New Deals in Every Aisle with Shopkick Geolocation Shopping

From Social Times:

Whether you’re a shop-a-holic or an avid anti-shopper, Shopkick says it has something for you in its geolocation shopping service. Rolling out now in a handful of major US retailers, Shopkick promotes window shopping, browsing, and even just stepping inside a store by automatically downloading Kickbucks onto a shopper’s smartphone. Using ultra-sensitive geolocation technology, Shopkick gives out Kickbucks when a shopper goes down a particular aisle, scans an item, or walks by a daily deal. Shopkick’s trial run began yesterday and is expected to have a high profile over the next few months in the storefronts of several of the largest retailers in the US.

Yesterday, iPhone owners could download the Shopkick app to their phones and begin getting Kickbucks (the Android app comes out in the fall). The app gives users the ability to earn points by checking in to certain locations, using a mechanism similar to Foursquare. But what’s really neat about Shopkick is in its automation. Customers can get Kickbucks just from walking into a store that uses Shopkick, or by scanning the barcodes of certain items. And in American Eagle, for instance, customers will get Kickbucks just by walking into the changeroom to try something on.

Currently, Shopkick is being tested at Best Buys, Macy’s, American Eagle and Sports Authority stores in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, as well as a few scattered elsewhere in the country.

Stores that are testing out Shopkick have a device installed that emits a high pitched sound that can only be picked up by the Shopkick app. That’s how the app knows when a user has actually entered a store, as opposed to just standing nearby. Users will get significantly more points for entering a store than for checking in nearby, in an effort to get more foot traffic through the door. After racking up enough points (and according to the New York Times, you’ll need quite a lot), customers can trade in their Kickbucks for gift cards at a participating retailer or exchange them for music downloads or Facebook credits.

There are some privacy debates surfacing about the fact that Shopkick will have consumer data on individuals – where they shop, what they buy. Others claim that Shopkick is a great marketing tool and will encourage people to spend time inside a store, leading possibly to more sales.