Retailers Crate and Barrel and ProFlowers are offering discounts on specific Valentine’s Day-related products to drive sales via the shopkick location-based shopping application.

Crate and Barrel is currently offering special discounts on a Valentine Heart Pancake Mold and XOXO & Heart Cookie Cutter Set. ProFlowers is offering 15 percent off to users that complete certain missions using shopkick.

“Valentine’s Day is one of the biggest shopping holidays of the year, so retailers look for an innovative way to bring shoppers into stores,” said Cyriac Roeding, cofounder/CEO of shopkick, Palo Alto, CA.

“Because of the success the shopkick program at partner retailers, many decided to offer increased walk-in rewards during the weekend prior to Valentine’s Day—Feb. 12-13—to encourage even more visits,” he said.

“In addition, they are using Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to promote specific products by offering discounts on items related to the holiday.”

Shopkick Inc. claims that it has increased its active user base to 750,000 users in five months, and that users have scanned more than 3 million products at 250,000 locations nationwide from partner brands such as Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and HP.

The free shopkick application is available for Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android devices.

Valentine’s Day mobile rewards
Shopkick recently introduced Buck and Kicksie as its mascots. Within the application, users can help Buck prepare for his Valentine’s Day date with Kicksie by finding flowers, chocolates and a suit to receive additional discounts relevant to the holiday.

ProFlowers is offering 15 percent off to users that help Buck complete his missions.

American Eagle Outfitters is offering 10-percent-off and 15-percent-off mobile coupons.

Best Buy is distributing a buy-one-get-one-free offer.

Macy’s is offering 40 percent off summer clearance items, while Sports Authority is offering 15 percent off winter sale items.

Kraft Foods’ brands such as Velveeta, Oreo, Kool-Aid, Triscuits and Planters nuts are among the products that shopkick shoppers have scanned using their smartphones in grocery stores to earn virtual currency kickbucks rewards.

In addition to earning kickbucks for scanning partner brand products, shopkick users can earn more kickbucks and receive discount offers for walking into more than 1,100 partner retail locations, including select Target, Best Buy, Macy’s, American Eagle Outfitters, Sports Authority, Crate and Barrel, Wet Seal and Simon Property Group malls.

Participating Target, Macy’s, Crate and Barrel, American Eagle, Wet Seal and Arden B locations are offering double walk-in rewards this weekend leading up to Valentine’s Day.

For example, Crate and Barrel is currently offering discounts on a Valentine Heart Pancake Mold and XOXO & Heart Cookie Cutter Set.

“Shopkick has proven in more than a dozen experiments with five major retailers that it can drive measurable foot traffic, at a cost efficiency of often 10X compared to traditional marketing methods,” Mr. Roeding said.

“For example, Sports Authority recently saw a 60-80 percent increase in user walk-ins when it increased the amount of kickbucks offered – its CMO, Jeff Schumacher, publicly announced it,” he said.

The shopkick application features Signal technology – an inaudible sound emitted from a patent-pending device located in each participating retailer – which verifies that the user is in-store, and then awards kickbucks.

Kickbucks earned can be redeemed for in-store gift cards, song downloads, movie tickets, hotel vouchers, Facebook Credits to play games online and donations to 30 different causes and charities.

Shopkick users can browse the offer tab within the application to see what other discounts are available.

Smartphones can turn the offline store into an interactive experience, per shopkick.

“Shopkick is the physical world equivalent of Google’s online pay-per-click model – we call it ‘cost per visit,’” Mr. Roeding said. “The shopper also benefits from increased, relevant rewards and offers.

“With shopkick’s model proven multiple times now as driving measurable foot traffic, CMOs at major corporations are willing to put their marketing dollars there, because this marketing model is literally an order of magnitude more cost efficient than the previously used marketing models in retail,” he said.

“Shopkick is the first 100 percent performance-based marketing model in the physical retail world that is based on measurable foot traffic and transactions at stores.”

Final Take
Mr. Roeding

Shopkick’s Evan Tana