Shopkick app draws traditional retailers

Tech Lab

June 30, 2011|By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff

A trip to the mall? No thanks. They’re too loud and too costly. Better to stay home and shop online.

What’s that? You’ll pay me to go to the mall? Well, that’s another story. Indeed, it’s the business model behind Shopkick, one of the most interesting shopping apps around. Available for free for Apple Inc.’s iPhones or for phones running Google Inc.’s Android operating system, Shopkick is a different kind of shopping loyalty service. Lots of us carry a plastic loyalty card that earns extra discounts at a favorite supermarket. Shopkick uses smartphone technology to keep track of your visits to many different retailers. Through Shopkick, the store can offer you special discounts that flash on your smartphone screen. But Shopkick also tempts you with benefit points, called “kicks,’’ that you get just for visiting the store, even if you don’t spend a dime.

The idea is to retrain Internet-savvy shoppers to spend more time and money at brick-and-mortar stores. That’s a traditional retailer’s dream, which is why so many major companies have bought into the Shopkick system, including Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Sears, Home Depot, Stop & Shop, and lots more.

One of Shopkick’s coolest features is based on some delightfully geeky technology. Drop in at Best Buy with the Shopkick app running on your phone. Walk through the door and wait for a few seconds. With a happy little jingle, the phone informs you that you’ve gotten 60 kicks just for crossing the threshold.

GPS signals usually won’t penetrate buildings, so how does it know where you are? Shopkick has persuaded Best Buy and other merchants to install a network of small speakers that broadcast high-frequency sound, the kind that’s too high-pitched for human ears. I don’t know whether dogs can hear it, but the microphone in a smartphone can pick it up. The sound tells the Shopkick app that you’re inside the local Best Buy, and so you get your reward. You can collect kicks this way once a day, so Shopkick gives users a reason for return visits.

The app uses the same location technology to reward you for wandering the aisles. For example, if you walk to the Best Buy video game department, you get 20 kicks, and 20 more for strolling over to digital imaging. The ultrasonic system is precise enough to track you as you go.

I learned about Shopkick from a local tech executive who confidently told me that its ultrasonic location technology wouldn’t work. Actually, it does, though not perfectly. On one visit, a stroll to the imaging department produced no points. But overall, it’s surprisingly effective.