If Wednesday's response to his Smart Aisles smart phone app is any indication, Black Friday could be a price-check bonanza for UNBC business graduate Nolan Clark.
The app he designed for people to compare consumer prices on sporting goods, cameras, TV sets and other electronic devices was downloaded more than 20,000 times on Wednesday and Clark does not expect interest to wane today on the biggest shopping day of the year in the United States.
"20,000 downloads in one day is pretty amazing, seeing as how on Nov. 1 we were at 200 or 400 downloads a day," said Clark. "The beautiful thing is it's like a one search. If you want to buy a digital SLR camera, you type that in and it goes to all the stores that sell that and we come back with the best price."
The Smart Aisles app has affiliate agreements with companies like Best Buy, Walgreens, Target, OfficeMax, Kmart and Sears. The app will also provide consumers with user reviews, store coupons and information on daily deals. Clark lives in Vancouver and uses his app on his cross-border shopping trips the the U.S.
Although it compares prices only for U.S. retailers, Clark said Smart Aisles is available for Canadians to download on the iPhone and Android platforms. Sometime next year he hopes to offer an app that offers price and inventory information on items on sale in Canadian stores.
Co-founded by Kevin Gibbon, Clark's high school buddy from Surrey, and Dan Haugseng, Smart Aisles was introduced in May at the TeleCrunch conference in New York, where it drew rave reviews.
"We think it can help the retailers build better marketing strategies," said Clark. "They can target certain demographic groups with a key deal or coupon on a product, instead of a broad-range marketing strategy. We've been having very good reviews and the retailers we've been affiliated with are very happy with what we've been doing so far."
Clark and his business associates aren't cashing in on their project just yet, but it could turn into a big money maker.
"Right now our app is free for the consumer and we've just been focusing on building a great product," said Clark. "We're looking for a strategic partner to come on and help with marketing and implement revenue strategies then. We've been approached by some people and the numbers are pretty astronomical. It's really important to us that we're not intrusive with the ads and they're not like pop-ups. We don't want to ruin the user experience."
Clark fed "Black Friday" as search engine key words into the company website www.smartaisles.com and said that helped spike interest.
Clark, 25, spent four years at UNBC studying accounting and finance before he graduated in 2009. He now works as an associate in audit accounting and finance for Price Waterhouse Coopers in Vancouver.
Clark still makes regular trips to Prince George to visit friends he made while he was at UNBC.
"I was proud of where I went to school and I loved it up there while I was there," Clark said.
