One of the biggest challenges facing the users of budgeting apps is managing the sheer volume of data that is created through their transactions. Each month, the average consumer engages in 70 transactions using cash, debit, credit, and digital payments. This creates complexity and, more often than not, produces bad data. Bad data is not actionable data, which in turn makes budgeting an exercise in frustration for users.
Setting aside the analog nature of cash transactions and the challenges inherent in budgeting for those situations with a mobile app, a common issue users face is when their app of choice incorrectly categorizes a vendor. This could be a transaction from a bar getting flagged as a restaurant or a convenience store purchase getting categorized as fuel spending. The user now has to go back into the app, manually make these corrections, and then revisit their budgets to see how that spend, which has already occurred, impacts their goals.
What StashUp will do, instead, is to focus on macro-spending trends. What we mean by that is we hope to help our users look at a smaller cross section of their total transactions that represent a larger portion of their total spend.
We know that more and more spending is being done at large corporations rather than smaller businesses. The gap in market values between small and large companies continues to grow each year. That means much of consumer spending is taking place at a smaller number of large businesses. We believe that those are the kind of vendors where our users can find the most value in assessing, controlling, and refining their spend.
For example, the average Amazon user spends $600 per year on the site. What’s more, 95% of US consumers made a purchase at Wal-Mart last year. These retailers have become integral resources for US consumers and, because they are one-stop shops where you can purchase everything -- groceries, electronics, furniture and more can all be acquired at the click of a button -- they likely represent a larger and, more importantly, recurring set of transactions for our users.
With StashUp, a user will be able identify which vendors they visit most frequently, set powerful controls, and reduce spend at only those vendors. Rather than micromanaging 70 transactions a month, our users will now have crystal clarity on how their purchases at these key and widely-used vendors are impacting their budgets.
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