The phrase “there’s an app for that” may seem ubiquitous at this point, but when it comes to simplifying the task of shopping for kids toys and gear, most parents would certainly rush to press the download and install button. Enter TTPM . The unique product-review service—which has a focus on picks for babies and kids—recently optimized their Shop For Kids app for the iPad, making it easier than ever to find and purchase toys, baby gear, electronics, and more on both the iPad and the iPhone.
The Shop For Kids app features independent video reviews from TTPM’s expert editorial team, product ratings, price comparisons, and info on upcoming sales, and stock alerts—this means, that you can stream video reviews and compare prices while you shop for just about any kids’ item you could want! Shop For Kids is available in the iTunes app store (where it has spent nine weeks on the Best New Apps front page). We caught up with TTPM CEO and editor-in-chief Jim Silver—an entrepreneurial businessman who has three older daughters of his own—to get the scoop on what makes TTPM’s services so essential, and about the exciting new projects they have on the horizon.
Tell us about TTPM’s services and how everything got started.
So, we started doing videos and in 2010… [And] we’ve been growing like crazy. The next thing that happened was as we were doing our videos and people were watching them on our site our site tracker increased dramatically and we kept getting the question: “Where can I buy it how much does it cost?” Based on what someone was looking for, we built our own price comparison too for our website and we built that a couple a years ago and signed a deal with all major retailers—like Amazon, Wal-Mart, Toys “R” Us, Target, Kohl’s, Best Buy, Babies “R” Us, buybuy Baby, Modell’s, Sports Authority…if you’re in the store and you see an item on the shelf, you don’t know what it really is, so we have the price of that retailer, competitive retailer, and availability, but we also give you the written review and video review and also a star-ranking that changes with category.
Do you review other products besides toys?
This year we added a pet toy category and we don’t have any competition with videos we’re dealing with real animals and we do our rankings in pet toys two main rankings are people fun and pets fun sometimes a pet toy is a lot of fun for a dog or cat but not for a person. Every category is different based on ranking.
You have an app as well, called Shop for Kids. The app has been around for a little bit but now it’s optimized for ipad specifically, correct?
Yes we launched it for iPad in May and we made a lot of changes including the content, so we’ve become the consumers personal shopper, so you see something on there and you like it and want to see when it goes on sale you just click a button and it will notify you when it goes on sale based on our formulas. We set up algorithms based on the price whether it be 10, 20, or 30 percent so you will be notified when there is a sale. It’s a simple one click, pop on, search any category and up immediately pops the video, our ranking and the four rating bars… It’s so easy, if you’re looking for any child or baby product, you press it you get a two-minute walk-through and you also have what to be aware of. We make shopping simple.
It sounds like there really aren’t any other shopping apps that are like this in the marketplace today.
No, I think the video element and that’s the important element to us it’s the combination of all these things that exist you have other scatter that you can walk into the store and see the price you have some that have a price and rankings but you don’t have anything like this that is so simple that will give you the item the review the item ranking the review and the video in such a simple format and so easy to navigate whether you are in store or at home,
Would you say a parent that isn’t tech-savvy could use the app with ease and not be overwhelmed or intimidated?
We like to make it simple as possible. They just press one button and you don’t have to do anything else, it does everything for you and I think that’s why people like it so much, it’s the easiest.
Besides the new app optimization, what else is new with TTPM and Shop for Kids?
One of the most exciting things that we’re doing right now is we’ve signed and affiliated deal with the Disney store, and we will be revealing Disney store products on our site and that is something that Disney has not done before has allowed their in store products to be sent out for review.
Anything exciting on the horizon?
We have simplified the whole process and our next step is building registries in term of a baby registry, birthday registry, holiday registry…that will be give you a realm of choosing and buying from the whole universe so you are not stuck in one retailer. You can have an item from Amazon, an item from Wal-Mart, an item from Babies “R” Us… The whole point is to open the whole word to the consumer in terms of options that make it really simple. On our registry you can have something from GameStop, Disney store… And that will be launched sometime this fall.
To learn more, visit ttpm.com!
