Because everyone needs an Alice, part II: your iPhone does the shopping

On Monday we shared about Alice, our favorite new site for purchasing common household items in a really convenient way.  But there’s more to the story that we think you might find interesting as well, and it has to do with our favorite multi-purpose, uber-useful device — the iPhone.

Sidebar — It seems the best of web 2.0 (I wish there was a better way to say this) companies that specialize in fully-functional web applications have realized that in order for their site to really gain a significant userbase, they need to have a really nice companion application for the iPhone and other mobile platforms like Android and Blackberry.  I would point to financial site Mint as a good example of this — give your customers a really great mobile experience, and they are going to keep coming back to the desktop browser version.

The Alice iPhone application is really terrific, and includes features like:

• a look on your shopping list, and the ability to search the Alice database and add products on the fly
• a listing of all available coupons
• ability to make purchases right from the app
• tracking capabilities for your existing orders
• access to videos documenting the experience of current Alice customers

So, as you can see, the experience of shopping on the website is sufficiently translated to the iPhone application.  However, there are two tremendous features that are specific to the mobile application itself — “concierge” customer service and an amazing bar code scanning system.

Concierge customer service

This is an extremely clever way of taking advantage of the iPhone’s built-in microphone and recording capabilities.  You can simply leave a message for the customer service team at Alice, it will be associated with your account, and then they can respond as quickly as possible.  The app also provides additional examples of ways to use the concierge service, like requesting a new product, or even asking the Alice team to add an item to your shopping list.  It’s a useful feature and a really natural extension of the hardware on which the application runs.

Bar code scanning feature

Perhaps the most useful of all the features on Alice’s iPhone application is the ability for it to scan a physical product and then identify that same product within the site’s database.  In the example below, we scanned a package of Starbucks ground coffee — you simply line up the barcode with the guides provided and it works right away over the phone’s data or WIFI connection.  Below that you’ll see the screen that came up after we scanned the coffee.  This could be particularly useful the first time you are using the service — imagine being able to walk around your house or apartment and scan in all of the household products that you’re currently using.  Alice will then have all of your products on file for future purchase — pretty stinkin’ clever.

Well, there you have it — a look at a great extension of Alice’s website.  As you can tell, we’re pretty pumped about the Alice service, and it looks like after our round up on Monday, many of you were excited as well and created your own accounts through our link.  We thank you for that, and if you didn’t happen to create an account and are planning to, doing so through the banner below will ensure that your purchases are supporting Earn Give Save — so, thanks again!