Shoppingu

Shoppingu (ショッピング) — Your Japan Shopping Companion

Travelling in Japan but can't read the labels? Shoppingu bridges the language gap. Point your camera at any Japanese product, packaging, or price tag and get an instant plain-English breakdown: what it is, what's in it, what it costs in your currency, and where it fits in your tax-free budget. No account required. No data leaves your device unless you choose it to.

Scan Japanese Labels with Your Camera
Shoppingu uses on-device OCR powered by Google ML Kit to read Japanese text directly from product packaging, labels, and receipts. Scanning is fast, works offline, and requires no login. Just open the camera, snap a photo, and the app takes care of the rest.

AI-Powered Product Summaries
After scanning, the extracted text is sent to Google Gemini AI, which generates a clear English summary of the product — including ingredients, usage, and highlighted allergens. Great for understanding unfamiliar snacks, cosmetics, medicines, and more.

Allergen and ingredient detection is AI-assisted and not a substitute for professional medical advice. If you have a serious allergy or dietary restriction, always read the original label and consult a medical professional.

Live Price Conversion
Shoppingu fetches live exchange rates so you can see any price displayed in both Japanese Yen (¥) and your home currency at the same time. No more mental maths in the checkout queue. Manually enter a price if OCR misses it.

Personal Travel Shopping Diary
Found something you love? Save it to your diary. Each entry stores the product name, AI summary, price, your personal notes, a star rating, and the original photo. Flip through your finds on a heatmap calendar that shows your busiest shopping days at a glance. Edit or delete entries anytime.

Haul Tracker & Tax-Free Threshold
Japan allows tourists to claim an 8–10% consumption tax refund on purchases exceeding ¥5,000 at a single store. Shoppingu's haul tracker maintains a running total of your items so you can see exactly how close you are to qualifying. A built-in progress bar makes the threshold visible at all times. When you're done, export your full haul list to share with travel companions or keep as a personal record.

Share Store Recommendations
Discovered a must-visit shop? Build a recommendation list for that store and share it with friends and fellow travellers. Curate your favourite finds from a specific place so others know exactly what to look out for.

Everything Stays on Your Device
All diary entries, haul items, photos, and preferences are stored locally using Hive — no account, no cloud backup, no server. The only external requests made are for OCR processing (Google ML Kit), AI product analysis (Google Gemini), and currency rates (frankfurter.app). You can wipe all your data instantly from the Settings screen.

Who Is Shoppingu For?

- First-time visitors to Japan navigating unfamiliar packaging
- Travellers with food allergies or dietary restrictions
- Budget-conscious shoppers tracking spending in real time
- Souvenir hunters aiming for the tax-free threshold
- Anyone who wants to revisit what they discovered and bought on their trip

Download Shoppingu and make every shopping trip in Japan a little easier.