-In preparation for Tough Mudder (I survived!), on Friday night, I headed to REI to grab some packs of GU, a hat, gloves, and other odds ‘n ends. While in the store, I decided to test a couple shopping apps and websites on my cell phone as I’ve been following what’s happening with Google Local Shopping and Milo. I’ve also been catching up with others like Krillion and GPShopper/Slifter. With all the hoopla about all these services, the one that scored for me was ShopSavvy (run by Biggu.com), which has options for local retailers just like the more well known services out there. ShopSavvy’s barcode scanner seemed to work better than the others I tried, and I was able to provide local inventory. While I’m not sure if ShopSavvy is getting up to the minute product data from REI, the products that I scanned that ShopSavvy said were in stock at price X, were in fact in stock at price X. Still pondering how all these services will pan out…
-Private Equity firms move in on retailers. Pershing Square Capital Management has acquired 16.5% of JCP while Bain Capital pays $1.8B for Gymboree.
-NexTag has always been at the forefront of online advertising. While all shopping engines run PPC campaigns, NexTag has also been one of the largest buyers of display advertising throughout the years. Now it’s trying to figure out Facebook Ads. Here’s an example of a Facebook ad for Tommy Bahama that NexTag is running:
I wonder if brands are going to have the same issues with shopping engines bidding on their brand names on Facebook as they have on Google AdWords.
-Only 46 more days until Black Friday!
[...] Barcode Scanning up 700%. I just wrote about my experience with ShopSavvy the other day. ReadWriteWeb reports on a study from ScanBuy which you need to read if you’re [...]
[...] a pretty great experience with ShopSavvy, I think I have to go window shopping this weekend and try out a half dozen new and not so new [...]