Here a Kick, There a Kick, Everywhere a shopkick

Where’s your next good kick coming from?

There are numerous large retailers around the country that offer kicks at their many store locations and smaller businesses are starting to partner with shopkick as well, further increasing the joy of shopping.  Kicks can mostly be retrieved from big name retailers like Target and Best Buy, but recently shopkick has begun to venture into new purchasing environments such as Visa credit cards, ExxonMobil gas stations, and the CW television channel.  So where will shopkick venture to next…

I believe that shopkick holds a wonderful opportunity for grocery stores.  Although many grocery store chains offer their own loyalty programs, shopkick would provide an opportunity to move away from mailed advertisements, coupons, & points toward being able to reach consumers where through the device that never leaves their side: their smartphones.  We will later explore the opportunities, hurdles, and benefits of this potential future shopkick partner as well as a few others.

We would like to hear from your perspective as consumers, where would you want to be able to acquire kicks from?

Please leave a comment with your suggestions for future shopkick partner companies.

Local Businesses Can Take Advantage of Shopkick Too

By definition, Shopkick is a mobile loyalty platform that rewards customers for shopping at participating stores. Therefore, this is a good opportunity for small-business owners established in 10 major cities, which include New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Detroit and New Orleans, to boost foot traffic and encourage current customers to visit more frequently. However, Shopkick main interesting partners are mainly coffee shops, bakeries, restaurants and local clothing. Once a small business has been selected, Shopkick will handle the installation of its in-store signaling hardware and monitor the activity of participating users. Local merchants can sit back and relax, without having to worry about rotating special deals or tracking how many customers have checked-in. Merchants are expected to pay less than $100 for Shopkick’s in-store tracking hardware, along with a commission fee based on the points their customers earn and the number of transactions completed by shoppers with the app. Moreover, the big name partner companies, such as American Eagle and Best Buy, make the application successful {how do they make the app successful, or maybe you mean a different word than successful(maybe popular/well known)}. Therefore, local merchants don’t need to invest money in promoting the app or educating customers on how to use it.

Shopkick has eliminated the manual check-in that makes it easier for shoppers to participate in loyalty programs and earn points. Merchants are given plenty of latitude  in creating the rewards and incentives they offer to Shopkick users, as well as the activities and tasks that customers can complete to earn points. At Sports Authority, for example, customers will often receive extra points for interacting with selected in-store displays and scanning barcodes on merchandise that the retailer is currently promoting. Smaller businesses that can’t afford to give away gift cards and 50 percent-off coupons can get creative with the incentives they offer. Coffee shops and bakeries can give away free cups of coffee or muffins. Clothing stores and other local retailers can reward Shopkick customers with sneak peaks of their latest merchandise and first-access to exclusive sales.

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