Nov
21
How to get local results on ShopSavvy
The most compelling feature about ShopSavvy is NOT the ability to scan a barcode, instead it is the ability to expose inventory and pricing information from local retailers. In the Android version of ShopSavvy our standard screen had a Web tab and a Local tab that exposed the number of results for each. If the user scans an item that we don’t have a local result for we show “0″ as the number of results. Over the past year we have regretted this decision as users will email us letting us know they aren’t pleased we don’t have local results. In our iPhone version we fixed this issue.
In the iPhone version of ShopSavvy if you scan an item WITHOUT local prices we simply show a tab that says “Prices”. If we have local prices we show the two tabs, i.e. Web and Local price. By not calling attention to the fact that we don’t have a local price for an item we don’t get many emails from annoyed users relative to local results. Of course, in our world, not many is hundreds so I thought I would explain how to get local results on ShopSavvy.
Most new users (i.e. the vast majority of support emails) download ShopSavvy at their house and begin scanning items they already to own. Many of these items are grocery related and we don’t cover groceries very well (read more here). The rest are old books and DVDs – many of these are still available online, but they are no longer in local stores. These ‘DEMO’ scans often yield poor results, a) the items are no longer sold in local stores, b) they are of groceries and c) the barcodes are hard to read. We have received hundreds of negative ratings from these users even though they have never actually tried to use ShopSavvy to shop. My advice? Use ShopSavvy when you shop – you will be surprised how helpful ShopSavvy can be.
The reason ShopSavvy performs well in retail stores is fairly obvious. First, the items sold in one retail store are likely sold in other retail stores – meaning we will have local inventory and price. Major local retailers carry between 10,000 and 100,000 items – this is out of millions of items. Second, the lighting in retail stores is often far better than the lighting in your house – this means scanning will be faster. Third, the barcodes are almost always printed on flat surfaces – this means scanning will be faster. Trying to scan items in your house means you are scanning items that might not be currently sold, might have hard to read barcodes and scanning in low light. Before you give us a poor review or rating, please actually use ShopSavvy when you are shopping for Christmas.
Great app guys!
Thanks for finally releasing an iPhone app (I was almost going to switch to Android!)
Just one little question – In Vancouver Canada, it seems that you give local results of Washington, USA. Do local results only work in the US? (cause that would be quite shabby – as you said, the main benefit is letting me know that there’s something cheaper down the street)
cheers!
Comment by jon chui — November 22, 2009 @ 12:07 am
Yep, this is a known bug. We support international localization on the Android version, but for some reason the iPhone version is showing only US prices. Anyway, this will be fixed once our next version is accepted. Sorry about that….
Comment by amuse — November 22, 2009 @ 10:46 am
This is a superior product, and I completely respect the efforts you put forth each and everyday in improving shopsavvy. With all the formalities aside, my first impulse on using Shopsavvy was to start scanning things i had in my home. I will do this cause my mentality was, let this tool go out and do the footwork for me before I actually hit the road to make a purchase. (Gas is not cheap). Price will always create that bit_hing or barter metality, but in the end I want a high quality product that will give me the results I’m looking for, as a consequence I will sometimes overlook price comparison. You guys are pulling price very well and it is great comparison tool for your Users, but push also, push me a little, by educating me on products and I’ll probably not bicker about how bad your apps treated me on my last purchase. This creates an opportunity for shopsavvy to educate customers on products, the more informed a customer is the greater the chance for a purchase. Keep up the good work. I love this program. I mean it.
Comment by Rodney — November 23, 2009 @ 1:02 am
My friend owns a small local retail store with a small on-line presence(http://www.adorablebabyshop.com/). I would like to help them get their SKUs and prices into shopsavvy (local and on-line) how do they as a retailer do this, and keep it updated? They’re having a sale on item x, how do they ensure the prices are updated?
Comment by Brian — November 25, 2009 @ 5:05 pm
They can provide us a feed or api or they can update Google Base. Check out the FAQ http://www.biggu.com/faq
Comment by amuse — November 25, 2009 @ 7:37 pm
Great job guys. When will the localized verSion be available?
Comment by Jon — December 6, 2009 @ 8:08 pm
Hi folks,
I have a G1 and a iphone 3g and live in Germany. Using shopsavvy with G1 in Germany it’s excellent because I get all prices of German retailers and local prices. With the 3G I get only prices in USD and US retailers. Why? Do you use different data banks? Pls explain this to German or European users to avoid further bad ratings because iphone user are disappointed about this fantastical app I’m using with my G1 since six months without any problems saving me a lot of monies.
Comment by Dieter Koeve — December 8, 2009 @ 11:33 am
Our ShopSavvy 1.1 version (in review at Apple now) fixes this. We hard coded a bug that prevented non-US prices from showing up. As soon as possible download the 1.1 update and it will have the same data as the Android version of ShopSavvy. Thanks for the comment…
Comment by amuse — December 11, 2009 @ 2:53 pm
I’m disappointed, many items I used this app to scan doesn’t show local stores prices. In fact only one item show price from a local store. The item is an oil filter, ace hardware showed but none of the auto supply stores showed, Kmart has it but it didn’t show either. Would that has something to do with our state of hawaii?
Comment by cc hawaii — January 2, 2010 @ 12:30 am
I am watching scans and see lots of local results. We did get a complaint from the UK basically the same as yours. Did you scan the oil filter before and get good results?
Comment by amuse — January 2, 2010 @ 11:25 pm