get the best price, Berven
buys two. Altman can't find a Crayola Crayon Maker and his Target app isn't cooperating. He fires up the
Amazon mobile app and places the order while standing in SuperTarget.
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3. On Dallas-area shopping trip, smart phone apps prove to be handy com… News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Dallas Business News 12/19/10 7:25 PM
Foursquare tells the shoppers that the nearby Wolf Camera is offering five free 4-by-6 prints, but we don't
go there.
At Best Buy, Berven finds the iPod Shuffle she wants. A check on Google Shopper finds it for $5 less at the
Walmart on Forest Lane. She shows the clerk at the checkout and gets the matched price. "No hassle,"
Berven says. "I thought they would at least call over the manager."
In Sears, both Google Shopper and the Sears2go apps produce big savings on a Sportscraft Interceptor
56-inch foosball table. The price in the store is $249.99, but the apps say the store price is $179.99. The
clerk checks on the register and the $179.99 price turns out to be correct. Someone just forgot to mark the
sale price on the foosball table. In fact, that day it was an additional 10 percent off, making it $161.99. On
top of that discount, the clerk says shipping is free if you buy it in the store.
Cheaper, an extra discount that day, and you don't have to lug it home? A shopper's trifecta.
SHOPPING TRIP TAKE-AWAYS
Sally McDonald Berven, financial adviser with previous retail experience including Bloomingdale's
Phone: Android
Favorite apps: Google Shopper and the Coupons App
Why: They helped me make a significant difference in the total dollar amount I spent on gifts. I was able to
browse promotions, comparison shop and provide proof of the competitor's pricing for a store-price match.
They will stay on my phone for future use.
Bottom line: App-shopping (or is it app-tailing?) did not require a lot of effort on my part for significant
savings. I made informed choices because I really knew what the competition had to offer.
App-shopping definitely gives the customer more knowledge and power, and this is not great news for the
retailer.
Steven Dennis, president of Dallas-based SageBerry Consulting
Phone: iPhone
Favorite apps: Coach, Best Buy, Armadealo and Sephora
Why: For the customer looking for a deal, there are plenty of applications – Shopkick, GeoQpons,
Armadealo – that make it easy to see what's available. Most, however, are merely promoting standard deals
available to everybody. Armadealo had some unique offers. For the customer on a mission, Coach really
stood out as it made it easy to quickly sort through options by gender, price point, product type and shopper
personality.
Bottom line: Mobile commerce has huge potential through its inherent ability to deliver the right offer to
the right customer at the moment of purchase, but it is still very much in its infancy. Technologically, it's
hard to get a signal in many areas of the malls and within many retail locations. And the battery draining
caused by the intense data usage is a big barrier to doing much exploration.
David Altman, chief executive of Dallas-based MarketShare Advisors
Phone: BlackBerry
Favorite apps: Amazon, GeoQpons, Foursquare and ScanLife
Why: Customers have never been more connected or powerful – they have the technology in their hands to
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4. On Dallas-area shopping trip, smart phone apps prove to be handy com… News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Dallas Business News 12/19/10 7:25 PM
find the best price and inventory. Take the minute or two to check the coupon sites and branded store apps
before putting your credit card on the counter. You can save time and most definitely money.
Bottom line: Mobile is the holy grail for marketers – they can now get the right message to the right person
at the right time – when they are either in their store or passing by their stores.
When it comes to creating mobile content, brands need to deliver an engaging, user-friendly, convenient
experience that puts functionality at the point of need, makes the in-store experience better and reinforces
brand loyalty. Ignore this and brands run the risk of becoming brick-and-mortar Amazon showrooms.
As a BlackBerry user, the in-store mobile experience was lacking. The rest (of the apps) didn't add value for
me and they are battery killers! I know the BlackBerry isn't sexy, but don't forget about us.
SMART PHONE FACTS
•Heading into the holiday shopping season at the end of October, 60.7 million people in the U.S. owned
smart phones, up 14 percent from the preceding three months and representing one out of every four mobile
subscribers, according to comScore Inc.
•Research In Motion (BlackBerry) was the leading mobile smart phone platform in the U.S., with 35.8
percent share of U.S. smart phone subscribers, but was down 3.5 percentage points from the previous
quarter.
No. 2 was Apple (iPhone), with 24.6 percent share (up 0.8 percentage points).
Google (Android) saw another month of strong growth, rising 6.5 percentage points to capture 23.5 percent
of smart phone subscribers.
•Application developers have churned out more than 300,000 mobile apps in the last three years, according
to International Data Corp. Shopping is just one app category. Games are huge, and other categories include
news, sports, health, productivity, books, reference, travel and weather.
•The number of downloaded apps is expected to increase from 10.9 billion in 2010 to 76.9 billion in 2014 –
a seven-fold increase – to become a $35 billion market, according to IDC. That's bigger than the annual $20
billion U.S. toy market.
APPS OF CHRISTMAS
The following free smart phone apps were put to a field test and selected by three expert mobile shoppers:
Google Shopper
This
versatile app has the broadest pricing ability, capturing prices from all major chains. Features include voice
search. Only available on Android phones.
Armadealo
One of many coupon sites available, but this one seems to have some unique offers that weren't advertised
in the store. Works on the iPhone.
GeoQpons
A coupon site with one of the longest list of retailers and a large number of specials. Works on iPhone,
Android and BlackBerry.
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5. On Dallas-area shopping trip, smart phone apps prove to be handy com… News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Dallas Business News 12/19/10 7:25 PM
The Coupons App
Offers national and local coupons. Works on Android only.
Foursquare
This app
combines a game with offers from nearby stores and restaurants. For those who want to share their location
with friends. Works on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.
SnapTell
This app takes a photo of an item and generates comparison- shopping information. Works on iPhones and
Androids.
ScanLife
A barcode scanner that will read all the new and old shapes popping up in stores. Works on iPhone, Android
and BlackBerry.
The Find
It searches either by name or by scanning a barcode and finds prices at multiple nearby locations. It's also
rich with coupons. Works on iPhone and Android.
Amazon.com
It offers comparison pricing from its website and affiliates and gives shoppers the ability to complete a
purchase on the go. Works on Android, BlackBerry and iPhone.
Coach
This store app was selected for a customer-centric, easy-to-use gift finder.
Works on iPhones.
Best Buy
The store app includes a QR code reader, making it easier to get more information about products. Works
on Android, iPhone and BlackBerry (with fewer features).
Sephora
Selected for great visuals and content that's not just focused on price. Works on BlackBerry and iPhone.
Mission accomplished.
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