The ShopSavvy Wallet was released almost two weeks ago and lots of ShopSavvy users have been using the feature to save LOTS of money. We are currently in the process of turning up new retailers as we speak, but Buy.com has been doing a BUNCH of business with ShopSavvy users. The latest deal was for an Xbox 360 System – 4GB Kinect Bundle for $289.98 with shipping.
Turns out we have a lot of students creating ShopSavvy wallets. If you have ever gone to your local college coop and shopped for books you might have been a little shocked by the prices. Next time take a minute to scan the book with ShopSavvy. You will be surprised by how much cheaper you can get them from retailers who support our wallets. Got a great story about how much you have saved on textbooks using ShopSavvy? Email sales@shopsavvy.mobi so we can share your story to other users.
Our new wallet feature allows users to access their contact information to auto-fill their shipping and billing information. Turns out users didn’t want to re-type information that already existing in their address book into our app. iOS users originally requested this feature and we included for Android users a couple of days ago. Cool, right? Nope.
Hundreds of users were angered that we turned on the feature. Their concern was that while we could allow them to select their address information from their address book we could also look at ANY information in their address book. Google’s permission and explanations tend to create this concern. Google is pretty much the Wild West as compared with Apple and their app approval process so Android users are very cautious about what they allow apps to do.
Anyway, instead of trying to explain to the hundreds of folks complaining (out of millions of users mind you) we decided to turn off the feature. You will have to re-type your shipping and billing information now. Please be sure that we never accessed your address book in the past and now that the auto-fill feature is off we STILL can’t access your address book.
iOS users, you still have the auto-fill feature since we haven’t received a single complaint.
Our new ShopSavvy Wallet feature that is new in Android and iOS asks for access to your contact information. Why you may ask? Simple, we want to make setting up your wallet as simple as possible. Whenever you set up your contact info we auto-complete your email address as you type it (we had to access your contact info to be able to do so) and we also allow you to select your billing and shipping information from your stored contact info.
You can be CERTAIN we don’t access your contact information without your involvement. If you don’t set up your wallet we won’t ever look at your contact info. The way Google describes the permission you might be a bit concerned. I think they say something like, “Malicious developers can use this permission to find your house and kill your dog.” Literally, they make it sound terrible. You can be sure the ONLY reason we are offering this feature is to make signing up for the wallet easy.
If you haven’t seen ShopSavvy Wallet here you go:
It is hard to believe, but have been working on ShopSavvy for three years. Back in July of 2008 ShopSavvy won Google’s Android Developer Challenge and the rest has been history. Today our users on Android and iOS will be happy to learn that ShopSavvy 4.5 is available for download (Android) (iOS).
iOS users in Florida have been un-knowingly beta-testing our latest feature: ShopSavvy Wallet (skip the website to buy from within the phone). In essence we have created a secure wallet inside of ShopSavvy that allows a user to store his or her credit card and ship to information inside of their phone. When the user finds a great deal they simply ‘slide to pay’ and ShopSavvy does the rest. This new feature attempts to remove as much inertia from the buying process as possible. Here is a short video demonstrating the feature:
We will be officially launching this new feature in a week or two (if all goes well). The 4.5 update also fixes a number of bugs and improves performance of the app during scanning, product display and list filtering.
I have always appreciated the Marine Toys for Tots program each year. This afternoon I was wondering how we (i.e. ShopSavvy) might be able to leverage our platform to help collect toys in October, November and December and distribute them as Christmas gifts to needy children around the country. I had an idea.
What if anytime one of our users scanned a toy we suggested they buy a second one using ShopSavvy – one that would be shipped to their local Marine Corps Reserve Unit for distribution through the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation. I know from personal experience I have bought toys for the program, but never actually delivered them to a drop off location. Toys for Tots Foundation, hat do you think?
We could even partner with someone like Walmart who might agree to match toy donations made by ShopSavvy users by sending a SECOND toy. Walmart, what do you think?
I’ll keep you posted on the progress of this idea. If you have contacts with anyone at the Marine Corps, Toys for Tots or Walmart that might be able to help please pass along this post (or send me their contact info).
Regards,
Alexander Muse, CEO ShopSavvy Inc.
8350 N Central Expressway Suite 250
Dallas, TX 75206
214.550.2003
amuse@shopsavvy.mobi
What is cool about Amazon? 1-Click purchases. What is not cool about Amazon? Their prices are often higher than other retailers (in ShopSavvy they are only the best price 6% of the time). What if you could scan a product with ShopSavvy and find the best prices from online and local retailers (Amazon included) and buy the product with 1-Tap inside of the app? That is what we call quick pay and it is now live for iOS users in Florida.
With the second version of quick pay you can skip the website and buy from any retailer from inside of ShopSavvy. Want to give it a try? Remember this is a VERY limited version of the feature. Here are the details/limits:
- Limited Retailers: Barnes & Noble and Buy.com
- Limited Users: Florida and iOS Only
- Early Version: Super-Beta (the official release version fixes a number of issues)
The process is fairly simple. The first time you use quick pay you can add your credit card info as well as shipping information and from then on you can buy with 1-Tap. By removing all of the inertia we hope that quick pay will make saving money even easier. I have been buying books and office supplies with quick pay for the last few weeks and it works great.
If you live in Florida and what to try it out, just start scanning books and/or consumer electronics and you should see an option to buy with quick pay. Let us know what you think. Everybody else? We should have everything ready to launch nationwide on the 29th (Apple might take a few days to accept the app, but Android will be available immediately).
It seems like you can’t pick up the Wall Street Journal without reading about mobile payments here in the United States. This weekend the paper wrote about Google’s mobile payment deal with MasterCard and Citigroup. Then again this morning they wrote about American Express and their new digital payments platform aimed squarely at PayPal. Upstarts like Zong are helping consumers buy digital goods using their phone. PayPal is even trying to innovate around mobile payments despite their mobile guru, Osama Bedier, leaving the company to join Google to build yet another mobile payments system. Why so much interest in the market? Generator Research reports that mobile payments will increase from $68 billion to $633 billion by 2014.
Here in the United States (unlike Asian countries like Japan) consumers haven’t used their mobile devices to pay for goods, but everyone believes this is about to change. I can recall analyst reports from the mid-90s asking consumers if they would be willing to give their credit card numbers to retailers on the internet. Much like the movement from brick and mortar purchasing to online purchasing, we believe more and more Americans will begin to use their mobile device to pay for goods and services. This belief is driving our development efforts at ShopSavvy.
Since launching our partnership with PayPal and Cardinal Commerce in 2009 we have learned a lot about mobile payments. Unfortunately we have mostly learned what NOT to do. Here are some of the lessons we have learned:
• do not require consumers to use a single payment form
• do not require merchants to use a particular processor
• do not require merchants to use a particular integrator
• do not depend on the merchant to do anything
Consumers have their favorite payment methods. The key is to allow them to use ANY payment form inside of your system, while removing as much payment inertia as possible. Amazon has done an excellent job doing this. Their ‘wallet’ allows a consumer to pay with any payment form, while making buying as simple as ‘one click’. Of course in mobile there are rarely any ‘clicks’, instead you have ‘touches’ and ‘swipes’.The holy grail of mobile payments is to create a system that will work with ALL merchants.
This is where ShopSavvy comes into play. Consumers are already using ShopSavvy moments before actually buying the product they are scanning. ShopSavvy reveals comparison pricing information about other retailers helping the consumer make an informed purchase decision. If the consumer could use their payment data already stored inside of ShopSavvy to complete the purchase – i.e. a one tap payment – we believe our solution would be as powerful as Amazon’s solution with one important distinction: neutrality.
Our data shows that Amazon’s prices are the lowest only 6% of the time. That means that in 94% of scans our users are seeing better deals from other retailers. With a single scan consumers can be sure to find the best deal and with a single tap they can complete a purchase. QuickPay 2 makes mobile payments for products a reality.
Investors have been asking me how ShopSavvy will compete with all those other wallets from Google, PayPal, Zong and AMEX. The answer is relatively simple: we will support any payment form that is popular. ShopSavvy isn’t building a wallet, per se, instead we are building a shopping platform with payment integration.
Earlier today Scott Baradell issued the press release formally announcing that Matt has joined the team (he has actually been on board for a few weeks). Matt will be working in our San Francisco ‘office’ (not really an office yet, but shortly) with John Boyd our VP of Business Development. Matt is VP of Product with a special focus on our QuickPay 2.0 (augmented payment + NFC) initiatives. Here is the full release:
ShopSavvy, the personal shopping companion for smartphone users, today announced that it has brought on Matthew Weathers, former product lead for PayPal Mobile, as vice president of product. Among his responsibilities, Weathers will lead the development of ShopSavvy’s mobile commerce strategy, including QuickPay, which enables ShopSavvy users to purchase the products they scan without ever leaving the application.
“IE Market Research projects that purchases made via smartphones in the United States will exceed $40 billion by 2014, and ShopSavvy intends to be a driving force in this fast-growing market,” said Alexander Muse, co-founder of ShopSavvy. “Matt Weathers, who ran the product team and strategy for PayPal Mobile, is an ideal choice to lead this effort.”
In January, ShopSavvy introduced QuickPay 1.0 on both the iPhone and Android smartphones. The feature enables consumers who find great deals to easily buy an item on the phone and have it shipped home. QuickPay 1.0 uses PayPal, but in the near future, the company will unveil QuickPay 2.0, which will also support credit cards. QuickPay 2.0 will also become a wallet to enable point-of-sale purchases via near field communication (NFC).
“QuickPay will allow ShopSavvy users to use the app as an integrated wallet, making purchases from both local and online retailers without needing cash or a credit card in hand.” Weathers said. “I am excited about the opportunity to develop this element of ShopSavvy as we work to extend our lead as the No. 1 app for shoppers.”
In QuickPay 1.0, when ShopSavvy users scan a product barcode, the application performs a product look-up and returns pricing information from local and online retailers. Participating retailers will automatically display a QuickPay button that users can click to access PayPal and complete the purchase.
Upon its release, QuickPay 2.0 will expand these payment capabilities to serve as a fully featured, integrated wallet. Not only can ShopSavvy consumers store credit cards and bank accounts in their wallet, but they can save money overall by also storing coupons, gift cards, instant rebates, loyalty cards, and cash back rewards in their QuickPay wallet. With a simple and secure PIN entry, users can quickly buy items to be sent home or purchased at a point of sale.
Weathers, who will be based in ShopSavvy’s Bay Area office, was part of the founding team for PayPal Mobile. He led the mobile product team for four years and built out the product suite for three business lines: P2P payments, eBay mobile checkout, and mobile merchant services. Prior to that, Weathers worked in PayPal’s merchant business on ecommerce checkout flows and some of the first large merchant integrations. Most recently, he led the product strategy for the turnaround of eBay France, which relied heavily on local commerce. He has an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree from UCLA.
Recently we launched QuickPay, our integrated wallet, into ShopSavvy. QuickPay 1.0 only supports payments using your PayPal account today, but QuickPay 2.0 will allow you to use PayPal AND any credit card you wish (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover). Our goal is to allow you to buy products from retailers with a single tap on your touch screen – add a PIN – and you are able to purchase the product and have it shipped to your house without pulling out your wallet. Think of it as iTunes for everything else. While QuickPay can support ‘pick up in store’ it is really a tool for offline to online purchase conversion, but that is all about to change with NFC support.
QuickPay 2.0 will support local point of sale purchases through the support of NFC or near field communication. NFC is a short-range (4 inches) wireless connection that is compatible with existing ‘contactless’ infrastructure already in use for payments. ShopSavvy users who have set up their QuickPay wallet (with one or more credit cards or bank accounts) will be able to use their phone to purchase products (and even services) from retailers who have NFC readers integrated int heir point of sale systems. Users who leverage ShopSavvy’s integrated wallet will benefit from special offers such as coupons, instant rebates as well as a 1% cash back rewards for purchases. Our objective with QuickPay is to create a very flexible wallet that enables augmented payments using any payment method (credit card, debit card, ACH or online payment) in any setting (online or local).
