Shopkick Hits the Next Level of Retail Check-ins
Until now, social/retail check-in services have been a little less than ultra-convenient. As a user, you’re expected to remember when you’re in a participating store, open up the app and actively check in.
Shopkick may have just changed that game.
Earlier this week the service deployed the first Apple iBeacon/BLE-based presence signal at a major retailer. It’s called shopBeacon, and it turns retail check-ins into an automated part of the savvy shopper’s day.
Shoppers are already using their mobile devices as a shopping companion, looking up items online as they go, searching for stock info or reviews, pawing through loyalty program information. With shopBeacon, this is experience is even more like having your own well-informed sales associate with you, always at the ready with the info you need. With it, Shopkick will be able to greet a shopper at the door and show off location-specific deals, discounts, recommendations and rewards—all without the shopper remembering to open the app in the first place. It can also flag items shoppers “like” on the app at home and remind them to take a look in person when they get to the store.
For self-sufficient shoppers already tied to their phones, this sounds like a dream come true. It’s an opt-in service, of course, so no one has to deal with the nightmare of unwanted notification.
Shopkick is trialing the hardware at four Macy’s locations in the US. Check it out:
