Okay, so the holiday shopping season is officially underway. If you didn’t score everything you were looking for this weekend, there’s still plenty of time to shop til you drop. But why not get a leg up on the competition with the help of a little modern technology?
If you own a smartphone, there are deals and savings waiting to be had–there are tons of shopping apps out there! And they’re all just a download away. So buy these apps asap and watch the savings pour in.
1. Shopkick: Words can barely explain how insanely amazing this app is. Shopkick automatically locates tons of deals in your area–think, 15% off at American Eagle, spend $50 and get a $10 cash card at Sports Authority. And when you check in at a store, you earn “kickbucks,” which you can redeem for gift cards or even more discounts. You don’t even have to buy anything. Awesome, right?
Cost: Free
2. Cardstar: Stop carrying all those store loyalty tags on your keychain. This apps lets you earn and redeem story loyalty and reward points right from your phone. Most stores can scan your barcode right on your phone.
Cost: Free
3. Sale Saver: Stop wasting precious shopping time trying to calculate 45% off $79.99. This app not only calculates percentage discounts for you, but you can save calculations in your “cart” and it will automatically tally up your grand total.
Cost: $1
4. ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner: Scan a products barcode and this app will search local stores and the Web to find retailers with the product in stock so you can compare prices.
Cost: Free
5. Price Check by Amazon: In the event that the barcode scanner doesn’t work, this app lets you check to see if the item you’re eyeing is cheaper on Amazon.com. In addition to entering a barcode, you can also say the name of the product, take a picture or type in the product name.
Cost: Free
6. Santa’s List: If you have lots of people to shop for, keep track of what gift you still have to buy with this apps that lets you create shopping lists. We love that you can sync gifts with people from your contacts list and that you can create a wish list that you can email to friends and family.
Cost: $1
7. Toys ‘R Us: Because we’ll all be shopping for toys, you really shouldn’t be without the Toys ‘R Us. In addition to being able to check product availablity at your local store, you’ll also get sales and deals alerts.
Cost: Free
8. Price Grabber: This app does some of the same things other apps does–price comparison and product search–but what we really love about this app is the ability to set a price alert. So when something you’ve been eyeing goes down to the amount you’re willing to spend on it, you’ll get an email and you can buy is asap.
Cost: Free
9. Coupon Sherpa: Here’s another great coupon locator that aggregates coupons based on your location. Right now, they have the best selection of deals from store you’re likely to be shopping in (Payless Shoe Source, JCPenney and more).
Cost: Free
10. Kayak: For those of you lucky enough to be shopping for getaways this holiday season, this app is awesome. You can search and compare flight, hotel and car rental deals, book your travel, organize your trip itinerary and look up baggage fees and airport and airline info.
Cost: Free
Find more great gift ideas in our Sold-Out Guide, plus check out the 5 shopping apps the SHEfinds staffers love.
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Click here to email Jeanine, the author of this post.
There’s An App For That… 10 (Free!) Apps To Make Shopping on Black Friday Stress-Free
Best Baby Bottles
Sara
December 1, 2010
Use the promo code Mercury617 to get 100extra kickbucks on the Shopkick app
farrah
December 3, 2010
Key tag reward cards is the best key tag app I’ve found on Droid app market. Better ratings than the cardstar app. And the Santa list was renamed Free Christmas List.
Tina
December 22, 2010
I LOVE the Shopkick app! So easy to earn rewards and fun, too. Everyone gets their own personal promo code to pass on and whenever somebody uses yours you both get kickbucks! (mine is ape1518). Great for stay at home moms tight on cash, I used my rewards to help with Christmas shopping.
murf
January 4, 2011
My husband and I have been using Shopkick for a few months and we love it. We’ve cashed in for well over $100 in Target gift cards and it took no effort at all. This article didn’t mention that if you register using bonus code SHEEP17, you can get 100 free kickbucks right from the start (enough to purchase four Facebook credits even if you choose to not keep the app). To get the 100 free points, you need to register your account, then click on the link on the collect screen when it prompts you to enter the bonus code.