Can Your Phone Save You Money? mShopper Thinks So.

One of the primary reasons that I bought my first smartphone was to be able to check and see if I was actually getting a good deal on something when I was out and about and away from my computer.  I hate buying something only to find out that I paid more than I should have.  Then you have to fight the return lines, find the receipt, and deal with the “I can’t believe I only get paid $6 an hour” employee behind the counter.  Lovely.

mShopper thinks they have a better idea.  At first glance, it appears that they might be on to something.   Their service is quite extensive, from simple price checks to deal notifications and the ability to actually buy what you are shopping for.  Let’s break it down.

I was in Kohl’s tonight checking out some crock pots (exciting I know).  This particular evening I had somehow managed to forget MY phone, so I actually had to borrow my Mother’s standard Sanyo “All I want it to do is make phone calls” dumb phone.  Since I have my folks on my shared minutes plan, I made sure they at least had access to the internet, and I’m glad I did, this was a perfect opportunity.

I fired up her trusty Sanyo and loaded mShopper’s mobile price searching service.  You do not have to register to use the service, which is cool because I wasn’t even using an EVDO handset (my browsing experience wasn’t exactly speedy.) If you do choose to register, you can call one of their representatives to set up your account.  Glad to know it was an option, but I went ahead and passed on that. 

To get back to the quest at hand, they were out of the specific appliance I had my eye on.  On mShopper’s site, when you are searching for a specific item, all you have to do is key up two letters for a brand and model number.  Believe me, when you are using a standard number key pad, this added convenience is much appreciated.  Nice touch mShopper.

The site searches what seems to be a majority of online retailers, but there do are some big box stores mixed in.  The price results may only benefit you if you are not opposed to ordering online (and I’m sure that mShopper wouldn’t mind if you order it through their service as I’m sure they make the majority of their money through affiliate agreements.)  But if we had to guess, most people will check the price in front of them (at the store) and find out if it is competitive and be on their way.  I can’t see people walking through a store and placing multiple single item orders from multiple different websites.  Shipping would surely negate any cost savings. 

Back at home, I went ahead and signed up for their service (it’s free.)  There are options there to go set up what your primary shipping address is and they even let you set up your credit card to make your purchasing that much easier.  Nice of them, eh?  In their defense, if you can find a deal on their site, you can get 5% cash back using promo code “mshop.”  Good enough.  Want email updates from their vendors?  Sign up for their “First Dibs” for any number of different categories.

A Shopping Service With Heart?
Apparently saving you money is not quite enough, though, as mShopper has also teamed up with a cornucopia of charities for you to easily donate from your phone.  After you have placed your order, mShopper shows you how much you saved by going through them and offers to let you send some of those savings on over.  A noble effort if nothing else.

So what should you take from all of this?  Bottom line - I’m not so sure that I’ll be ordering any crock pots over my cell phone while I’m shopping in Kohl’s, but you can bet that I’ll check to make sure I’m not getting a crock of, well, you get my drift. 

And by the way, I did find that Amazon.com was selling that crock pot for $10 cheaper.  Thanks, mShopper

Added to the Shopping Directory.

-wS.