“The ground floor of Macy’s flagship store on New York’s 34th Street is sensory overload,” Hollie Slade reports for Forbes. “Through clouds of celebrity-endorsed fragrances, giant TVs screen catwalk shows above MAC counter makeovers; perhaps a hundred sales assistants beadily circle the stream of shoppers and tourists, trying to make eye contact. Shopkick can guide you through the clutter – and reward your perseverance”
“It starts by reminding you to open the app as you walk into the store, shows the most-liked products you can buy in Macy’s and awards you 50 to 200 ‘kicks,'” Slade reports. “In some stores you can get 500 more for scanning sponsored items and 1,000 more if you spend over $75 with a linked credit or debit card. You can redeem those kicks for a gift at Macy’s or something else, from a Starbucks card (1,250 kicks) to an iPad (125,000 kicks).”
“Shopkick has racked up 7.5 million users. Every time they use the app with one of the 150 brand and 15 retail partners – including American Eagle and Sports Authority – Shopkick earns a fee,” Slade reports. “Last year it grossed an estimated 45% on revenue of $26.3 million; sales have doubled every year.”
Read more in the full article here.
London is already there. They can track you by your phone as well as a gazillions of cameras. All over the UK if you pick your nose or fart, someone’s watching (and maybe listening too).
Sustainable business model, where art thou?
I have been using this app for about 2 years now, and let me tell you, the points take awhile to add up enough to get anything worthwhile (I’m holding out for the Vespa or the world cruise 😉 ). The invasion of privacy is minimal since it needs to ask for contacts/locations/even alerts. I have set my preferences accordingly and it isn’t a big deal. My wife does get a little annoyed when we go to the mall and I say, “hold on here for a sec, I need to walk into the store”, which is a little embarrassing for her at Aerie 🙂 .