Retailers To Reach Out With Shopkick
Shopkick is a new app for the iPhone that promises to turn the smartphone into an electronic coupon book. Shopkick works like the check-in apps Foursquare and Gowalla, it presents a list of stores that are near your location which you can select to check-in. Each check-in earns you a few points, which accumulate and ultimately can be redeemed for gift cards or digital media.
What sets Shopkick apart from Foursquare is that it has the ability to determine whether you are inside a store, and if you check-in while inside the store you earn more points. The app determines whether you are inside a store by detecting an audio transmission on your phone’s microphone. The broadcast is only within the store and cannot be heard by humans. Once you are inside the store the retailer can offer additional coupons by displaying posters with bar codes that you scan with the phone, thus influencing where you go in the store.
Four major retailers, Macy’s, Best Buy, Sports Authority, American Eagle Outfitters, and the Simon Property Group, which is a mall operator, have sign-up to use the service. The app is available today for the iPhone and an Android version is in development.
