App Review: Coupon Sherpa

Coupon Sherpa is a free, mobile app from couponsherpa.com for the iPhone, the iPod touch and the Android system.

Essentially, what Coupon Sherpa does is it rounds up hundreds of in-store online coupons available from various national retailers and compiles them in one handy application. It also offers some exclusive mobile coupons accessible only through their app. There are two ways to use the coupons accessible through the mobile app. The first is to access the coupons through the application, email them to yourself and then print them out from your computer. The second is to use the coupons directly through the app by showing the cashier the coupon on the screen of your mobile device at checkout. Some of these coupons will have a bar code that will scan at checkout, depending on the type of scanner being used. Optical scanners can scan bar codes from the screen of your mobile device, but laser scanners cannot. Coupon Sherpa cannot guarantee that a retailer will honor coupons shown on your mobile device, but the refusal to honor mobile coupons is reported to be rare. If you're worried a retailer won't accept mobile coupons, you can always phone ahead to find out what their policy is ahead of time. If they don't accept mobile coupons, then you can always use the alternate method of emailing them to yourself and printing the coupons before you go shopping. Retailers must first register with Coupon Sherpa before any of their offers are made available through the app or couponsherpa.com, so you shouldn't have any trouble getting the discount so long as it is presented in the preferred format. In addition to offering coupons to national retailers, Coupon Sherpa also aggregates coupons offered by several national grocery store chains.

Though I've only used Coupon Sherpa a handful of times, I've never had any problems with it. Last autumn I used coupons from Coupon Sherpa at Famous Footwear, Ulta, and Express to get discounts on items I needed for my move abroad. Unfortunately, as Coupon Sherpa coupons are only valid in the US, its only use to me now is using it to alert my friends and family to coupons in which they might be interested. The variety of retail discounts offered seems to be consistently varied throughout the year, with offerings from dozens of stores, catering to a variety of different demographics. In addition to offering discounts at family favorites such as Target and Walgreens, there are also coupons for trendier stores like Aeropastale, DSW Shoes and Torrid. The grocery coupons section was nearly no use to me, as the area in which I used to live was served almost exclusively by smaller, regional chains. However, as Coupon Sherpa lists thirty different grocery stores, it could be very useful indeed depending on where you reside in the US. Some of the grocery chains offering coupons through the app include: ShopRite, Foodtown, Giant Eagle, Ralph's, and Genuardi's.

Geography may be the thing that makes or breaks this app for users. One critical reviewer complained that none of the retailers offering discounts through the app had branches in her area. Another complained that "almost all the stores don't even know they are on the app and don't except(sic) the coupons." This is totally contrary to my experience with the app however, as I had no trouble with retailers accepting the coupons. The Famous Footwear in my area did not accept mobile coupons, but they did accept the printed version of the discount voucher. All in all, Coupon Sherpa does what it claims to do, which is offer valid discounts at a wide variety of retailers across different categories. For this I'd rate Coupon Sherpa as worth having if you live and shop in the United States.