Wanderful Media debuts iPhone app in time for holidays

Now shoppers can browse circulars on-the-go

Are you ready for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Cyber Week bloodbath? Retailers want YOU and they will drag you kicking and screaming into their stores if they have to. Best to just keep your head down and go quietly.

Actually, we’re approaching the busiest shopping weekend of the year. For most people, Thanksgiving weekend kicks off the holiday shopping season, and for that reason and that reason alone, newspapers usually get a big sales boost as eager shoppers grab them for the circulars (those glossy ads you normally toss out because they keep slipping out of the paper anyway).

For the digital generation, for whom print is a relic of a long-forgotten past, there’s Wanderful Media, which launched onto the scene last year with the site FindnSave.com. Today, the company is launching its iPhone app so that customers can keep track of their favorite sales and deals on-the-go. (In the days of yore, we carried a bunch of loose, wadded up circulars in our purses.)

The move makes sense. Some two-thirds of shoppers have indicated they plan to (or would like to) use their mobile devices when shopping on Black Friday to check prices and use the geo-locator to find nearby stores, according to The 2013 Find&Save Black Friday Shopping Survey. Respondents said they were also interested in using their mobile devices to browse circulars while out and about.

Wanderful Media was the brainchild of 12 major newspapers who came together to bring print circulars into the digital age. Currently, retailers spend $4 billion a year on circulars.

The new Find&Save iPhone app comes with features like a nearby sales locator, which shows the user an updated list of all the sales at local stores, new sale alerts from favorite stores, one shopping list across all devices, the ability to browse weekly ads, and the ability to share with friends.

While RetailMeNot tends to be a more general coupon/sale site across e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retail, Find&Save is really designed to drive customers to brick-and-mortar locations. Either way, circulars tend to create the most engagement among customers. Nielsen data shows that print ads drive more purchase intent than any other form of advertising, including TV and radio. Another survey found that 40% of respondents said they had searched online, visited a website, or purchased a product as a direct result of seeing a print ad in the last month. 

“Since shopping culture is more mobile and social than ever, Find&Save was reimagined for shoppers who are using technology to make everyday tasks easier,” said CEO Ben Smith, in a statement. “The new iPhone app is a major milestone as we continue to build new apps and site features for both shoppers and retailers.”

Find&Save features items from over 18,000 brands, including Nike, Apple, Gap, Revlon, Ray Ban, Coach, and more. It also includes over 375 retailers at more than 150,000 locations, including Macy’s, Whole Foods, Target, Walgreens, and so on.