A new free mobile application which helps make Christmas shopping easier has been a huge hit among iPhone users.
Within ten days of its launch, the SaleFinder app became the number one free lifestyle app in New Zealand and is in the top five overall – a domain usually dominated by games and Facebook.
SaleFinder co-founder Mehreen Choudhary is pleasantly surprised at how popular the app is and predicts it will hit 30,000 downloads by Christmas Day.
“It seems to be spreading by word of mouth– new users that as soon as they discover what the SaleFinder app can do, they quickly share it with friends. In one office, work stopped as they tried SaleFinder for the first time.
“People are telling us it’s saving them hours – and dollars – on their Christmas shopping.”
So what’s so smart about this app? It contains sale details and new product information for thousands of items from 40 of New Zealand’s most popular retailers so, wherever you are, you can find exactly what you want and what it costs.
“Whichever shop you’re in, chances are they’ll be on SaleFinder – Farmers, Briscoes, Whitcoulls, Rebel, Kmart, Baby City, Repco, Harvey Norman – to name just a few. Imagine, for example, you’re in the middle of a mall and, just by looking at your mobile, you’ll know what’s new and what’s on discount and be able to head straight there,” says Choudhary.
“If you’ve ever wasted a whole hour going from shop to shop trying to find that ‘Curly Fry Cutter thingy’ for your sister – you were sure you saw it somewhere but can’t remember where – you’ll love the fact that you can just tap on your iPhone and SaleFinder can locate it for you. Save it on the Shopping List then use the Store Locator to find the nearest branch.
“It’s a great tool for window shopping too as, at any given time, there are more than 11,000 individual items on the SaleFinder app.”
SaleFinder is a Kiwi start-up founded by Shahid Sajjad and Mehreen Choudhary in 2008. As a website, it allows anyone to browse catalogues while members get email Sales Alerts from their chosen ‘favourite’ retailers. Now SaleFinder.co.nz has more than 100,000 members and the company has been looking for new ways to help shoppers, hence the mobile app.
“The spike in popularity of mobile apps is a clear signal consumers are demanding on-the-spot access to information, wherever they are. The world’s going mobile now and our app is like a mobile letterbox. No more bulky mailers to keep – you can find out what’s on sale whenever and wherever you are,” Sajjad says.
Currently, the SaleFinder app is only available for iPhones but Sajjad said it would be out on Android within the next week.
