7 Apps Help Your Holiday Shopping

The holiday season is something most people look forward to every year, until they start putting their holiday shopping list together. It may seem never-ending, and the prospect of getting it accomplished on time, within your budget and stress-free seems less likely than Santa coming down your chimney and doing it for you.

Fortunately, the tech gods have smiled upon us yet again and provided many apps for you to utilize this holiday season. Whether it be for coupons, budget keeping, or ordering, these apps will ensure this holiday season is the easiest you’ve ever had.

Target Cartwheel

Target has a new app called Cartwheel that allows users to shop through a variety of coupons and deals on their phone. The app has different categories that coincide with the store, and users can select up to 10 coupons to store in their “Cartwheel.”

When shoppers go to the store and purchase an item that they have saved a coupon for, they simply open the app and scan one barcode that works for all your saved coupons. This is an excellent tool for holiday shopping, because it often features items that would make excellent gifts in addition to the everyday items you purchase from Target.

Starbucks

Starbucks apps are excellent for daily use. They're very easy to load and use, and they reward you for using them. But for the holidays this app makes buying for a fellow Starbucks fanatic a cinch. You can purchase an electronic gift card right from your app and send it directly to theirs. This app is also a great option for those last-minute gifts.

Zappos

Zappos’ app is just as customer-service-oriented as the company itself is. It has a support number just for app support, saved searches, product videos, and customer recommended products. Zappos has a wide variety of products, and ordering from the app is painless. This app allows you to knock out a bunch of people on your list in one spot.

Amazon Price Check

The Amazon Price Check app helps you make sure that you're getting the best deal possible. It's an innovative price comparison tool that shoppers can use in-store to determine if they can get a better deal on Amazon. This allows you to get the best price possible, even if it’s not with Amazon. If you're finding better deals on Amazon, consider signing up for their Amazon Prime free trial which allows for free two-day shipping and other awesome perks.

Shopular

Shopular is a top-rated coupon app that provides the user with coupons from some of the most popular retailers like Macy’s, Kohl’s, Forever 21, Starbucks, H&M, Gap, Express, BestBuy, Joann’s and Hobby Lobby. It’ll even alert you on your T-Moble htc phone when new coupons become available from your favorite retailers.

Gift List

Gift List is an app that's going to help you keep track of your holiday budget. It allows you to enter different people into your list and set budgets for each. Then as you shop, you enter the amount spent on each person, and it tells you how much of you have spent and have left per person. It also keeps track of your overall holiday budget. There are many budgeting apps out there, but this one is extremely easy to use and it’s free.

Shopping for the holidays can be stressful for many reasons. Getting the perfect gift for everyone on your list and staying within, or dare it be under, your budget never seems to get easier or less daunting with each passing year. But utilizing your smartphone and different apps can help make your holiday shopping less stressful and more organized.

Posted by Melanie Mendoza on Tuesday December 03 2013, 2:03 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Shopping. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0