Mobile Phones Become Essential Tool for Holiday Shopping

[steven johnson]

It looks like the cell phone is going to be a shopping portal for the future.

Powerful software applications for devices like the Apple iPhone are making it easy for bargain-hunting consumers to see if another retailer is offering a better deal on a big-screen HDTV or pair of shoes and to use it to haggle at the cash register.

Online retailers are revamping the mobile versions of their sites so consumers can make purchases without tedious typing. And offline retailers, battling for every last dollar, are sending cellphone users electronic coupons to lure them away from competitors.

One in five shoppers said they intended to use their cellphones to shop this holiday season, according to an annual survey by Deloitte, the accounting and consulting firm. Of those, 45 percent said they would use their phone to research prices, 32 percent said they would use it to find coupons or read reviews and 25 percent said they would make purchases from their phones.

In addition to ShopSavvy, mobile apps from RedLaser, TheFind, ShopStyle and PriceGrabber.com allow customers to compare prices across a range of retailers. Retrevo, an electronics review site, has a service called RetrevoQ that lets users send a text or Twitter message with the name of the product they are considering and get an immediate response with a recommendation of whether to buy it and a range of online prices.

Mobile Phones Become Essential Tool for Holiday Shopping

[Speck Tater]

1. The best tool for holiday shopping...

My entire extended family draws names so that each person only needs to buy one gift for one person, and everybody maintains a current wish list on the online shopping site of their choice so everyone in the whole family can do their entire Christmas shopping in fifteen minutes online. In spite of my many parents, children, grandchildren, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, I complete my Christmas shopping by buying one gift for one person on one web site with one click, and never spend more than our agreed upon limit of $40.

$40 and all my shopping is done. Period.

[rucky]

3. That's how we do it.

This year, we're all buying each other Sunggies.

[rwheeler31]

2. Why is this important, make up your mind.