Zen Shopping is a full featured and capable shopping partner

For many, the holidays mean shopping, and that prompts a hunt for deals. Fortunately, you can use apps to keep you fully informed and speed you along on your shopping journey.

Zen Shopping (free) is a solid entry in the growing field of shopping apps, and one you will want to take a look at.

The app lets you enter things you want to buy, and will give you local and online price comparisons. It can deliver coupons before you check out, and it learns from your shopping decisions and can suggest deals that might interest you.

Even better, the app can alert you to price drops after you buy, and let you know if you are entitled to a refund. Zen Shopping also offers wish lists, a history of your purchases, and package tracking after you buy. If you have multiple iOS devices, it syncs your information.

Zen Shopping

Zen Shopping works with 4,000 retail firms for price tracking and other information. To sync between devices you need to sign up for a free account, but you can use most of the app features without signing up. I’m always a bit hesitant to set these accounts up as I’m not sure if I will get a flurry of unwanted spam as a result, and the Zen Shopping website says all they store is your shopping history. That’s not a very complete privacy policy, so keep that in mind.

I liked the Zen Shopping app very much. It’s oriented more toward national and online retailers, so your corner store is not going to be represented, but Zen Shopping worked well in my testing, found very good deals, and the coupons and package tracking are a real plus.

Zen Shopping is a universal app that requires iOS 7 or later.