Nifti Review

With the holiday season just about upon us, the likelihood is most of us are looking for the best ways to save whilst shopping online. From shopping for those new threads, to the latest electronics, and more. An app that enables one to save those precious few dollars is perhaps worth a look.

Nifti's aim is to do just that. Backed by the venture capital arm of Google, Google Ventures, and differing from the service's website, Nifti focuses more on acting as a ‘shopping portal’ that the developers hope will standardize the online shopping experience.

It works like this: after logging-in with a Nifti account, the app will show users some top picks of products it thinks they might be interested in. These can be sorted in date order, in relation to their current price, or even dependent on the current discount the retailer is offering. What I particularly love about the interface is that there is no unnecessary clutter.

Tracking the price of a product from Nifti is as easy as tapping its image and tapping the Track button. That will send an alert if or when is increases (or decreases) in price. Alternatively, users can enter their ideal price into the box on the left of the track button, and the app will then send an alert for the entered price. Users can even chart an item's price over time.

Of course, there will be times when Nifti's product library just doesn't include what users are looking for. If they can't locate the item in the Picks section - and can't find it by searching the app's pre-offered Collections - they can add that product to Nifti themselves by heading to the My Products tab. To add a new item, just hit "+" button top right. Using the address bar at the top, once they found the product they wish to track, adding it to ‘My Products’ is as simple as hitting Track.

While Nifti does make online shopping easier and more visually simulating, the app could do with expanding its selection of supported retailers. Right now, users will find major online retailers such as Amazon, Etsy, the Apple Store, and Old Navy, and that's great. But some of the other guys are being left out. For instance, trying to track the price of that awesome new tee I was interested in buying from Threadless.com resulted in the app throwing the following error, asking me instead to head to Nifti.com.

Overall, though, I have to say that I was impressed with the potential that Nifti can clearly bring to my online shopping experience going forward. It's refreshing to see an offering that supports both US and UK retailers. If online shopping is important, it's pretty much a no-brainer to have this "nifty little app installed this holiday.