Grocery shopping online has never been easier, with outlets from supermarkets to farmers and even Amazon offering to bring your weekly shop to your door. A new app, however, aims to make the experience even better — by saving you money.
Mysupermarket promises average savings of 30 per cent on each shop, by comparing the prices of your basket goods at the leading supermarkets and choosing the one that offers the best value — online or in store.
The app checks prices from Poundland, Waitrose, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Ocado, Aldi, M&S, Superdrug, Boots, Amazon, Iceland, B&M, the Co-op, John Lewis and Poundstretcher, and is easy to use.
After registering your details you create a shopping list (or it can create one for you, using your history of purchases) at one of the shops listed above, and the app then works out if other companies can offer you better deals on your total basket of goods.
When we tested it a small selection of essentials came to £26.90 at Sainsbury’s, £28 at Waitrose and £19.40 at Lidl — our nearest supermarkets. You can calculate across all stores, or just pick the ones nearest to you. Even if we rejected the idea of a trip to Lidl (it doesn’t offer online ordering) the amount we could have saved was impressive.
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Once you have switched your basket to the cheaper supermarket, the app gives you another way to save money — by recommending alternative products that could be cheaper. For example, it suggested swapping our six large free-range eggs, costing £1.55, for six mixed-weight eggs, saving 70p, or buying 12 large eggs for £2.30 (more than 6p an egg cheaper).
It will also suggest swapping your broccoli florets for a whole broccoli, and points out special offers on similar products.
Other features include buttons to click to choose a healthier alternative to a product in your basket, and slightly disheartening displays that will tell you how much salt, sugar and saturated fat it contains.
Other apps, such as Pricespy, can compare prices for single products rather than an overall shop, while many of the leading supermarkets’ apps allow you to shop quickly and collect online points.