Retailers such as Staples, Victoria’s Secret, Ikea and others are teaming up with the new Savvy payment protection app to offer shoppers the best prices before and after they make a purchase.

Savvy.com insures that users pay the best price possible for a purchase by navigating retailers’ price adjustment policies and sending notifications of any savings automatically.  The Savvy.com iPhone app, which was launched four weeks ago, already has over 20,000 downloads and an Android version has just become available.

“Savvy.com fills the need that consumers have to be able to ensure they receive the best price possible for items they have already purchased,” said Samantha Fein, vice president of marketing at Savvy.com, Los Gatos, CA.

“Where daily deals sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial offer items like scuba diving classes, the Savvy.com Web site and apps for the iPhone and Android are focused on making sure consumers receive the price they need on the items they already have purchased,” she said.

“During this holiday time, and in the midst of a recovery economy, Savvy.com helps consumers get the money back that is already theirs.”

Price protection
The key feature of the app is a built-in receipt manager that notifies users when items they have purchased have since been marked down so that they can collect additional savings from stores’ price protection policies. Such policies typically offer to refund the difference if a purchased item goes on sale for a lower price within a specified amount of time after it is purchased.

Other features include the ability to track the price of specific products a user would like to purchase. Users scan the bar codes of in-store products and select the price they want to buy to receive notifications if the item goes on sale for the set price.

Users can snap photos of receipts from their purchases to automatically be alerted when an item’s price drops.

“Savvy helps retailers bring customers back into their stores and Web sites by alerting consumers to price adjustments for items they’ve already purchased,” Ms. Fein said. 

“With an average 6 percent price adjustment, we’re helping retailers bring consumers back to the retailer – the consumers and the retailers win,” she said.

The Savvy.com app now price protects consumers’ purchases at 57 national retail chains. Some of the latest additions are  Ace Hardware, Aldo, Avon, Barnes & Noble, Brookstone, Coldwater Creek, Dillard’s, IKEA, J. Jill, Lord & Taylor, Meijer, Newegg, Oriental Trading, Pier 1 Imports, Staples, Sunglass Hut, Torrid and Victoria’s Secret.

Savvy is adding new retailers at an average pace of five new retailers per week.

In the first four weeks that the iPhone was available, Savvy tracked $1,203,989.60 of savings in shopping transactions.

“Our vision for Savvy.com is to be the most valuable shopping app and Web site on the market,” Ms. Fein said.

“In the next few months, you will see new features and functions that will make the price monitoring, adjustment alerts and savings redemption processes even more seamless for shoppers,” she said. “We are aimed at engaging retailers and customers in meaningful retail sales for the long haul.”

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York