Monday, November 13, 2006

Local Shopping Made Easy

The folks at ShopLocal.com have updated their site just in time for the prime shopping season. Shop local tracks the IP address to guess your location (they were off by 20 miles for me), or you can manually enter your zip code.

The new site makes it easy to browse circulars for the latest deals by store or by category, and many of the major chains are covered as my recommended local list include more than 40 stores (alas, no Safeway). Being able to customize the list so that only stores I'm interested in appear would be helpful.

ShopLocal generates maps and lets you compare prices between local and online sellers. You can also browse local classified listings and receive offers via email. Having reader reviews would make it even more valuable.

Combining customization with geographic data will help online buying grow from 7 percent of purchase now to about 20 percent by 2010. Now if someone could do a mash-up that combines Froogle and Craigslist, we're really be in business.

By John Gartner at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

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