Apple Is About to Make Your Holiday Shopping a Lot Easier

In between checking your email and posting selfies, chances are you've made a purchase or two from your smartphone. With mobile commerce on the rise, Apple announced a new "shopping" category that will debut in the App Store on Nov. 5—just in time to kick off the holiday gifting season. Not only will this new vertical put all of the e-commerce apps previously housed in the "lifestyle" section in one easy-to-find place, but it will also spotlight apps focused on finding deals, scoring coupons, and doing price comparisions. In other words, with a few taps of your smartphone, you'll be able to access everything on your shopping list as well as the tools to help you get the best prices.

Within the App Store's new shopping category, there will also be a section highlighting apps that accept Apple Pay for payments to remove the sometimes clunky process of entering your credit card on your mobile screen at checkout. These apps—like Target and Airbnb to name a few—allow you to scan your fingerprint for instantaneous Touch ID payment. Don't worry, it links to the credit card associated with your Apple Wallet, so your financial information is never stored on your device.

So get ready to get your gifting on, but consider yourself warned: Your friends and family members will thank you, but your hefty post-holiday credit card bill may not.