Ask HN: Feedback on ShopSidekick, our app for in-store shopping | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Feedback on ShopSidekick, our app for in-store shopping

12 pointszhyder9 comments

I and 'amattn' built ShopSidekick, an app that helps you shop in stores. It's the only app that can scan proprietary shelf barcodes at Best Buy and Walmart (we're working on more stores), which in turn enables a real-time-updating interface.

No need to hunt for the UPC; just point your phone at the shelf to get at-a-glance info. (Of course detailed info is a touch away.)

The goal is to help you shop smarter at stores. 94% of retail in the US is still at brick-and-mortar stores and an increasing number of people research online, then buy 'offline'. We want to make this process as easy as glancing at the shelf, which you already do.

Sorry, currently it's iPhone only, but an Android version is planned. I'm an Android user myself.

Would love your feedback. 3 years ago (wow, that long?) it was a similar Ask-HN that gave me tons of direction on where to go with my then-startup, Dabbleboard.

http://shopsidekick.com

Thanks!

Design: In a sea of web app splash pages from the past sixth months, your simple demo site is somewhat refreshing to me. With that said, I think you could improve a few things. The demonstration of the app could be more clear by making it linear (horizontal or vertical) as opposed to the 4 images -- which is kind of confusing at first..maybe arrows would help. I like the photo with the hand holding the iphone at the shelf, and the purple scheme :).

Idea: I may be biased, because I love these apps and think this space is ripe for innovation (shopkick/stickybits), but I really like your idea/concept. One issue I see, however, is that a player in this space is indeed ShopKick and your name, ShopSideKick, is very similar. Since your concept is pretty unique in scanning shelf barcodes instead of the product, why not own it with a completely different name/brand/concept? I know they work with Best Buy as well, so there are a lot of small similarities that can be immediately drawn between ShopKick and ShopeSideKick.

Also, since you have an application that is the "first" to do shelf scanning instead of the product, maybe it would be wise to put more emphasis on this unique ease-of-use in stores compared to other apps out there now (when promoting to businesses and consumers).

Hope thats helpful...

Thanks, definitely helpful!

(I find designing webpages so much harder than mobile UIs: can't figure out how to use so much horizontal space.) Arrows might help with the /learnmore page. Maybe we could number the images or labels too?

Regarding ShopKick, we're certainly not trying to create confusion. We just grabbed the best name we could find. I'm hoping the names are sufficiently different that it won't matter. We wouldn't want the shelf-scanning aspect to be part of the name though; we don't know what the product is going to look like in the future. We're just pretty sure it'll be your 'sidekick for shopping' :).

The app itself looks awesome. Until I can go really in depth hard to leave feedback beyond me being awed. Here's what I can comment on- the landing page:

a) Put the video above the fold. People want demos - A S A f'n P.

b) You need a phrase and simple way to explain it. Kind of an elevator pitch but not buzzwordy. Needs to be functional.

c) Start collecting email addresses asap.

d) Take me through some key example scenarios too.

Thanks Jason!

a) Hmm, thought people prefer screenshots first: they load faster, work on every platform, work without headphones, and -most importantly- can be evaluated quickly.

b) Currently we have 'Your personal shopping assistant' (on the home page, not /learnmore), but yeah we need something better. Any ideas?

c) Will do. Dumb Q: are these for people who're on platforms we don't support yet? Why would iPhone users want to leave their email addresses?

d) Will do, great idea!

Looks great. At the end of your video, youtube shows videos of competing products. You might want to get rid of that...

Thanks for the heads up. Sounds obvious when you point it out that way.

Clickable:

http://shopsidekick.com/learnmore

http://youtube.com/watch?v=r1pC1NtDAoU

I use Amazon's barcode scanner app every time I buy something expensive in a store. I have never once had trouble locating a product box to scan the barcode of.

Is that the only differentiator?

We also have an easy way to mark things as 'want' and 'have' and to share them on Facebook. But yes, real-time scanning of the shelves is a key differentiator.

If you don't mind my asking, how long does the process take you with Amazon's app? If that process could be sped up substantially, would you scan more products: multiple options for any one purchase, and less expensive products too [1]?

The UPC scanners take too much time [2] and too much effort. Steps: find and extract box, aim for its UPC (maybe while awkwardly balancing the box in one hand), wait several seconds to get simple data like average rating. Then: put box back in its place, touch 'back' on phone, repeat steps for next product.

[1] - Judging by the # of reviews on Amazon for even trivial items like HDMI cables, people like to research all kinds of products, as long as it's quick and easy.

[2] - The whole process with UPC scanners takes me about 10-20s, whereas ShopSidekick takes 1-2s.

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