Named the best of iPhone Utilities category in App Store Rewind 2011, the popular app ShopAdvisor is now available for the IPad.
The goal of ShopAdvisor is to work naturally with the way people tend to shop, in which consumers first discover a product but may deliberate for days or weeks before they make a purchase. The creators noticed that average length of time between when a consumer “watches” an item they see online and makes a purchase is slightly more than 12 days. They have used this information to create a virtual shopping experience that helps consumers make big box item purchases with ease.
“Consumers have adopted their printed magazine shopping behavior to the iPad – they browse, discover new ideas, do research, and mark products that they may purchase. We built ShopAdvisor for iPad from the ground up to indulge users with a page-flipping experience,” said Andrew Mahon, co-founder of Evoqu. “The ShopAdvisor watch button is the iPad equivalent of bending down a corner of the page or taping a sticky note to remember it for later.”
ShopAdvisor users have the option of getting alerts when the price of an item has gone down, or at a particular date set by them. This is intended to mimic customers tendency to wait until the price is right for major purchases, or when they have enough money to buy them. In the time between initial interest and future buying, consumers discover products while browsing or watching television, use their tablet and other devices to keep them under consideration, and make a purchase when the time or price is right.
The average price of an item on a ShopAdvisor WatchList is $276. Among the “most watched” items in ShopAdvisor are TVs, women’s shoes, digital cameras, men’s shoes, laptops, wristwatches, toys, handbags, kitchen appliances and XBox 360 consoles. More than 78% of the alerts are acted upon, and 16% lead to a visit to a seller’s website.