shopkick Debuts shopBeacon™

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Nov. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Shopkick, the most widely used real-world shopping app, today deploys the first Apple iBeacon-based presence signal at any major retailer. shopBeacon™ transmitters are now live at Macy's Herald Square, New York and Union Square, San Francisco. The trial again pairs shopkick and Macy's, an inaugural shopkick partner, at the forefront of the mobile in-store experience. Now in closed beta, the trial is anticipated to go live to shopkick users within weeks. 

As shoppers enter Macy's, shopBeacon can remind those who've opted in to open their shopkick app, and in the future, also deliver personalized value with department-level granularity. Building on Apple's iBeacon, an iOS 7 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) mobile protocol, shopBeacon adds encrypted signals to protect retailers and consumers, and complements it with shopkick's other proprietary technologies for added accuracy and scale.

"iBeacon is a big milestone in creating the future of shopping, and it starts today with shopBeacon at Macy's," says Cyriac Roeding, CEO and Co-Founder of shopkick. "Our leading experience with presence technologies helped us create a retail-centric solution right in time for the holidays. After over a year in development, shopBeacon is here."

shopBeacon and Macy's Deliver on the iBeacon/BLE Promise
shopBeacon can welcome shoppers when they enter a Macy's store and shows them location-specific deals, discounts, recommendations, and rewards, without having to remember to open the app.  It can also tie at-home browsing behavior to in-store benefit; if the customer "likes" a specific product online, if they so choose, shopBeacon can remind them when they enter the store that Macy's sells it. Even better, in the future it can also deliver department-specific offers throughout the store – so favorite boots show up at the most useful time: in the shoe department.

"We have made great strides in creating the best omnichannel experience at Macy's, and delivering the most relevant messages and offers to our customers at what is arguably the most helpful moment – while they are shopping in our stores – can be very advantageous for the customer," said Martine Reardon, Macy's Chief Marketing Officer. "With this shopBeacon trial, we are testing the most leading-edge mobile technologies, because we believe they can even further enhance the in-store experience for Macy's shoppers."

Cost-effective and Easy to Deploy
shopBeacon requires minimal investment: install by simply sticking the device on a wall or other flat surface, and each shopBeacon has battery life for five years. The shopkick software developer kit (SDK) also makes it easy to customize and further personalize the ways brands and retailers interact with shoppers through their own store apps using shopBeacon.

Equally important, shopkick has built sophisticated proprietary technology on top of the iBeacon protocol into its shopBeacon, to make the scalability, security and location accuracy possible that are required for a commercially feasible retail solution. 

For more information, please visit www.shopkick.com/shopbeacon.

About shopkick, Inc.
The shopkick app is the ultimate shopping companion that inspires, organizes and rewards. At home or on the go, browse through themed "books" to be inspired by the latest fashion trends or products often hidden in the aisles and racks of popular stores. "Like" items anywhere you want, to be reminded next time you visit a store where they're sold. Connect with others of similar taste to discover and share coveted items. All this while earning rewards along the way for everyday shopping actions like store visits, picking up products at stores, and purchases.

In 2013, Nielsen rated shopkick the most widely and often used real-world shopping app, ahead of any physical retailers' apps. Shopkick's growing Partner Alliance includes American Eagle Outfitters, Best Buy, Crate and Barrel, JCPenney, Macy's, MasterCard, Old Navy, Simon Property Group, Sony, The Sports Authority, Target, Visa, Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods, Revlon, Unilever, Pepsi, Levi's, HP and more. The Redwood City-based startup is funded by Kleiner Perkins' iFund, Greylock Partners and Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn and investor in Facebook. The World Economic Forum (WEF) named shopkick a Technology Pioneer 2013, an honor previously given to Google, Twitter, and Wikipedia.

Video with caption: "Macy's Flagships on the East and West Coasts to be the First Stores to Deploy Enhanced iBeacon/BLE Mobile Technology." Video available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CipsLFB8KFk&feature=youtu.be

Image with caption: "shopkick Debuts shopBeacon(TM): Macy's Flagships on the East and West Coasts to be the First Stores to Deploy Enhanced iBeacon/BLE Mobile Technology." Image available at: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131120/SF20766-a

Image with caption: "shopkick Debuts shopBeacon(TM): Macy's Flagships on the East and West Coasts to be the First Stores to Deploy Enhanced iBeacon/BLE Mobile Technology." Image available at: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131120/SF20766-b

Image with caption: "shopkick Debuts shopBeacon(TM): Macy's Flagships on the East and West Coasts to be the First Stores to Deploy Enhanced iBeacon/BLE Mobile Technology." Image available at: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131120/SF20766-c

SOURCE shopkick, Inc.