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Satisfied shoppers scan more

. Michelle Bohannon

The question on the table: how valuable is a bar-code scanning service such as RedLaser to consumers?

I looked at the RedLaser website and was immediately reminded of the existing Android barcode scanner application called ShopSavvy, which plugs into Google’s Mobile Product Search database. ShopSavvy was launched in October of last year and won the 2008 Android Developer Challenge. Here’s how it works -- you point your phone’s camera at any barcode and it will read it, provide a price and give you product information such as where you can find it online or at nearby stores. When looking at the stores the product is available at, not only is the price shown but the user can go directly to the stores website, see where the store is on a map, or call the store. ShopSavvy also allows you to save products to a wish list or set up a price alert to notify you when the price drops below a set amount.

In my opinion, this benefit-driven application is VERY valuable to consumers. I would love it if my phone supported price checks on the fly, or if I could be notified when a particular product goes on sale. I attended an Android user testing session earlier this year and almost everyone mentioned how much they loved ShopSavvy. They thought it was fun to use (I heard the word “nifty” a few times) and they felt that they were “getting a good deal” while shopping. Additionally, I have heard ShopSavvy is now available on the iPhone.

RedLaser supports much of the same functionality as described above, but also says it can scan movies at the store and beam them to your TiVo, or scan items to add them to your grocery list. Personally, I would like to scan movies at the store and beam them to my TiVo ... then I wouldn’t need to worry about returning them ;-)

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1 Comments:

At 12/17/2009 03:09:00 PM, Blogger Dennis Schleicher said...

Nice post Michelle, I like the idea of the beaming a scanned movie to your TiVo. Perhaps a scanned bookcover could result in the e-book automatically showing up in your ebook reader (iPhone, Kindle)

 

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