Shopping application shopkick now enables consumers to earn rewards for in-app purchases from retailers such as Old Navy, Best Buy and Macy’s in addition to being rewarded for walking into a physical store.

Shopkick is a popular shopping companion mobile app that enables users to earn rewards for shopping actions such as product interactions and store visits to many large retailers. With the new in-app purchasing capabilities, users will be able to make purchases directly in the app from more than 30 stores and earn rewards at the same time.

“The research data is clear that shoppers who buy online and in-store are the best and most loyal customers who also spend the most, so you want to reward them for that behavior,” said Cyriac Roeding, CEO of shopkick, Redwood City, CA.

“Therefore, we do not include Amazon in our app;  instead, we focus on those favorite retailers that have physical brick and mortar stores and digital outlets.

“Our job is to bring these worlds together seamlessly, and across retailers.  By doing so, we are creating a powerful coalition of physical retailers that are implementing a solution beyond multichannel.”

A rewarding experience
With shopping one of the more popular activities on smartphones, the shopkick app is designed to make it easy for on-the-go users to shop in a store or on the train to work.

Some of the stores that users can purchase from include Target, Macy’s, Best Buy, Old Navy, Anthropologie, Banana Republic, Gymboree, Bath & Body Works and Urban Outfitters.

Purchases and other shopping activities earn users “kicks,” which can be redeemed for store gift cards, free food, song downloads and movie tickets. Other activities that earn rewards include visiting a store, interacting with products and in-store purchases.

Right now on the app, users can buy household items such as a blender or stemless wine glasses at Target or fashion at American Eagle Outfitters.

Customizable product collections
With the latest update to the app, users can now save favorite items into customizable product collections that can be organized by category. Users can also add a personal cover photo.

Other features of the app include the ability to browse themed product books illustrating the current season’s offerings and the ability to “Like” items and be automatically reminded of them upon walking into a store where they are sold.

“We combined shopkick’s in-store functionality with curated product books and the ability to earn kicks for buying right in the app to make every type of shopping experience better,” Mr. Roeding said.

Users can also connect with others to discover and share products from their product books.

The shopkick app is available to download for free from the Apple’s App Store and Google Play.

“Every retailer has their own app and should but they are only going to reach the loyalist of loyal consumer,” Mr. Roeding said.

“The problem is that most consumers aren¹t going to download 40 different apps for 40 different stores,” he said. “That’s not how people shop.

“Most apps are used once or twice and never again. With shopkick, we have created a power mall on the phone that is attractive to a shopper. A mall with one store isn’t interesting, a mall with 50 is.”

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York