We’ve covered shopkick before and think it’s a cool way to use smartphone technology to help you shop but the company has just released some new usage numbers and it looks like it is really gaining traction. There are now more than 3 million active users and the service has had 1 billion in-app deals and offers viewed.
If you don’t know, the shopkick app is a location-based shopping app which gives you rewards when you’re physically inside retail stores. Unlike location services like Foursquare, shopkick requires the store to install hardware “beacons” which broadcast a digital signal that is picked up by the phone’s mic. While this makes the barrier of entry a little bit higher, shopkick has already secured high-profile deals with major retailers like Best Buy, Target and more.
Some of the other interesting numbers released by shopkick include:
- 1 billion (!) in-app deals and offers viewed
- 3 million active users just over a year since launch
- 5 million walk-ins to partner stores in December 2011, doubling in just four months
- 10 million product scans, up from 7 million in August 2011 and 3 million in February 2011
- During the 2011 holiday shopping season, shopkick users interacted with stores through the app more than 3.1 million times per day on average, up from just over 1 million in August 2011
- About 150 million interactions with retailers through shopkick from the launch of Old Navy on November 10, 2011 through the end of the year
- Sixty-four percent of all shopkick users are now women. More than half of female users have kids
- The average shopkick user is 30 years old. Less than 8% of all users are younger than 18
What fascinates me about shopkick and its impressive adoption numbers is that it shows that mobile technology doesn’t have to be the enemy of brick and mortar stores. While that may be tough for many retail owners to believe with Amazon offering discounts when you use its price-check app to buy things online, these numbers really reinforce that the physical shopping experience doesn’t have to die.