Instead of checking in, as you would with a geo app like Foursquare or Gowalla, shopkick automatically recognizes when someone with the free shopkick app on their phone walks into a store. Once a shopkick Signal is detected, the app delivers reward points called “kickbucks” to the user for walking into a retail store.
Kickbucks can then be redeemed across all partner stores for gift card rewards or for Facebook Credits. User can also receive special discounts on specific products at Macy’s, Best Buy or Target. And you can collect kickbacks at American Eagle for simply trying on clothes and scanning a barcode. One compelling part of shopkick’s platform is the ability to earn kickbacks and redeem them at any partner retailer.
Of course, shopkick is rolling out the Android app just in time for the holiday shopping season and Black Friday. The company says that by the Friday after Thanksgiving, more than 1,000 individual stores and over 100 of the country’s largest malls will have fully deployed shopkick’s technology.
Shopkick faces competition from Stickybits, Facebook Places and others.
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Authors: Leena Rao