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Its new app released Friday runs in the background to monitor consumers’ location and then surfaces valid and place-appropriate coupons and deals when it knows that they’re shopping. The app learns from users’ Facebook preference and, over time, their in-app behavior to personalize the offers they receive.

In the version rolling out today, the app will only serve up coupons once it senses that users are at one of 1,000 malls across the country (in every state). But the founders said though they started with malls because of the density of shoppers and retailers, their next targets will be big retailers like Target, Kohl’s and Macy’s and by early next year they anticipate a big increase in locations.

“It’s such a hassle to research coupons, especially when you’re in a store but we’re basically missing out on a ton of savings,” said co-founder Navneet Loiwal. “[With Shopular], there’s no need to remember to open an app… a fresh valid coupon shows up on the phone and you can just show the screen to the cashier.”

Other couponing apps out there similarly try to surface relevant in-store deals through the phone – Shopkick, for example, uses proprietary technology that involves in-store sensors to reward customers when they walk into stores, but it requires that they open the app first. And Placecast’s ShopAlerts program uses geofencing technology to send push notifications regarding deals to consumers when they’re near a specific location.

Shopular’s advantage, Loiwal said, is that it not only surfaces deals without consumer action, it runs in the background to monitor consumers’ locations (via GPS, WiFi and cellular sensors) and learn from their movements and shopping behavior to personalize offers.

Historically, one big drawback of location-aware apps that continuously run in the background – like social discovery apps Highlight and Glancee, for example – is the battery drain.  But Loiwal emphasized that he and his cofounder Tommy Tsai have used their technical chops to make the technology efficient and minimize the battery issue.  For example, to conserve power, it figures out the times of day you’re less likely to be shopping and monitors your location less closely then. Loiwal co-founded Google Finance and is a former Shopkick engineer and Tsai was the first engineer at Shopkick and previously worked at early location-based app Loopt (which sold to Green Dot, a provider of retailer pre-paid cards, in March). The pair graduated from Y Combinator’s Winter 2012 class, although during the accelerator program they were building different technology that involved push notifications but not for shopping.

The app launched in beta on iOS and Android three weeks ago, and has been downloaded about 250,000 times. But Loiwal said none of the reviews on either platform mention battery problems.

Shopular sources deals from Facebook pages, websites and emails and then has a team manually verify details to make sure consumers never receive expired offers. It says it provides coupons from more than 100 national brands and retailers, like the Gap, Aeropostale, Bath and Body Works, Target and Home Depot.

In the future, it could give retailers a platform for offering more targeted deals to consumers – for example, it could reward its most loyal customers with extra savings or use steeper discounts to lure away a rival’s customers.

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Anticipating a busy holiday season, the Brooklyn-based company added a feature allowing sellers to upload new items from their phones (a highly requested feature) and now makes the app available in Dutch, French, German and British English. Those new updates support the company’s two major goals: helping sellers build their businesses on Etsy and expand internationally.

The company also reports that one in four visits to the marketplace now comes from a mobile device, which is up from one in five visits as of May. Nearly one in five Etsy purchases takes place on a mobile device and the average iPhone visitor views twice as many pages as the average desktop visitor. Additionally, the company said that mobile users covert from visits to purchases at twice the site average. Since launching the app last November, Etsy said it’s been downloaded more than 2.8 million times.

Etsy’s mobile momentum is in line with broader industry trends. Earlier this month, design-centric shopping site Fab released an updated mobile app, saying that about a third of its sales and daily visits come from mobile.

A report out Tuesday from Google similarly highlighted the increasing value of mobile, particularly as it relates to holiday shopping. After surveying 1,500 holiday shoppers with market research firm Ipsos OTX, the company said that four out of five mobile and tablet owners will use their device for holiday shopping and mobile users will continue searching after Christmas.

Last month, Etsy said it was investing more than $250,000 through the end of 2012 in ads for its sellers to make sure they weren’t negatively affective by Google’s decision to move its U.S. Product Search experience to a paid-only model. Despite that, it seems as if the company is on track for a strong year. Already, it said, the Etsy community has sold more than $600 million in goods this year, surpassing the $525 million sold for all of 2011.

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To that end, the New York-based startup on Thursday is rolling out a redesigned iPad app, as well as an optimized app for the Phone 5.

The company just launched an upgraded smartphone app in July (and at that time said mobile contributed 30 to 40 percent of daily visits), but in a blog post, CEO and founder Jason Goldberg said the latest update “reimagined what mobile shopping could be.”

Instead of just mirroring the iPhone app, the new iPad app includes a new navigation panel, a new browse bar and an interface design that takes advantage of the iPad’s bigger screen.

The company also said it optimized the smartphone app for the iPhone 5 and for the first time has made the apps available to shoppers in 24 countries across Europe in English and German languages.

Fab, which currently has more than 7.5 million members worldwide and 600 employees, has previously talked about its commitment to mobile. In a blog post last month, Goldberg wrote that, to date, its mobile apps have  “mostly been just smaller versions of our website” and said an overhauled iPad app was on the way.

In that post, he also provided additional information about iPad conversion rates (earlier this year, my colleague Ryan Kim wrote about how powerful the iPad has been for Fab). Goldberg said 6 percent to 7 percent of all Fab iPad visits result in a purchase and that, on average, they buy more than two items per order.

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Several hundred thousand users and more than three million recommendations later, the company on Thursday is releasing a new version of the app that builds out search and purchasing features to emphasize shopping.

“We’re making the transition to becoming a more shopping-oriented app,” said CEO Andy Park. “We’ve really emphasized the recommendations and rewards and now we’re making it much easier to shop from the app.”

From the new app, users will be able to search product databases from more than 80 retailers, including Best Buy, Home Depot and Etsy, as well browse trending recommendations from each category and purchase items directly from recommendations. Consumers were able to purchase from the earlier app but the transaction functionality was more limited.

Increasingly, retailers are providing mobile apps that let consumers search for and purchase products on the go, but Wikets’ bet is that it can get ahead by offering not just a shopping platform but a crowd-based recommendation engine.

Through its so-called “wikets” –  requests for product ideas and suggestions – Park said the startup has built a community of consumers who shop frequently, but also enjoy sharing information on recent purchases and discoveries with others.  As members make and follow recommendations, they earn points on the platform, which they can later redeem for gift cards.

The company takes affiliate fees from the sales, but Park said it all goes back to consumers in the form of the reward points. Down the line, to make money, the company could work with retailers to serve up real-time, location-based offers or target consumers in other ways.

It’s an interesting idea and, it’s apparently gaining traction – the company said transactions are doubling every month. But as more retailers build out their own mobile apps and different takes on the mobile wallets further simplify in-store and online shopping, Wikets will only face increasing competition.

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Comparing prices for shopping carts

The way it works is that users scan their household products with a barcode scanner and add them to their shopping list on their NetPlenish iOS or Android app. When it comes time to buy stuff, users move selected products into a shopping cart and NetPlenish finds what it believes is a good price for the entire purchase including sales tax and shipping. If users are ready to purchase, NetPlenish uses its own algorithm and finds the best current deal on the total shopping cart from its more than 20 retail partners such as Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart, Walgreens, Drugstore.com, Sears, Petsmart and Sephora. After a few minutes, NetPlenish tells them how much they actually paid, which is often less than the good price it previously. The more items users submit, the better deal they can secure.

The NetPlenish system means that on any given purchase, different retailers might provide the products depending on who has got the lowest price at the time. Users can just check-out with one click with their mobile app and the items get shipped within three to five days to a saved address.

NetPlenish, based in Ventura, Calif., is also announcing today that it has raised $1.9 million in seed funding from Dave McClure’s 500 Startups,  Gold Hill Capital, BHV Capital, TEEC Angel Fund, Ludlow Ventures and several angel investors.

Optimizing for convenience and value

What makes NetPlenish interesting is that unlike most other price comparison shopping apps, you can compare entire shopping carts and get the best deal on a bundle of products. NetPlenish is also smart in that it doesn’t refer people out to another retailer site; it completes the transaction right in the app, so there’s less chance of cart abandonment for retailers. And the check-out process is simple once a user has entered in their shipping and billing data once.

NetPlenish CEO and co-founder Dave Compton, former CEO of commodity trading company Opportunities in Options and former EVP of TradingMarkets.com, said he came up with the idea after signing up for monthly dog food shipments from a retailer. He realized that while that was convenient, it prevented him from getting a better deal that month from any other retailer who might have had a cheaper price. Now, he’s hoping that consumers can optimize for both convenience and value using NetPlenish, ensuring that each time they shop, they’ll get the best deal.

The service could still use some extra features, like manual search for products that users can’t scan and the ability to see similar products, not just scanned items. Compton said NetPlenish is working on those for future updates.

I think NetPlenish is a cool tool for everyday shopping. Most of the time, I’m just hitting the nearest drug store and hoping some of the stuff I want is on sale. But if I just put in some effort upfront, buying household stuff can get a lot easier and cheaper. This shows the power of mobile shopping apps and how it can work not just for single products, but can really start to transform the way people shop overall.

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Overall, 79 percent of respondents in a survey conducted in the first quarter said they had shopped using their smartphone or tablet. But when it came time to buy, 42 percent of tablet owners said they bought purchased items on their device compared to 29 percent of smartphone owners.

Because of their portability, smartphones are obviously better for in-store research and conducting tasks on the go. For things like finding a store (73 percent of smartphone owners versus 42 percent of tablet owners), using shopping lists (42 percent v. 16 percent for tablets) and mobile coupons (32 percent v. 11 percent) there’s a clear preference for smartphones.

For price-checking, the smartphone has a smaller edge (62 percent v. 52 percent for tablets) while both devices are good for research before a purchase, with people preferring the tablet 66 percent over the smartphone 57 percent. Tablet owners are more likely to read a product review (56 percent vs 45 percent for smartphones) and write their own review of a purchase (22 percent v 11 percent for smartphones.)

As a payment tool, both devices are still finding their way. Nielsen said that 28 percent of tablet owners and 27 percent of smartphone users have used their devices for payment.

The results are probably not that surprising if you’ve been following the topic all along. But it’s a good reminder of how consumers are utilizing these devices to shop. And it highlights the fact that there are many shopping scenarios. You might see people scanning a product in a store with their smartphone, finding a better price online and then finishing the purchase at home on their tablet. The tablet can also start the process, used to gather information and lead people to a store, where they check it out for themselves. As Walt Doyle, the former CEO of mobile ad network WHERE recently told me, the purchase funnel is now becoming a purchase pretzel.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Johan Larsson.

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The company has been trying to get its head around the impact of mobile shopping since it launched its first mobile apps in October 2011. It’s found that now 40 percent of daily visits come from its mobile apps on iPhone, iPad, and Androiddevices, up from 30 percent two months ago. But it’s the iPad that is standing out as the true money maker. Using software-as-a-service Custora to analyze historical user and order data, Fab created a model that found that 40 percent of iPad app users make a purchase within three months, and 70 percent will make their first transaction within seven months of joining.

Among non-iPad users, about 15 percent make their first purchase within four to five months, said Goldberg. He said while many retailers are happy if they can convert 10 percent of all visitors, 10 percent of Fab’s iPad app users buy their first product within their first week. That shows a clear willingness for iPad browsers to become buyers. Over a projected two-year time frame, Fab’s iPad app users are expected to bring in $700 each in revenue, twice that of non-iPad users, based on Custora’s predictive models.

Why the iPad is a shopping magnet

Goldberg believes iPad users are buying at a higher rate on Fab because of the more intimate and streamlined nature of buying on the iPad app, which presents one product at a time, compared to the desktop version which provides views of multiple items. And the ability to get up close to products and almost touch them using swipes and gestures makes it conducive to buying. The fact that iPad users are likely more design-conscious and probably have more disposable income also contributes, he said.

“It feels like you’re touching the product on the iPad,” he said. “It’s the closest thing to going into the store.”

This is not even counting iPad users who visit the store through the web. Fab tries to steer those users to its app. But there are indications from other retailers that the tablet web shoppers are also more likely to buy as well.

Goldberg said the iPad app is due for an update in the next couple months to make it even more tailored for tablet users. He said he doesn’t have the resources yet to make a dedicated tablet-optimized website but it’s something he’d like to tackle as well.

The numbers from Fab represent just one online retailer, but I think it’s indicative of a larger trend of shopping being transformed by tablets. The devices are really well suited for buying, especially for products that invite closer scrutiny and interaction. With iPad penetration expected to increase with the launch of the new iPad, it means even more opportunities for retailers.

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That’s interesting by itself and falls in line with other reports about how much traffic is going mobile. But in talking with Mobify’s CEO Igor Faletski, one thing that stood out to me was that almost all of Mobify’s work has been to optimize sites for smartphones last year. Very few customers have thought to optimize their websites for tablets like the iPad. Instead they have relied on native apps or just a desktop version of their website. Compuware came to a similar conclusion when surveying 30 of the top retailers’ sites and finding that none were optimizing their sites for tablets.

Faletski said it’s somewhat understandable that many companies haven’t made their sites tablet friendly. Many feel they can get away with just a desktop version with perhaps a little tweaking to replace Flash elements with HTML5. It’s also not easy converting a big site for tablets. And he said that of the top 1,000 retailers, only one-third are still mobil-optimized at all. But he said retailers are starting to realize that the tablet is its own opportunity, unique from a smartphone or PC experience. And now he’s having a lot more discussions with customers about getting their sites to work well on tablets, something he believes will be big this year.

He said it makes sense because customers who optimize for mobile see greater returns. Faletski said customers who went mobile with Mobify saw their revenue double within 100 days. He said that’s new revenue that doesn’t cannibalize desktop traffic.

“On a mobile device, it’s pretty clear that a desktop site is not usable. But for tablets, a desktop site can work. But this year, a lot of people are now investing in the tablet experience to make it like a native app,” Faletski said.

Mobify uses HTML5, CSS and JavaScript to take an existing desktop site and optimize it for mobile users. He said the result is a very compelling alternative to a native app and it has the benefit of tapping into existing marketing dollars. He said a lot of traffic to sites comes from emails and social networks with people clicking on URLs. And with mobile searches growing as well, there are also more referrals to actual websites. With more and more of those actions taking place from mobile devices, it makes increasing sense to build out websites that shine on smartphones and tablets, he said.

Faletski said while native apps work well for games and entertainment, he said retailers are seeing more traffic flow toward the mobile web. And retailers with mobile-optimized sites are also seeing higher conversion rates from shoppers visiting from mobile devices.

We’ve talked about the rise of tablet shopping and what eBay calls couch commerce. The tablet is increasingly becoming the perfect shopping device. Adobe earlier this month reported that tablet users spend more than 50 percent more for each transaction at an online retailer site compared to smartphone users and 20 percent more than traditional computer users. Adobe also found that tablet users were three times more likely to buy something than smartphone users and nearly as likely to convert to a purchase as traditional computer users.

Increasingly, it looks like consumers that have access to both smartphones and tablets are using them in tandem, turning to the smartphone for quick research and price checks while the tablet is the preferred place to actually check out. Fab.com CEO Jason Goldberg told me that mobile users are twice as likely to buy products than computer visitors and that the iPad has purchase amounts that are an order of magnitude higher than on iPhone, Android and the web.

And with tablet sales growing quickly thanks to the iPad and new lower-cost competitors like the Amazon Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, it makes even more sense for retailers to think about making their site tablet friendly. Faletski said that means making apps that perform more like native apps, with a UI designed for touch, with more bigger text and more space for touch accuracy. And he said look at streamlining some on-screen elements to simplify the presentation and compensate for less horsepower in many tablets.

We’re still realizing the ecommerce impact of tablets, which have really been around for less than two years. But increasingly, the world is going mobile and the data coming in shows that smartphones and tablets are providing a big boost to retailers. But it’s not the same effect between those devices, and retailers who figure out how to best leverage tablets will be in a better position to take advantage of the coming smartphone AND tablet boom.

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In a new study of 1,000 adults conducted earlier this month, Pew found that 38 percent of mobile users called a friend while in store for buying advice while 24 percent of cell phone users used their phone to obtain product reviews on line. And 25 percent of adult cell phone users looked up prices online for products in store in attempt to find the best deal online and in other stores. Altogether, 52 percent of all adult cell owners relied on their phone for one of these purposes and 33 percent specifically turned to their phone for online information while shopping inside a store.

The numbers are consistent with a survey Deloitte did prior to the holiday season, which found that 27 percent of US smartphone users said they planned to use their smartphone while in-store for holiday shopping.

Pew said that mobile consumers 18-49 are much more likely to use their phones for online product reviews than older cell phone users. And urban and suburban users are about twice as likely to look up online reviews from their phone than rural cell phone owners. Non-white and more educated consumers were more likely to use their phone for in-store research.

Of the people who conducted online price research, Pew found that 35 percent still bought the product in the store while 19 percent purchased online. Another 8 percent went to another store to buy and 37 percent decided not to buy at all.

This last piece of data shows the challenge for retailers, who lost about 5 percent of transactions that began with online price research, even though they have the customer in-store. That’s something that retailers have been increasingly sensitive about, especially with promotions like Amazon’s holiday offer to knock off $5 from certain products if users checked prices through Amazon. But the data also show how retailers can fight back. They obviously need to be aware of prices online, and they may look at ways to lower prices or match online prices in-store to remain competitive. They can also look at advertising online and through price-shopping apps such as ShopSavvy, so users can get routed to that retailer’s online store instead of its competitors. Or they can pick off competitors’ customers who price shop through apps.

ShopSavvy and RedLaser have also started to institute scan-and-buy options, so users can scan a product from the aisle and buy them right  from online retailers, having their purchases sent home to them. That can be another challenge for a local store but also offers a way for retailers to still compete for that transaction if they price competitively. Aislebuyer and PayPal have been talking up similar kinds of options for retailers to offer buying from an aisle. Having that kind of an option may soon be a necessity for retailers.

The challenge is still considerable for retailers of all sizes. Having consumers walk in with connected computers in their pocket means many of them can find a potentially better deal online or in another store. But retailers should be thinking about how to satisfy their customers’ shifting buying patterns. Saving a couple dollars may be enough to abandon a local store, but if that retailer can provide more convenience, better in-store service or the ability to haggle on some products, a consumer may still want to buy immediately. It’s definitely going to be harder for physical retailers in this new mobile-enhanced shopping era but there’s still ways to compete as buyers get a lot smarter.

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