Top 5 iPhone and Android Apps for Shopping Season Lasting from Black Friday to Christmas

Last year, 212 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 195 million in 2009. The average spend went up to $365.34 and total spending reached an estimated $45 billion.

Savvy retailers are banking on smartphones to ring up their sales. And here are some apps designed to help consumers shop smarter, faster and cheaper.

TheFind

TheFind is a free iPhone and Android app, which brings you to shop at TheFind.com, a shopping search engine for tracking best prices on products. With its mobile apps, you can check prices of items sold online and in stores, scan barcodes for detailed product information, gets maps to stores, save product lists, and set price watches so you won't miss deals. Functionality also includes sharing scanned items with friends and synching with your “liked” retailers on Facebook.

Shopkick

Shopkick is an free app on iOS and Android phones. It lets you earn "kicks" reward points two ways. Grab rewards at Best By, Target, Macy's, Sports Authority, and Simon malls, among others just by opening the shopkick app in the entrances area of participating retailers. Scanning barcodes of featured products is another way to collect. Points can be redeemed for iTunes gift cards, restaurant vouchers, retailer gift cards, or can be donated to selected charitable organizations.

Google Shopper

Google Shopper can be free run on iOS and Android platforms. You can find the locate deals and get product and store info. Version 2.0 adds a nifty deal of the day and geolocation for nearby offers in addition to scan barcodes or covers of books and DVDs, voice activated search for products or driving directions.

Buzzillions Reviews

Free for iPhone and Android phones. For those who don’t want to base their buys on retailers’ sales-speak there’s Buzzillions Reviews. The free app delivers 17 million customer product reviews. Search tools narrow results but you’ll see good, bad and ugly for just about anything. Reviewers that work for a retailer or certified owners of products are identified so you won’t be duped.

Milo Local Shopping

Free for iPhone and Android phones. Milo’s Local Shopping app scans the real-time local availability and pricing for over 3 million products so you’ll know exactly what’s in stock faster than you can say, “Attention Target shoppers.” Major retailers in Milo’s stable include JCPenney, Walgreens, Home Depot, Lowes and Toys “R” Us.

Besides, you can find the free Apps only run on iOS platform for this big shopping season.