ShopKick has launched — TechCrunch offers a nice video walk-through — showing us its retail check-in experience (see the promo video below too). Walk into the store, earn “KickBucks” and get access to deals. Walk around the store and the experience changes, see more offers. Scan UPC codes and get deals and product information. There are other features and content as well.
It will be popular, though it’s (perhaps unconsciously) aimed at men. And while men love mobile coupons and deals, women are a more important retail audience.
Source: InsidghtExpress Q2 2010 (n=1,300 US mobile users)
ShopKick also struck me as too ambitious and too complicated in some respects. In addition, from what I can tell, it doesn’t really address getting me to the store; it rewards me for coming in but doesn’t entice me to come. I’m sure this will change and that, in malls for example, I’ll see nearby offers that get me to a store.
The “I’m already there” issue is also one of the challenges with Foursquare; I generally won’t use it to decide where to go — although, again, nearby offers might help. I use it after I’m already there.
Some retailers are using Foursquare to reward consumers with offers for coming in (see Ann Taylor). But for the most part it remains a pure loyalty mechanism. Thus it’s of limited value currently to marketers. The smart people at Foursquare will likely work through all that however. (They could for example expose most popular places as one way to drive people to locations.)
Newspaper circulars have historically been the way that retailers have gotten people into the store. And ShopLocal has been the primary vehicle for digital distribution of those deals and other retail data online.
There are two new developments that have been in the works for some time. First ShopLocal just launched “local deals” on MSN’s local edition:
This is essentially an updated version of what ShopLocal originally did with Yahoo in 2008, in the form of Circular Central:
The second item is the announcement of ShopLocal’s Facebook distribution:
This has been testing for several months as part of Facebook’s broader local efforts. There is a suite of offerings here for retailers:
- Specialized “Fan Page“ Product Deals Tab
- Word-of-mouth Product Deals Widgets
- Hyper-targeted Facebook Ads
- Locally Relevant, Time Sensitive Offers and Deals
- Turn-key API for Easy Integration
Essentially ShopLocal is managing distribution of retailer deals and data across multiple channels now: search, display (including dynamic ads on Yahoo), social media and mobile. Traditional print newspapers, which used to be the primary channel for retailers, are now seeing a rapidly declining share ad spending.
Publicis’ Rishad Tobaccowala said at the recent ShopLocal Summit that “The dirty secret of online is that there’s no mass audience.” Audiences must be aggregated through various means to create the kind of scale that retailers and other advertisers want and have been used to with traditional media (e.g., TV).
Shopping and social are highly aligned and these apps and distribution tools are consistent with a new world for retail in which they need to be more thoughtful and clever about reaching and engaging audiences.
At the core of that effort are sales and deals. ShopKick is Foursquare taken into the retail vertical, leveraging LBS and game dynamics. ShopLocal is B2B retail distribution across platforms and incorporating social media. All of this, as Tobaccowala by analogy suggests, is “trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.”
August 6th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
I really think the tips on 4 sq are starting to become important discovery content, allowing people to find new things & places. IMO as they fill out those tips it’ll drive some business. Plus as a creator of content it’s short quick and to the point, I am more likely to create a tip because it’s stored and accessible in relation to where I am, which gives it utility for me to remember to order X bottle of wine when I am at restaurant Y.
August 6th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Agree that tips are important and valuable. The other thing that would drive business is if they exposed most popular lists to people.
August 6th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
I am frustrated to see yet again how these new local deals and check-in/shopping hybrids seem to only serve large businesses. Before I start applauding all of these new products, I want to see how they can easily serve SMB’s. What I think would be truly revolutionary is if the power of these internet services were leveraged to bring people into the doors of mom-and-pop shops. I am just bothered when I see so much potential, but find that only multinational corporations are the ones to benefit. Personally, I’ve got “chain fatigue,” and I’m surprised this is not setting in with others around the country. I look forward to the platform that makes it easy and rewarding to shop locally. Until then, I see all of these products as furthering the problem.
August 6th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Furthermore, I just want to point out the irony of the platform being named “ShopLocal” when it only directs you to stores and deals you could find in any part of the country. Come on!
August 6th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
You’re right that SMBs are under-served. The reason that these companies tend to work with franchises or large entities is because SMB outreach it very challenging. As an aside, check out http://geotoko.com/ as a multi-site check-in/promotions tool or Close.ly (closely.com) or Bizzy (from ReachLocal).
August 27th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
@Evan – I wish I would have seen your comments earlier. Great observations.
It’s certainly much easier from an operational standpoint to focus on national retailers and bypass the SMB sector, and I can understand why these companies have gone in that direction.
Although the challenge is a large one, we at ShopLocally.com feel that the millions of mom & pop shops are worth the effort and that they are the ones who stand to gain the most by embracing the internet.
These big box stores will only see incremental improvements as they are already top of mind with consumers and have robust online storefronts and social media presences already.
Our goal is to tie the moms & pops together, effectively giving them a collective voice and online platform that rivals that of the big box stores.
We are motivated by more than just the bottom line and truly want to help local businesses succeed. We’ve taken great pains to build a system that creates a win-win-win for the communities, businesses and local partners that we work with.
Our model provides each community with their own online marketplace and URL (ex. http://www.shopcorona.com or http://www.shopmidland.com) that can be promoted extensively in both online and offline media and encourage residents to truly shop locally.
The city governments in some of the leading California cities (Mountain View, Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Corona) have already endorsed our platform and we have feet on the street in those communities that are helping businesses take advantage of the platform.
There is definitely a groundswell of support building and people are starting to realize that focusing on your own local economy is one of the best ways to resist the recession.
It sounds like you’re one of the good guys Evan! Drop us a line or check out the site if you have any questions…