Shopkick will use Pilgrim SDK and FSQ/Places Database to help brands and retailers uncover consumer insights and deliver more rewards to app users.
With the holiday season upon us, shoppers are on the hunt for the best deals and rewards – both online and in-store. Meanwhile, after many months of shifting consumer behaviors due to the pandemic, retailers are in need of data that can provide consumer insights, purchasing habits, and preferences. To help guide customers as they shop and help businesses better understand consumers’ shopping behaviors and needs, Foursquare is announcing its partnership with Shopkick, a leading shopping rewards app.
Come 2022, Shopkick will launch a revamped new app experience using both Pilgrim SDK and Foursquare Places data. Foursquare’s technology and data will enable the Shopkick app to deliver relevant, insightful push notifications and branded content directly to app users based on their location. The result? Greater rewards for shoppers and richer consumer insights for businesses.
How Does The Shopkick App Work?
Shopkick is a mobile rewards app that was acquired by Trax, the leading provider of retail computer vision solutions and analytics, back in 2019. The Shopkick app sends proximity-based push notifications to help lead the shopping journey, encouraging customers to take certain actions like enter a specific store or engage with in-aisle and branded in-app content. The app’s “kicks” feature enables shoppers to earn rewards and gift cards by simply purchasing products and uploading the receipts.
Additionally, this mobile experience helps Shopkick’s brand and retail partners learn more about their customers and determine how best to engage with them.
Leveraging Foursquare’s Location Data Technology
Prior to partnering with Foursquare, Shopkick had previously relied on a combination of in-house solutions and external tools – such as geofencing – in order to identify customer presence in a store to provide relevant in-app and proximity messaging.
Foursquare will now be the sole provider of Shopkick’s location capabilities with our Pilgrim SDK, which includes our unique Snap-to-Place technology — an algorithm trained by more than 15 billion signals over the past 12+ years that is able to more accurately determine where and when a mobile device visited a venue compared to geofencing and other technologies that rely solely on GPS signals. Our proprietary mall mode feature, for example, allows our Pilgrim SDK to more accurately identify visits to “super venues,” which are locations of extreme density that often encompass several other venues.
This level of precision is especially useful to apps like Shopkick, whose users frequent malls and other commercial venue-dense environments.
Shopkick will also be utilizing Foursquare Places as their system of record for layering their own data, deals, rewards, merchant database and more.
“Foursquare’s technology not only helps accurately reach Shopkick users but also gives them the opportunity to earn kicks at more places,” said Sheila Mefta, Vice President of Product and Design at Shopkick. “In the testing phase, Shopkick found Foursquare’s Pilgrim SDK to be extremely accurate in identifying thousands of unique locations out of the box, making this partnership with their stellar team a no-brainer.”
Using Location Data To Bridge The Gap Between Brands With Consumers
Shopkick’s ultimate goal is to engage with customers at the right place and right time, and Foursquare will help it do just that.
“Shopkick is a leader in mobile retail beloved by many millions of consumers — their team carries wide-ranging expertise with location technology and this partnership only further validates Foursquare’s market-leading position,” said Patrick Hu, Managing Director, Business Development & Product Partnerships at Foursquare.
The partnership additionally opens the door for greater business opportunity and growth. Location data continues to help drive real, impactful business results and Foursquare’s work with Shopkick will help generate new or greater collaboration with brands and retailers.
“2022 will prove to be a critical year for retail and other brick-and-mortar industries that were heavily impacted by the pandemic,” Hu said. “As consumers have shifted toward on-demand delivery, location technology and data have become vital components for bridging the online-to-offline gap and delivering a high-value in-person experience. Foursquare looks forward to collaborating more deeply with Shopkick and other Trax solutions, along with others across the broader mobile and retail space.”
Shopkick is available for free on iPhone from the App Store and for Android from Google Play. For more information, please visit www.shopkick.com.
