As the holiday season approaches, Christmas shoppers who purchase big-ticket items may be walking up to the checkout with one big worry in their gut: 鈥淲hat if this drops in price?鈥�
Well, you could return it, but you鈥檇 have to know somehow that the price went down. And that鈥檚 where "Catsh.In" comes in.
Five international students at Dal 鈥� Anuj Shah, Deepika Agarwal and Nilofer Mehta of the Master of Applied Computer Science program, and Katharina Glorius and Carol Tian in the Faculty of Management 鈥� have developed a mobile app called Catsh.in (pronounced like "cash in") that alerts users when a product they鈥檝e recently purchased has gone on sale. 聽
The nifty app is now competing in an international competition knows as the .
Representing Nova Scotia
The Catsh.In team first debuted its product at last week鈥檚 . Entrepreneurs from around the city were allotted 54 hours to produce successful prototypes and a business strategy.
Catsh.in placed second in the competition. The winners, also Dal students, were the team behind a computer plug-in called 鈥淣udge It鈥� that prompts users to get away from their screen if they鈥檝e been at it too long. The Nudge It team chose not to participate in the next phase of the competition, however, meaning that Catsh.In is now going for global glory.
The Global Startup Battle features Startup Weekend teams from more than 150 cities worldwide. With partners including Google for Entrepreneurs, Amazon and Coca Cola, the competition takes place during Global Entrepreneurship Week, with prizes including a trip to Google鈥檚 headquarters in San Francisco.
The current phase of the competition is a public vote: anyone can select which of the 150 projects they think should move onto the final round, which is a judging panel.
As the only team from Nova Scotia, Catsh.in鈥檚 members say they鈥檙e honoured to be representing their university and province, but there鈥檚 still a lot of work to do.聽 聽
鈥淚t鈥檚 a great opportunity for us,鈥� says Mehta. 鈥淪ecuring second place in the local competition was a pretty big step. We were excited, but at the same time we want to remain grounded and continue working on developing a world-class application.鈥�
Benefiting consumers
Mehta says when developing the app, the team looked at two major issues shoppers face when purchasing an item: they鈥檙e not always aware when a product they鈥檝e purchased goes on sale, and shoppers who are aware of sales sometimes lose their receipts.
Catsh.in solves both issues. Using the app, shoppers can scan the receipt of their purchased items. Catsh.in will alert them when the price of that item has dropped within the 鈥淧rice Guarantee Policy.鈥�
If a shopper loses their receipt, a copy is available on their mobile device.
鈥榃e have a great idea and a great team,鈥� says Mehta. 鈥淲inning this competition will provide us with all the resources we need to help people save money quickly.鈥�
Think Catsh.in sounds like a good idea? You can vote for their entry in the Global Startup Battle between November 27 and December 6. You can vote once every 24 hours.
To vote, . Click "+1" and you'll be prompted to register for the website, after which you can submit your "+1" vote.