Shoppers to access in-store coupons on their iPhone and iPod Touch

It’s a situation that, as a shopper, you have likely encountered. You are in a store, find a product you want to purchase and recall seeing a coupon for a healthy discount. If only you would have remembered to bring the coupon along.

Now, you can have access to in-store coupons where ever you have your iPhone.

Approved by Apple, Coupon Sherpa (http://www.couponsherpa.com/) is available at the iPhone App Store. Finish Line, Zales Jewelers, Coldwater Creek, Gordon’s Jewelers, CompUSA, Jackson-Hewitt and Tiger Direct are among the over 100 retailers that shoppers can find coupons for on the application. Shoppers can find coupons for men’s and women’s clothing, electronics, restaurants, pet supplies, sporting goods, and local services. Coupon Sherpa is user-friendly. When shopping at brick-and-mortar stores, consumers show the cashier the appropriate coupon from the application on their iPhone or iPod Touch. The cashier then types in the bar code, or scans the coupon if that store has an optical scanner. “We are changing the way people use coupons. We believe this is the future of shopping,” said Luke Knowles, who created Coupon Sherpa with his brother, Jesse Knowles. “A friend of ours mentioned that he longed for the day when many in-store coupons would be available on the iPhone. We thought that was a good idea and set out to make it a reality.”

Knowles understands the consumer demand for discounts, and how retailers that provide those discounts can increase their bottom line. In December 2007, Luke introduced FreeShipping.org (http://www.freeshipping.org/), a one-stop destination for consumers to find online retailers that offer free shipping deals. Despite the recession, FreeShipping.org continues to grow. There are now more than 1,350 retailers who offer their free shipping deals and coupons on the site.

Knowles expects similar success for Coupon Sherpa, which allows retailers to post an unlimited number of coupons on the application for free. More than 20 million people own an iPhone, and even more have an iPod Touch. Coupon Sherpa gives merchants a forum for customers to save money and shop in their bricks-and-mortar locations.

“In the future, most coupons will be presented on mobile devices,” Knowles added. “Retailers who become involved now, when the trend is new, can differentiate themselves from their competition.”