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TRANSAERO №10 October 2013
E N G L I S H Apps
Top 10 Apps for Shopaholics These days travelling abroad is not just about seeking out new experiences – what about hunting down sales and designers’ new collections? This is when shopping apps come in handy. They allow you to cash in on sales and to buy directly via a smartphone, as well as to locate good deals within the device’s reach. KONSTANTIN SHIYAN SHAMIL GAR AEV
Apps for shopaholics are continuously growing in number and are becoming increasingly popular with the consumer public. According to a survey conducted by the analyst firm Research Now for Swirl, a tech company that is harnessing mobile marketing for retail purposes, 53% of female smartphone owners have at least one app to aid with their shopping. An opinion poll shows that 50%
Shoptimus
smartphone users in the US use apps from the “purchase/ commerce” category on average 17 times a month. All shopping apps can roughly be divided into the following categories: discount notifiers, “reminders” that come to life as we pass a store of interest, and apps that facilitate shopping by providing driving directions to the shop of interest.
Wizee Shopping
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of women are ready to share their location and other private information if a store offers them something valuable in return – a present or a discount. This means that half the female population are potential users of shopping apps. According to Nielsen Mobile analysts, 47% of American smartphone owners used shopping apps at least once in June 2012. Approximately 45 million
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Russian app Shoptimus unites hundreds of popular online shops, including all the largest ones in Russia, to offer its user one and a half million products. Thanks to its simple UI the app is very easy to understand. Products are separated into categories such as shoes, clothing, home, perfume andkids. The app tracks all sales, significant and less. You can ensure no major sale is missed by just going through the app once a day. A simple shake of the phone will refresh the catalogue. After you have identified the item, all you need to do is send it to your shopping cart and proceed to place anorder. The app has the option of creating wish lists so you can revisit the products you liked.
A pretty good app designed for the Russian market. The programme helps you find your way around the biggest shopping malls in Russia’s largest cities. The app helps you find the right store or a place to eat and is intended for those who have trouble reading layout plans at shopping centres. At the moment “Wizee Shopping” offers a guide to shopping malls inMoscow, Saint Petersburg, Samara, Nizhniy Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Voronezh, Kazan and Kiev. It is worth mentioning that only Moscow’s database is complete, whereas the app provides information on only half the malls in some of the other cities. Hopefully, this shortcoming will be fixed in the near future.
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Lokata
GPSReminder 2Free
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FREE
A handy discount aggregator. Its biggest advantage is that it employs a GPS module. The app alerts the user to nearby stores that have discounts that might interest him or her (the list of “interests” is created manually). Lokata can either list suggestions or locate them on a map.
The app is specifically designed for people who intend to revisit an item they liked in a shop but forget to do so and instead pass by the store without dropping in. Not anymore. With this app, every time you find yourself in the vicinity of the store you tagged, you receive a reminder l. Notifications can be customized according to categories and locations.
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E N G L I S H Apps
TRANSAERO №10 October 2013
MyDiscoCard
Sizer
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66 RUB.
An app for avid shoppers, who have too many discount cards to carry around. The app allows you to save data from your cards such as barcodes, images and serial numbers. In addition the app easily locates associated stores placed nearby. There is only one disadvantage – in Russia many retailers refuse to accept “virtual” cards.
Stores user’s clothing and shoe sizes, as well as those of friends and relatives. Finding a present that will surprise the recipient has become so much easier now! . The app also offers conversion tables for US, European, Japanese, Russian and other sizes . Indeed an indispensable app for travellers and those who purchase merchandise from online retailers overseas, which usually means no returns.
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Wanelo
Fashism Mobile
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P L AT F O R M FREE
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FREE
Is an online community that unites retailers and customers. Big and small companies alike display their products like clothes, accessories, books and home décor items. . Virtual customers use these to build wardrobes on their pages, create wish lists, comment on friends’ choices and share tips. Each product offers a link to a website, where it can be purchased. Keep in mind, however, that not every online store ships to Russia.
This unconventionally named app is designed to help itsuser make up his mind. For instance, you are in search of new glasses and need some help deciding whether the ones you have found are a good fit. . Using Fashism Mobile you can take a picture of yourself wearing the glasses and upload it online for other users to review. It is a free advice app. Obviously, opinions provided are personal and some might think traditional social networks are a better option. But on social networks you will only hear your friends’ opinions, whereas here you get recommendations from complete strangers, who are actually keen on fashion themselves.
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Buy Me a Pie!”
Smart Shopping
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An app that helps you remember what to buy. It is not exactly an app for shopaholics, more like forgetful young people who have trouble keeping track of their shopping lists. It has a base of preset typical requests – product names – which is customizable. Notes can be grouped by colour so that you don’t have to pace the store back and forth. The app has a friendly Post It-style UI. Lists can be managed via a web-interface, sent as an email or a text. It takes seconds to make even the largest list.
Is an incredibly clever app that will be useful if you are travelling in the Wests. The application allows users to create shopping lists, comes with a barcode scanner and provides driving directions. It offers a great way to save money – you come across something attractive in Moscow and then track it down in the US, for instance. The app also saves your purchase history so you can keep track of your expenses. Its splendid design is an added bonus.
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