As I type this snuggled up on my couch with the snow falling steadily down, I’m appreciating on-line shopping that much more.  It’s Christmas time and despite my last post being anti-materialism, I do purchase gifts for our kids and clothes for the whole family.  Admittedly, I have begun to rely heavily on hand-me-downs and Goodwill trips to purchase these items, mainly because I hate how outrageous prices can be.  That’s why I’m so excited to share this month’s First Friday Find called Scoutfit.

Scoutfit is an on-line shopping tool that does the deal hunting for you.  I see it as Pinterest meets Amazon.  It’s similar to Pinterest in the sense that they have a button you can add to your toolbar that you merely click on when you’ve found something that you’re interested in purchasing.  For instance, I needed a clothing item that could be found on multiple sites.  I tagged the item when I was on Nordstrom.com then I told Scoutfit what price I was willing to pay for the item.  Scoutfit then does the searching for me across all the websites to find me the best deal on that same item and brand.  Sure enough, it found the item at the price I wanted.

While the site is mostly tailored to finding deals on apparel, it will do searches for virtually any item on your wish list.  For instance, I’ve been wanting to get a train set for my little guy for Christmas.  I just found one that I really liked on Amazon, pressed my Scoutfit button, set my desired amount to pay for the item, and now Scoutfit will be busily working to find that price on-line while I wrap up this blog entry.

The best part is that Scoutfit does not just help you with the deals you are hunting for on-line, it also helps bring deals that are beyond belief directly to your board.  I went on Scoutfit the other night and it was listing some ridiculously good sale prices for items at Anthrolpologie.  Anthropologie is a clothing store that I adore, but can never afford.  Scoutfit was showing items priced at $9.95 from Anthropologie that were once over $128.

The drawback, but future pay-off, with Scoutfit is that it’s an on-line shopping tool that’s still in it’s early stages.  This is a shortcoming now because the site still has some kinks to work out.  I did have trouble finding those Anthropologie deals when I went back to share them with a friend.  However, the outlook is bright.  Because it is a new site with such great potential, it can only get better!  The more customer feedback they receive and the greater audience they reach will lead to bigger improvements in creating an on-line tool that will positively impact your on-line shopping experience.

As we are now officially in the Christmas season, I encourage you to give Scoutfit a try and see the time and money it can save you this holiday season!  Happy on-line shopping!