A number of new technology companies are springing up in the US targeting shoppers and promising to help them find bargains in nearby stores.

Current market leaders include NearbyNow of California and GPShopper in New York who have created applications allowing users to search for prices, bargains and stock availability at the local shopping centres.

NearbyNow is being promoted in Eastridge mall and is proving to be very successful. Shoppers are encouraged to text a number for sales information and then receive details of the local stores with sales or bargains on the products they are interested in.

Scott Dunlap, NearbyNow’s chief executive, commented:

If you type in jeans, you’ll get 90 stores, but if you type in Levi’s 501s, you might get 14 or 15. We have every product in the mall, which is typically 600,000 to 800,000 items.

More than 2000 users conducted searches on the NearbyNow system on the launch day in December and the stores saw some very interesting results. Apparently organisers sent several promotions where users were sent offers to win movie tickets or $25 gift cards if they were among the next 10 people to buy items from a given store.

Whenever the messages were sent hundreds of people would flock to the store and make purchases averaging $25.

The Slifter service offered by GPShopper allows users to enter a ZIP code and search for products across 20,000 retailers. More than 100,000 customers are already using the service, according to Alex Muller, the company’s chief executive.

Location based shopping goes mobile