Holiday shopping. Never before have those 2 little words struck so much fear into the hearts and minds of even the strongest men and women.   I won’t rehash the bad news – I think we’ve all heard enough of that –  rather I’d like to focus on the silver lining amidst this storm.  These tough times actually mean that a huge wave of brand-name clothing, jewelry, electronics, beauty products, sports gear and home furnishings areavailable at never-seen-before low, low prices.  Gift-giving may actually be easier this year, given the deals that are out there. The sales are off the charts – now all you need to do is find them.

Here at TheFind, we are a shopping search engine whose goal is to bring together all stores, brands and products in one place – so you can always find anything and everything.  We have over 275 million products housed under our one virtual roof.  Everything from the biggest departments stores, to the smallest boutiques, to the most specialized retailers – in other words, everyone!

We also give you features that allow you to hone in on what matters most to you.  Just in time for this ultra-budget-conscious Holiday Shopping season, we have launched a new “offer” icon on all of the products and stores that have any deals ranging from free shipping, to coupons, to percent off sales, and more.

Simply search for a product – in my case, I’m looking for the perfect pencil skirt – and in the results you will see an “offer” icon in the top right hand corner of the product tile.  When you hover your mouse over the tile, you will get detailed information on the product and a list of all available online deals and promotions.

Yes, our virtual roof got a lot larger in order to house all of this information together in one place!

We also like to be realistic about the way people really shop.  We live in a three dimensional world.  Most people don’t only shop online, just as most people don’t only hop in the car and shop in physical stores.  The reasons to use both online and offline means are plentiful – you get to see the widest selection, you can find the best prices, and you get to choose what is most convenient for you.

That’s why we’ve just released our iPhone app, TheFind: Where to Shop.On the website, we automatically detect your location and can show you only the local stores in your area.  Now you don’t have to sit in front of your computer all day in order to accomplish this – instead, our iPhone app lets you carry this local and online information with you wherever you go.  You can literally be standing in a store, looking at a product, and conduct a search on our app to see what other people are charging for that same item.

Or maybe you are traveling somewhere, and are looking for the nearest Nordstrom in an unfamiliar area?  Search for Nordstrom on our app, and we’ll map it for you and even provide their phone number so you can give them a call.

I think we are all looking forward to saving some money this year, by shopping smarter than ever before.  Hopefully with tools like these – and a little creativity thrown in – we can all whether this storm. As for the fourth dimension – time – I think we can probably save some of that, too!

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 22nd, 2008 at 10:30 am and is filed under Guest Authors, Shopping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.