Needed Wants To Connect Customers To Local Deals

Needed thinks everyone can organize their digital shopping list just a bit better — and a bit more efficiently — and is ready to help consumers make that upgrade.

Instead of just moving a written list into a digital to-do list, Needed instead searches out the best local price on groceries by figuring out the deal patterns and sales that best match the grocery items consumers are actually planning to buy.

The idea is to help you shop smarter locally, and Needed literally looks everywhere.

Needed looks at the local circulars for stores like CVS, Sam’s Club, Walmart, Kmart, Winn-Dixie, Big Lots, Sears, Best Buy, Macy’s, Haverty’s, Crate & Barrel and Save-a-Lot — some of which carry groceries, while others only carry household items that may also match things on your list.

Consumers can either enter specific products and brands they are looking for or general category descriptions, like “cereal” or “milk,” at which point a tappable list becomes available to allow for greater specifics. These are organized into color-coded sections, like Bakery, Dairy, Fruits & Vegetables, Health & Beauty, Meat & Seafood, Snacks and many more.

The current focus at Needed is on grocery, but there is also a small electronics sections that indicates perhaps its purview is broader than its current reach.

The app also gives bargain-concerned customers a way to influence the data on weekly circulars they miss out on having cancelled their print subscription some time ago.

The app emerged from location-based mobile ad platform Retale, as part of its “App Lab” initiative, which is a new unit at the company focused on creating standalone mobile shopping experiences. Needed is repurposing Retale’s technology, which also delivers the weekly ads to your smartphone or tablet in a digital format.

Needed is new to most customers, though it has been live for some time. It’s begun going public now that testing is through.