With the rise of daily deal sites, smart phone technology and e-commerce, the way we’re shopping is changing rapidly and a discount culture has well and truly taken hold. And while New Zealand may be lagging behind slightly in comparison to other tech-savvy nations, lasoo.co.nz is hoping to remedy that slightly with the launch of its “smarter shopping assistant” on Android and Windows Phone apps, which allow shoppers to find and select the best deals while wandering in ‘meatspace’.
Lasoo launched its iPhone and iPad personal shopping assistant applications in July last year (it even launched a couple of TVCs via .99 here and here) and Reachmedia chief executive Greg Radford says usage has grown at 10 percent a month. The apps allow users to do price comparisons, view product overviews and imagery and create personal shopping lists and they also integrate with the device’s GPS to show the nearest retail store, complete with a map, contact details and opening hours.
Radford recently returned from a ‘fact finding’ tour of Google HQ and eTail, one of the USA’s largest retail conferences. He was the only Kiwi attendee and explored international mobile customer trends alongside industry giants like Walmart, Macy’s and Best Buy.
“It was staggering to see that while New Zealand is often claimed to be 12 to 18 months behind the curve with global trends, US retailers actually have more like three to five years lead on their Kiwi equivalents”, he says. “In the US we’re seeing an increase amongst smart-phone users of lasoo.co.nz type apps from 15 to 35 percent since 2009. That’s over a third of customers shopping smarter, saving time and most importantly – money.”
In a similar fashion to sites like Sale Finder and the recently launched Sales Guide, Lasoo currently gives Kiwi shoppers access to catalogues from The Warehouse, Bunnings, Briscoes, Rebel Sport, Ezibuy, Warehouse Stationery, Stevens, Pascoes and Paper Plus. Neither Sales Finder or Sales Guide appear to offer apps, however.
On Digital’s Nick Tapper says Sales Guide was created to offer retailers a really simple way to increase sales and foot traffic and fend off online only retailers, to reach consumers more cheaply than press or television advertising, to offer proximity based marketing and to give consumers information when they’re close to making purchase decisions.
Lasoo’s Android and Windows Phone applications can be downloaded free of charge from their respective online app stores.
