The world around me tells me that it is coming up on that time of year again. Barnes and Noble has their holiday books out, the stores have out their Christmas trees, and the Television is showing commercials for toys after 9:00 pm. This will be an interesting shopping season for sure as everyone is forecasting less spending due to the current state of the economy. I hope to see lots of great deals, the issue is, how to find them. Enter the mobile device and online shopping. Now I know this is nothing new, but I think people will be using this more this year than they have in the past. Plus, since it is that time, it is always fun to look and see what people are doing, especially since there are more and more affordable smart phones out there so people can browse on-the-go easier than they could in the past.

Amazon.com has had their regular mobile site and their iPhone portal site up for a while now.
This Spring Amazon also launched TextBuyIt. It is a bit much to type about so here is the info from the press release back in April in case you missed it.

From the Amazon News Room:

In less than a minute and using only text messages, Amazon.com customers can find the product they are looking for and complete a purchase using TextBuyIt. Simply send a text message to “AMAZON” (262966) with the name of the product, search term or a UPC or ISBN code, and, within seconds, Amazon replies with the product or products that match the search, along with prices. To buy an item, customers simply reply to the text message by entering the unique single digit number next to the item they want. Customers will then receive a short phone call from Amazon with the final details of their order and asking them to confirm or cancel the purchase.

Ebay.com has an iPhone optimized site, an iPhone application and of course tons of other mobile stuff so you can bid on-the-go and not miss out on that item you’ve been watching.

Sears.com launched a mobile shopping service just in time for the holidays this year as well. Just plug http://sears2go.com in to your mobile browser. Items can be purchased for delivery or pick-up. If the item is purchased for in store pick up, a text message alert will be sent when the item is ready. This seems like a good idea to me, for those trips at the mall when you just can’t find a Sears associate to help.

Of course, the big joy of having mobile devices when shopping for items, especially right now, is the ability to compare prices on the go and find those hard to find items.

So far the biggest buzz has been over Shop Savvy, an application by Big In Japan . Shop Savvy is a Google Android Exclusive application that lets you scan in bar codes with your camera to get prices from all over the web.  Feel free to catch-up on our input of Shop Savvy from a few days ago.

Of course, we also have our old faithfuls of online comparison shopping such as slifter.com, a site that allows you to do a local product search by zip code, and Yahoo! mobile shopping, which allows you to search online prices and purchase through the Yahoo! portal.

Another site that I have been using for a while though is iTrackr. We discovered this site when the Wii first came out. iTrackr follows the inventory of stores in zip codes you provide and sends you a notification when the product you are looking for comes in stock. Of course, they also have applications to integrate with mobile devices. One of the other nice things about the mobile iTrack apps apart from the maps is the direct purchase option from certain retailers. When you get the notification that the item is in stock you can buy it right away and then go pick it up.

I know there are tons of other mobile shopping sites and applications out there, but these are a few of my favorites and regular ones. If you have any other great ones, please feel free to share in the comments. Here’s to smart and happy shopping this holiday season.