Why Lasoo’s iPhone app will change the game for retailers
What now feels like a lot more than four years ago, John Battelle published a brilliant book about the rise of Google and the importance of search.
The book was named, sensibly enough, The Search. Towards the end, Battelle turned to future gazing. Describing a process where a consumer might be able to walk into a store, and using a mobile device instantly compare availability and competitive price on a particular item at other locations nearby.
While it wasn’t implausible, at the time it still felt like a distant future. It was, after all, two years before the iPhone had even been invented.
But most of what Battelle described has now arrived, in Australia at least.
Last week, the website Lasoo quietly launched an iPhone application. By Sunday night it had been downloaded nearly 4000 times.
Until you think about its significance, it’s easy enough to dismiss it as just another app. But what it does is bring much closer for consumers the economic concept of the “perfect market” – where there’s total pricing and availability transparency.
The app – which does not yet feature all retailers but will become increasingly powerful as it does – allows a user to look up any item, find out if its available more cheaply elsewhere, and find out where that nearest outlet is.
Stores already listed in Australia include Target, BIG W, Coles, Dick Smith, Myer, Toys R Us, ALDI, Officeworks, Borders, Repco and IKEA.
For store marketers, it changes the game. Pricing and availability will potentially become a far bigger deal than marketing.
For instance, I bought a netbook a few months back. I started at Harvey Norman. Then I went to Dick Smith, where it was pricier, so I moved on. I ended up at JB Hi Fi. It was fractionally more expensive than Harvey Norman. But when I told the member of staff, they cut the price below that level. I could have gone back to Harvey Norman at that point, but I couldn’t be bothered, so I bought it.
What this app – once all the major retailers are signed up – will do is make it easier for the consumer to do that without trailing from store to store. Even more so once every item has a QR code as I’m sure they one day will.
And the beauty for consumers (and Lasoo) of this is that as more and more consumers use it, the more the pressure will grow on retailers to provide their information.
In the early days, there will be a small percentage of customers using it to gain an advantage. At that point, stores will no doubt keep power in the hands of their salesmen to discount as part of a a negotiation. The price on the label won’t be the real best price.
But as a growing number of consumers approach their shopping this way, the price on the app is going to become increasingly important in deciding who gets the punters’ business. That’s when it gets really interesting.
It’ll take a while for the shift to happen, but when it does, it will tip quickly.
I’m yet to try the app in the real world, but I’d be fascinated to hear how you go. It feels like a game changer.
Tim Burrowes
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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I can’t see this taking off as an app. A website maybe, but not as an app. People don’t shop for big ticket items very often, and when they do, they’re not going to go and download an app for a once-off purchase. Apps need to be used everyday or they’ll be forgotten about.
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It was only a matter of time. I remember pitching exactly this concept to a certain provider only a few months ago as I was surprised no one had done it yet. There will always be those people who live for the haggle (my stepfather for one…), but it still provides the best starting point and if listings are able to include whether the price is negotiable or not, further leverage can be gained.
Of course, the major retailers will be the first to adopt this so I wonder whether there is a risk of skewing sales away from smaller businesses.
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“Pricing and availability will potentially become a far bigger deal than marketing.” – Aiight, so it’s been a few years since I did my degree, but I seem to hazily recall that pricing and availability are indeed two of the four Ps of marketing? Or are you using marketing as a substitute for ‘advertising’?
Whatever… this app is going straight to my iPhone.
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Craig, speak for yourself! If it’s like the Lasoo website, it will cover things like DVDs, books etc and that means I’d be using it nearly daily!
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It will be interesting to see how the expensive stores with “dummy” prices (Recommended Retail Price with a huge margin) respond because they rely on a customers having an imperfect knowledge of competitors prices
Apps like Lasoo even up the balance between consumers and retailers by making the market more transparent
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You can already do some of this stuff with other available Apps that scan barcodes or similar, albeit only with US prices. You do get some odd looks scanning products in-store though — I wonder how the retail sector will take to this kind of thing en masse?
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Nice app idea however not original.
Ebay will always be the best priced store speaking digitally of course however If an app of this kind had access to Ebay products now that would be a serious app!
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getprice.com.au has got a great iPhone App too. I use it all the time when out shopping. Pisses the sales people off 🙂
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There will be benefits… but it is unlikely that they will be passed on to consumers as opposed to someone else in the chain in the long run. It will naturally be factored into the price of items. Although at face value people may think they are doing better and hence be happier purchasing … coz its all pyschological in the end.
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I used this app for the shop finder while in my car (I pulled over of course!). It was an easy directory to follow.
I am rarely at my PC and conduct much of my web surfing while at a cafe or before falling asleep. The mobile is just another piece of hardware to access the internet. I don’t see why any app wouldn’t be as popular as the counterpart website accessed on the PC?
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When you need to buy for the now, how will the eBay and Get Price online-retail apps be of any use? I can’t find another app that provides this type of detail for the regular retail guys, unless you go to each individual retailer’s app. No thanks.
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Kate from Getprice here.
Pez – Getprice does have the regular retail guys and is signing up more everyday. It’s enabling consumers to compare before they buy and make informed decisions when they buy products.
The Getprice App launched in Sept and has more than 4,000 registered users with over 10,000 sessions for the month.
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Lasoo, Getprice etc. can all be useful but the winner will be he with the most content.
Lasoo has more traditonal retail stores, but there’s no point in having a big supermarket with empty shelves (IMO that’s Lasoo today).
Consumers that use this sort of app. already have a product in mind and that’s where Getprice will win over Lasoo, because they have a much deeper and broader catalogue of products (because they cover both online pure plays and multi-channel stores), so it’s a better utility to find the product and price of interest. They need more stores to integrate with the maps feature in order to link the product with in-store availability and make it a truly cross-channel experience though … a lot of these seem empty atm.
Ebay has the breadth and depth of product but is a different proposition, so I expect to see the others take market share as they evolve.
It’s good to see these companies making progress, even if there is a way to go.
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I really dig the app… I agree and hope retailers see this as a great opportunity for them to compete on price and service in the here-n-now space.
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Let me set up a profile for stuff I am interested in and alert me when I am in the vicinity of stores with offers that meet my profile – that’s useful
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I dont buy it – looked at the site, its not as if all companies are listing all their products, they are putting up their bargains, probably as loss leaders to get you in store. The rest is the usual online pricing that you can get via a number of means.
If, for instance, you wanted to compare prices on the latest model Sony HD Recorder you might get one company showing a better price than the one on the shelf in front of you, but thats hardly a reference point, like three or four would be.
And the retailers will never make all their pricing public, they will just be adding to the price competition they already face. And finally it doesnt reflect what happened to you with your netbook, you ended up with a special deal to undercut the competition, the listed prices would take you straight to Harvey Norman where you would pay the cash without knowing you could have got a better deal if you had walked between stores. Granted you could take the lowest price into the next retailer, but he has to believe you will walk out of the door if no further offer is made – that you can be bothered, and also that you just gave him the lowest price in the ‘market’
cheers
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Good on Salmat for having a crack, but more focus should be on the stellar new app Coles launched recently. Retailers need to take note!
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I think this will ultimately challenge Gerry Harvey’s theory that going online is “a waste of time….” As Australian consumers become more confident shopping online, Mr Harvey’s shops will ultimately become a platform for consumers to physically view products (if he doesnt go online)… and shopping online will be the place to purchase the same products for a fraction of the price.
Whatever way you look at it, Mr Harvey is going to have to lower his prices, either by lowering them in retail stores to compete with the likes of JB Hi Fi and Bing Lee where “everything is negotiable,” or lower them to compete with the prices online.
The online shopping experience is only becoming more and more appealing, with online shopping comparison websites like Shopping.com doing the comparing for us, and online stores upping the ante with better consumer service and shorter delivery times.
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It’s great, but should come with a sticker for my mailbox. ‘I have the iPhone app – no need to fill my postbox with catalogues!”
Worth a follow on Twitter as well. For many they’ll be impulse purchases, but that’s the way a lot of people shop. Of course different for bigger ticket items you’ll keep an eye out for.
With recent economic situation and number of sales offline and online – it will be hard for retailers to charge full price for a while.
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The key is “…find out if its available more cheaply elsewhere”. Does that include actual stocked items? There are many sites on the Internet to compare retailers prices (shopbot, staticice, ausprices.com etc) but they don’t show stock levels. Then when you go to get the cheapest the stock is out or the service is woeful. At the end of the day, unless stock levels are displayed in the app, then it won’t be very useful.
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This is just one of the many apps like this we will see in the coming months! Effectively, such apps point to the democratisation of the retail experience. And yes, retailers may manufacture their prices to get you in the door, but they only need to do this once and word will spread…like wildfire!
Regardless of the finer elements of the implementation of apps like Lasoo…this markes the beginning of ‘it’s not what you know or who you know, but who knows you’ for businesses. You may have cheaper prices and better service, or a superior product…but if no-one knows about it – who cares…you will go broke.
If you are a retailer, look closely at these apps…now!
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This is (basically) just the Yowza! but for Australia… nothing new here, move along… but yes, it will work and become popular provided businesses get involved.
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I admire Salmat for having the guts to cannibalize their catalog business. I wonder what the impact is. I have a ‘no junk mail’ sticker on my mail box…
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No need for QR’s; applications are already using the iPhones camera to scan barcodes.
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