Among the more than one dozen mobile shopping apps installed on my smartphone, Flipp has proved itself to be one of the more useful. Apparently, I’m not alone. The app, which digitizes retailers’ circulars allowing you to locate the week’s best deals on everything from groceries and household items to high-end electronics, has seen over 3.5 million downloads to date since its launch in late 2013. And today, Flipp is rolling out its first major upgrade, version 2.0, which now makes the app even more practical than before thanks to the addition of shopping lists.
Flipp for a long time has proved useful to those who no longer subscribe to the Sunday paper with all its inserts, but still wanted a way to see the week’s sales from area retailers. The benefit to having these available in a digital format is that you could pull them up from anywhere right on your smartphone, and you can even search for specific deals and products, then clip your favorites.
With the update, out now on iOS (Android will follow later this month), Flipp becomes a better mobile companion for the discount shopper. The new “Shopping List” feature lets you add your weekly needs, including groceries, to an in-app list.
Flipp then scours all your local flyers to discovers the matching offers from nearby stores, so you can find the best deals. Afterwards, while at the store, you can check the items off your list as you place them in your cart.
For example, while testing this new addition, Flipp showed me that Tide detergent is on sale this week for $9.99 at both Walgreens and Target, but Winn-Dixie has Wisk as a buy-one-get-one deal. Handy! While that feature is useful when doing comparison shopping for grocery and household items, it can also be used to track down the best prices for any other item, too – like that USB hard drive I have to grab from somewhere today. (No, I can’t wait on Amazon this time.)
When you find an item you want to buy after comparing prices, you can add it to your clippings section with a tap for easy access later on.
The app also includes a cross-store search functionality, search by product and brand, the ability to tap and hold to see an item’s details, a discount slider that highlights the store’s best savings, and notifications for expiring clippings and nearby offers. And all of this is delivered in a clean and easy-to-use interface that makes the app stand out among other sale finders and deals apps, which can sometimes struggle with good design.
Flipp’s makers, Wishabi, are an ex-Microsoft team based in Toronto and is backed by $16 million in outside funding, according to CrunchBase.
The new app is a free download on iTunes.