Shopping is important. It’s the engine that keeps our economy going, but it’s also something that most of us consider a necessity, whether you’re trying to feed your kids or dress them for the prom.
For some of us, shopping is pure pleasure, we love it, we need it, and we want it. For others, shopping is pure misery.
If you love shopping and want to spend time on great, user friendly, personalized sites that are interesting and fun to hang out at.
If you hate to shop and need an app that speeds up the drudgery, we have 12 amazing apps that will innovate your experience.
Shop Till You (Don’t) Drop with these Cool Tools
Canopy takes personalization to a whole new level. The online catalog is curated by individuals that presumably have a lot better looking home and wardrobe than you do. These curator’s pick out their favorite things, and you can follow, like, and then buy what they’re highlighting. Canopy has taken the best elements from social media and Amazon and turned it into something new and awesome. It’s perfect for people that know what they like, but don’t have a great sense of style.
GoodGuide helps you search for all the good things; and by “good” we mean “good for you.” This app helps you find what’s healthy in four shopping categories: personal care, food, household, and babies and kids. When you click on a category, you have a pretty exhaustive list of all the good things for you and your family; the site says they’ve rated more than 75,000 products. Each item is ranked on a simple 1-10 scale with color codes for each ingredient. Some of them are certified as being kind to animals or the environment. You can even join their community and recommend products or like them and share your own reviews.
Haven’t you always wanted a personal shopper? Mona is your girl. She’s an app that’s like having a tag-a-long personal assistant to make sure you are dressed your best for your next job interview. Mona is not only an app, she’s an AI – but there’s nothing artificial about her. You tell Mona what you’re looking for, like a new pair of jeans for under $30.00. She hunts down online deals, searching more than 300 retailers to find the colors and styles you like at the price point you can afford. As a time saver, Mona is the bomb; as an artificial intelligence she is pretty smart. Mona can learn from your preferences and make suggestions based on your previous shopping history. Even better, the app offers free shipping on every order and you can easily cough up the cash with Apple Pay.
Keepa helps you keep an eye on Amazon prices. When you go to the site, there’s not a lot of flash, but don’t worry, this is a darn useful app that will save you big money. The way it works is by doing the research on any Amazon product that you want to buy. It analyzes how the price has fluctuated over time, and lets you pick the price you want to pay. You go on about your business, but Keepa is watching that product for you 24/7. When the price drops within the range you want to pay, Keepa sends you an alert so you can snag the deal.
Who doesn’t love a bargain? But only Dealspotr can find you the most accurate promo and coupon codes. We love this site because they have more than 50,000 users that are constantly finding and validating that the discount codes actually work – something that Groupon or RetailMeNot just don’t have. Dealspotr boasts that they’ve saved customers more than $15 million in two years. That’s because they’re crowd sourcing at it’s finest; consumers share their knowledge with other shoppers, bringing the power of the deal back to everyone. It’s kind of addictive – you can post deals, earn points for accuracy, and build a reputation as a killer deal spotter. Forget paying full price, that’s so lame. With Dealspotr you’ll save big bucks on all the items on your wish list.
Speaking of your wish list, there’s Wish, which you’re going to wish you had as soon as we tell you about it. Wish is currently a free app that can find amazing products being sold in China and the UK at huge discounts. Typically the product is a copy of a name brand, but there are tons of reviews that will help you avoid a bad buy. You can get deals on everything from clothes that look like name brands, but aren’t, to selfie sticks. The only bad news is that shipping can take awhile.
Wanelo is a lot like going to the mall – on your phone. Except there are more than 350,000 stores listed in this app. Now, that’s one heck of a mall, right? Wanelo (“wah-nee-low”) stands for “want, need, love,” which is exactly what this app was designed to do – connect shoppers with all the must-have items on their list. Today, there are 11 million products all in one place for a virtual shopping extravaganza!
When you’re done shopping for yourself and want to find the perfect gift, check out Giftagram. It’s fast, easy, and will send a gift that will impress the most fickle birthday boy or couple with an anniversary. You don’t even need an address to send the present. In two clicks you can select a gift. The platform connects with your contacts and sends the recipient a personalized webpage where they enter the address where they want the package to arrive. Done!
camelcamelcamel is a deal getter to the third power. This free app tracks the historical price trends on Amazon products. It’s gotten great reviews from PCWorld and CoolTools (this means nerds like the app). That’s because the app is free and easy to use and it works great. You can search for products, track them, and set an alert for when the price drops to a place where you can afford it. This dromedary will let you know when it’s time to pull out the credit card for the best deal.
With ShopSavvy you will never pay full price again. This app has it going on for shoppers; it can tell you when to make a major purchase, and it can also make sure you’re maximizing cash back deals. The app highlights new bargains as they happen. We really like the Amazon Bargain Bin for great deals.
Massdrop takes the power of the consumer to a whole new level. The app lets consumers who share the desire for high end, expensive, or large lots of items come together and purchase as a group. The site leverages the power of the bulk buy – where a big purchase can be divvied up among many people. Consumers vote on the types of items they want, and Massdrop will feature the best deals money can buy.
Last, but oh, so not least is Poshmark, which is kind of like hanging out with a lot of people that dig thrift stores that just happen to offer gently used big name fashion. It’s like one big awesome tag sale for shopaholics. Poshmark lets you sell items from your own personal webpage. It’s free to list, but when you make a sale, Poshmark deducts a small fee and sends you a pre-addressed envelope to ship out your item to the buyer. You can withdraw your earnings at any time. It’s that simple.
