The idea to use your phone for bargain hunting is not new and some companies have been testing the waters for quite a while. One more website opened doors to the public today aiming at assisting you with finding hot shopping deals while you are on the go.
Text2store is a Chicago based startup that wows to find the best deals and bargains for you and deliver them to your mobile phone. Text2store doesn’t require a service plan or software installation. You open a free account, setup your alert preferences (that is product category and a search string) and wait for the deals to come your way by email and/or SMS.
Sounds simple, huh? It is simple. I have taken the service for a run and though I haven’t received the confirmation code to my cell phone (did I really expect all bugs fixed the day of the launch?) setting it up was really no brainier. This is how the deal alert configuration looks:
I am not sure if I am going to keep it though. My service provider charges me for each SMS message I receive and I don’t feel like jacking up my already fat cell phone bill even more.
My main concern with Text2store is the company’s ability to attract merchants to fill in the service with attractive coupons and promotions. Unfortunately it is a chicken and egg problem. Unless you have a decent user base, no merchant will have business with you. Unless you have coupons, no users will come to your site. I wish Text2store good luck solving this very common for a startup problem. And hey, fix that confirmation code bug!
