PAY ATTENTION TO THIS STARTUP: Shopkick, Launching Today, Is Foursquare For Shopping — With Actual Rewards
With Actual Rewards — Foursquare has become a popular mobile social networking app with some shopping perks. — But another iPhone app, launching today, is much more focused on shopping …
Context & Ripple Effects
Foursquare spent the first half of 2010 proving the check-in could carry commerce: Time profiled its reward-for-checking-in mechanic in January, and by June it was hunting revenue with plans for an online store selling branded merchandise while raising bridge funding amid unconfirmed acquisition talk with Facebook. July brought CardStar folding Foursquare check-ins into its loyalty-card app, signaling that third parties saw value in plugging into the check-in stream.
Shopkick's launch reframes that landscape: rather than bolting shopping perks onto a social network, it builds the reward structure around the store visit itself and claims Foursquare's five-times-larger-than-Gowalla lead (per RJMetrics' July analysis) leaves room for a specialist. The bet is that merchants will pay for verified foot traffic, not just badges.
First-order effects
- Retailers partnering with Shopkick get a rewards program aimed squarely at driving store visits from day one, competing with Foursquare's looser perk-based deals for the same marketing budgets.
- iPhone users choosing between the two now face a clear trade-off: Foursquare for social discovery, Shopkick for concrete rewards tied to shopping behavior.
Second-order effects
- Foursquare is pushed to prove its merchant deals deliver measurable sales rather than novelty check-ins, or risk ceding the retail-partnership layer to a purpose-built rival.
- Integrators like CardStar, which already route check-ins through loyalty-card workflows, become potential partners or acquisition targets as apps race to own the point-of-sale moment.
Third-order effects
- If verified in-store presence becomes the currency of mobile loyalty, the contest shifts from who has the biggest user base to who owns the shopper-retailer relationship — favoring apps that can prove purchases over those that count check-ins.
The trend: Location-based services are splitting between social check-in networks and commerce-first rivals, as retailers begin paying for verified foot traffic rather than social buzz.