shopkick App Now Available on the App Store

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- shopkick, a new location-based shopping app for iPhone that rewards shoppers just for visiting stores, is now available on the App Store.  Launched today with an event at the American Eagle Outfitters flagship store in Times Square, the app allows shoppers to start earning rewards – simply by visiting retailers who want their business.

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100817/AQ51448)

(Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100817/AQ51448)

In addition to American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE: AEO), launch partners include Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Macy's, Inc. (NYSE: M), Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE: SPG) and The Sports Authority.

Rewards and offers are live now in all partner store locations in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and will kick-off in Chicago and other cities in the coming weeks. Rewards will be delivered simply for walking into participating stores with the shopkick app open. Within the next four weeks, more than 600 individual stores and 100 of the country's largest malls will participate and will have fully deployed shopkick's technology, in time for the holidays.  In addition, at thousands of other stores across America, smaller rewards will be offered for "checking in" and for scanning products.

The app detects a "shopkick Signal" coming from the shopkick device located in each participating store, and because the detection occurs on the user's iPhone, the privacy of presence information is completely under the user's control. Once a shopkick Signal is detected, the app delivers reward points called "kickbucks" to the user simply for walking through the door. kickbucks can be collected across all partner stores. kickbucks can be collected across all partner stores.  

Other shopper-related benefits of the shopkick app include:

• Collect kickbucks for trying on clothes and scanning a barcode in the American Eagle Outfitters dressing room
• Receive special offers, for example, a discount on specific products at Macy's, or in a particular Macy's department
• Get more kickbucks for scanning and learning about products and services at Best Buy  
• Receive special offers for trying featured products at Sports Authority, and get extra kickbucks again
• Earn kickbucks from every retailer and redeem them at any partner retailer

kickbucks can be redeemed, with just one touch, for Facebook Credits to play games online, song downloads, in-store gift card rewards at shopkick partner stores, magazine subscriptions, iPods, and even donations to 30 different causes and charities.

"Imagine walking into a Macy's, Best Buy, American Eagle Outfitters or Sports Authority store, or a Simon Mall, and having special offers and rewards practically fall from the sky right into your hands," said shopkick Co-Founder and CEO Cyriac Roeding. "Upon entering the store, the shopkick app will greet you with 'Welcome – You just collected kickbucks.' You will then receive special offers directly through the app, and if you like, you can even leave your Facebook picture on a virtual store Wall of Fans."

Why partners love shopkick:

• American Eagle Outfitters "We believe shopkick's location-based retail app is a potential game changer in retail," said Michael Dupuis, Vice President Marketing at AEO, Inc. "It is designed to make the shopping experience more rewarding and fun for consumers, which in turn brings more shoppers to our stores. We're proud to be the host of shopkick's consumer launch event at our Times Square store in New York City.  It is the perfect location to show off the future of shopping."
• Best Buy, Co. "shopkick's technology is a real breakthrough: it provides a way to help our customers bridge their physical and digital shopping experiences," said Richard Rommel, senior vice president, new business customer solutions group, Best Buy.  "We think shopkick will help us to personalize a Best Buy shopping experience, from check-in to check-out, with rewards and offers delivered right on a customer's smart phone. It's a great example of our commitment to help consumers connect through technology in meaningful ways."
• Macy's, Inc. "The retail world is typically divided between the 'bricks' of physical stores and the 'clicks' of online shoppers," said Martine Reardon, Macy's Executive Vice President of Marketing and Advertising. "shopkick is like bricks on steroids; it will help us find new ways to communicate with consumers at the right time with just the right offer."
• Simon Property Group, Inc. "After a year of due diligence researching location-based apps, we found shopkick offers by far the best way for retailers and brands to communicate directly with shoppers – on the phone, the only interactive device they bring with them to the mall," said Mikael Thygesen, President of SBV, and Chief Marketing Officer of SPG. "We're excited to be among the first to deliver this unique benefit. We invite our valued retailer tenants to join the roll-out of this cost-effective solution in their own stores, to drive additional traffic and enhance the overall shopping experience for customers."
• The Sports Authority, Inc. "shopkick finally delivers on the elusive promise of mobile in-store marketing.   They've successfully managed to combine location-based services, social features, and gaming into an application that's both simple and fun!  We believe this is a great tool to reward our customers in a new way, and we're excited to be among the first launch partners," said Sean Collins, SVP Marketing, Strategy, & Business Development for The Sports Authority.

Roeding added, "Our forward-looking retail launch partners are shaping the future by bringing personal rewards and offers to shoppers just for visiting – literally delivering rewards on contact. With the shopkick App for iPhone, our retailers' physical stores transform into interactive worlds where shoppers get more value, have more fun, and are more engaged."

The shopkick App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone or from http://www.itunes.com/AppStore/.

About shopkick (www.shopkick.com)

shopkick is a new Palo Alto-based startup funded by Kleiner Perkins's iFund, Greylock Partners and Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, and investor in Facebook and Zynga. shopkick, Inc. brings the power of the mobile internet to the retail experience. shopkick launched its mobile application CauseWorld in the United States in December 2009, in partnership with Citi, Kraft Foods and Procter & Gamble, which became the fastest-growing location-based retail app in the App Store within weeks.  

SOURCE shopkick