Author: shopkick

The best money saving apps for shopping online and in-store

Posted on by shopkick

The best money saving apps for shopping online and in-store

One simple truth of shopping these days—at least in my humble opinion—is that overall it has become easier, and I think the reason for this is we now have more choices than we’ve ever had before. When I was a kid, for example, my mom basically had to spend almost her entire Sunday shopping, going to our local grocery store, and then running errands to other little shops where we lived to fill out the other things she needed, whether it was school supplies to help us with our homework or toiletries for the house.

These days, I have the luxury of being able to get so much of what I need online, and then filling out the rest of it with my trips to local stores, often at my leisure rather than as an all-day Sunday event every weekend. If you’re anything like me—and I suspect these days most people are—you use a nice mix of shopping online and in physical stores on a weekly or monthly basis. With all the options available to us now, it just makes good sense to do it this way. With that in mind, I think it’s time that we talk about the best money-saving apps for online and in-store shopping, some of which you can use for one type of shopping, some for the other, and, in rare cases, for both.

Shopping apps have become vital in terms of saving as much money as you can while you’re at the store and enhancing your experience when you’re in those aisles. If you find yourself regularly using a shopping app that only rewards you for one or the other—online shopping or in-person trips—well then, simply put, you’re losing out on half the benefits. So, to help you out, below you will find a great list of some of my personal favorite money-saving apps for shopping online and in-store. I highly recommend giving them a try. They will help you take your shopping game to new heights!

 

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Best Money Saving Apps for Shopping Online and In-Store

CamelCamelCamel

I suspect that like myself the online store that you frequent most is Amazon. Well, if that’s the case, I highly recommend familiarizing yourself with this app, which is called CamelCamelCamel. It doesn’t have much to do with riding through deserts, though. It’s a website and browser extension that shoppers can use to save money by tracking prices on Amazon. It’s really a pretty incredible resource, given the nature of prices on Amazon.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, prices on Amazon often fluctuate, sometimes jumping by a pretty significant amount. With CamelCamelCamel, you get access to charts and details for extensive price histories to almost every product listed for sale on Amazon. You can see the fluctuations and know when you should buy an item or when you should hold off until the price is reduced in the future. I’ve never tracked it enough to be able to tabulate an exact amount, but I know that extrapolated over a long enough timeline, I’ve saved quite a bit of money shopping online at Amazon with the help of information from CamelCamelCamel.

Online: YES
In-Store: NO

Ebates

Ebates is a shopping portal that offers its users as much as 40 percent cash back on the purchases they make at its partner stores, which includes a healthy list of more than 2,000 options of places to shop. There are no points or anything like this involved. The way Ebates works is that it takes a simple percentage off at the time of checkout and gives it back to you in the form of cash. It’s a pretty rapid way to save money, one that I know I certainly appreciate. What can I say, sometimes you need to stretch your budget fast.

Ebates offers a browser extension like some of the other choices on our list—including CamelCamelCamel and Honey—and it’s a very useful extension. It makes it easy to remember and keep track of all the stores where you can use Ebates to save money. However, I should point out that many stores will only let you use one of these money-saving apps at a time, so when it comes to whether you should go with Honey, Ebates, or even one of our digital coupon apps, it’s best to take your time, do the math (ugh, I know), and carefully determine which app is the best for maximizing your savings.

Online: YES
In-Store: NO

Honey

Like CamelCamelCamel, Honey is also an online only browser plugin app, albeit one with a sweeter name. Honey works with Chrome or Firefox, and it automatically saves you money on your online shopping by applying any available coupon codes at the checkout stage of your shopping process. If you’re anything like me, whether you have a coupon or not, you always spend a second staring at the redeem code section wondering if you’re missing out on available savings. Well, what Honey does is ensures that you get any deals that are readily available.

When you have Honey installed, you simply see a popup while you’re checking out. Once you click that popup, Honey takes it from there, trying out all known coupon codes before ultimately applying the best available option for your bill. Another feature that I’ve grown quite fond of with Honey is that it offers a rewards program for a wide range of stores—3,700 online stores, last time I checked—giving you Honey Gold points that you can later redeem for free gift cards, which, as I’m sure you are well aware, are as good as cash!

Online: YES
In-Store: NO

SavingStar

SavingStar is a digital coupon app that pays users to shop at grocery and drugstores. What’s a digital coupon app? Well, it’s probably exactly what you think it is based on the name: an app that re-creates the experience of shopping in-person with coupons. You remember coupons, right? Those paper things your parents used to hang on the fridge with magnets and keep in that one junk drawer in your house? Well, they’re back—this time in digital form. So, say goodbye to any fears over papercuts!

More than 60,000 stores are part of SavingStar and they represent more than 100 retail chains. It’s generally free to use, but beware. If an account is inactive for 180 straight days, they will charge a fee of $3.99. To take advantage of SavingStar, users either link their existing store loyalty cards to the app or submit receipts after they make purchases. Their savings add up until they can eventually cash out through PayPal, Upromise, or even in the form of Starbucks, iTunes, or AMC Theater gift codes. If you frequently use loyalty rewards cards, this may be a great app for you. If your commitment to them is less than stellar, however, SavingStar may end up costing you money via its service fee.

Online: NO
In-Store: YES

SnipSnap

SnipSnap is in the same digital coupon app family as SavingStar, and it even has a similarly alliterative name, which has at times led me to confuse the two. The way SnipSnap works, however, is actually quite different. It’s more similar to the old school way of coupon collecting that used to necessitate going over paper ads and flyers with scissors and literally cutting out the coupons. With SnipSnap, you still have to do that, but instead of cutting them out you take pictures of the printed coupons with your phone. The app then converts them into easy-to-access, mobile-ready digital versions.

You can also use SnipSnap to browse online directories of digital coupons, thereby taking advantage of coupons that your friends have “snipped” as well. This one saves you money exactly the same way as a traditional coupon does—by reducing the price of your purchases at the time of checkout. The idea behind it is simple and much appreciated (at least by me anyway): that it’s exactly like using coupons used to be except that SnipSnap gives you a much cleaner and more efficient means of storing and using them. Say goodbye, in other words, to the old billfold that used to overflow with the edges of printed coupons.

Online: NO
In-Store: YES

Shopkick

Of all of the money-saving apps for shopping that I use both in the store and online, I’d have to say that Shopkick is my absolute favorite. I first began using this app as an in-store app that I used to save money whenever I went grocery shopping. I used Shopkick to get points—which Shopkick calls kicks—for normal shopping activities that I did each time I went to the store anyway, activities such as making purchases, scanning the barcodes on certain items, and even just walking into the store. Then, when I’d earned enough points, I was able to trade them in for gift cards to some of my favorite stores.

I eventually began to branch out with my Shopkick usage, using the app to collect points and earn gift cards while shopping at other places, including Target or Walmart, Best Buy, and some of my absolute favorite stores at the mall. That’s when I became aware of another major game-changer: it’s also possible to use Shopkick to get points for shopping online. Just like the app awards you points for the activities I mentioned earlier, it also gives you points for things like visiting certain online stores, viewing online products, making purchases, and watching videos, usually about cool new products. It even helps me save money before I even visit an online store because I can use Shopkick to score free online Amazon gift cards! Very cool.

Online: YES
In-Store: YES

I really don’t know how my mother (or anyone else) used to do all of our household’s shopping by just driving out to get things at traditional brick-and-mortar stores. I know she didn’t have another choice back then, but I’ve just become so thoroughly acclimated to my own special system of shopping both in-store and online. Now with these great money-saving apps for shopping online and in-store, I can add extra value to my system. Of course, I highly recommend you do the same.

And if I had to pick only one app to start with, I’d pick Shopkick. As you may have noticed, one thing that sets Shopkick apart is that it’s the rare app you can use both online and in-store, but more than that, it’s also super intuitive and easy to use, and—in my experience anyway—it provides the most value when you’re shopping both online and in-person. It’s also a whole lot of fun to use because it turns all your shopping experiences into fun scavenger hunts for points. I often find myself setting points goals and trying to beat them, and, to be quite honest with you, I wouldn’t be surprised if you ended up finding yourself doing the same thing, too!

Get one of the best money-saving apps for shopping both online and in-store. Download Shopkick’s free app today and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered how fun it is to shop with us!

And, if you love social media as much as you love shopping online, join Shopkick on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for a little daily shopping inspiration.

Get Starbucks gift cards for free to help fuel your next shopping spree

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My shopping time is not as readily available as it once was, thanks to the many new pressures that have been brought into my life by adulting. When I was younger, I used to do all-day shopping sprees with my friends, basically any weekend we felt like it or when we came across a particularly excellent sale. These days, those sort of all-day marathons are limited by my busy schedule, and, if I’m being totally honest, by my energy level as well. I just don’t have the unlimited energy to shop all day long like I once did—not without caffeine anyway.

I’m a coffee fiend when I’m out shopping now. In fact, if you run into me at the mall, no matter what time of year or whether it’s indoors or outdoors, I’m probably carrying a coffee—iced for the summer, steaming for the winter. It’s my shopping secret weapon most Saturdays, and just like I enjoy finding the best sales and deals on clothes and other things I’m out shopping for, I also enjoy finding ways to save money on my coffee. One of the most effective methods I’ve found for this is through using apps that help you earn Starbucks gift cards free.

Strange as it sounds, I think free coffee energizes me even more than the normal stuff does. I know, I know, it’s all in my head, right? Well, let me go ahead and share my secrets for how to get Starbucks gift cards for free with you today, and you can tell me if you notice some extra energy too!

How to Get Starbucks Gift Cards for Free With the Starbucks App

get starbucks gift cards freeOne of the most obvious ways to get Starbucks gift cards for free to help power you through your next all day shopping spree is by using the Starbucks app. The way this one works is super simple. Just download it, buy your Starbucks drinks like you usually do (I’m a vanilla almond milk latte drinker, myself), and earn free coffee.

Every time you make a purchase at Starbucks—which if you’re anything like me, it’s somewhat frequently—you earn a star, and once you get a certain amount of stars you can put them towards a free drink. Oh, and another nice little feature is that you also get a totally free Starbucks beverage on your birthday. All the gift cards you earn populate onto your app, too, so you don’t even have to carry around the actual plastic cards in your purse, which can be tough to remember sometimes when you head out shopping. Trust me.

How to Get Starbucks Gift Cards for Free by Taking Surveys

Taking free surveys through an app on your smartphone is another way to earn Starbucks gift cards for free. Groan. I know, but those type of survey apps actually do work, that’s why you hear so much about them. The survey app that I personally use is called MySurvey, which I like because it gives you both reward points as well as sweepstake entries. Basically, with MySurvey there’s always a chance you can win something bigger than a free cup of Joe.

Anyway, with most surveys, you’ll earn around 200 points, and you can also get an extra 150 points for each friend that you encourage to sign up, as long as they too go ahead and complete a certain number of surveys. You can redeem those points that you earn through taking surveys in the form of payouts via PayPal, Amazon, or—ding ding ding!—Starbucks gift cards. Last time I checked, it took 1,100 points to get a $10 Starbucks gift card.

How to Get Starbucks Gift Cards for Free by Shopping

I saved the best for last today. This app that helps you get Starbucks gift cards for free is my absolute favorite. It’s called Shopkick, and how it works is that it rewards you with gift cards for shopping. With Shopkick, you earn points for all the normal behaviors that you do each time you go to the store, behaviors like scanning barcodes on certain items to learn more about them, making purchases, and even just walking through the doors. And for those days when maybe you don’t have time or energy to go to the store, you can still get points from online shopping and video watching towards your next free Starbucks drink! You can then trade those points in for—that’s right—Starbucks gift cards, as well as other gift cards too.   

What I like about it the most though is that while earning you Starbucks to keep your energy levels up, it also turns the shopping experience into a game.

What I like about it the most though is that while earning you Starbucks to keep your energy levels up, it also turns the shopping experience into a game. Instead of thinking about how tired I sometimes get when I’m out in the aisles, I find myself consumed with getting as many points through Shopkick as I possibly can. Shopping basically turns from a draining activity into a really fun scavenger hunt for points. And, believe me, I want to find all the points that I possibly can!

So yes, while I don’t think science will ever back up my assertion that free coffee has a stronger kick to it than the stuff you pay for, I’d still like you to give my free recommendations for how to earn Starbucks gift cards for free a try. That way when you’re finished you can report back with your findings.

And hey, even if you don’t find free Starbucks to be any more energizing, the worst case scenario is that you still have a free beverage of your choice, and you could do much worse than that. After all, we are all getting older and keeping the energy up for a full day of shopping isn’t as easy as it used to be!

Start to get Starbucks gift cards for free so that you can have all the energy you need to fuel your next shopping spree. Download Shopkick’s free app today and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered how much you can earn with the help of a free shopping sidekick.

And, if you’re on social media catching up with friends, be sure to also join Shopkick on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for a little daily fun and inspiration.

Image courtesy photosvit

3 apps that help you save money when shopping with friends

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One of my favorite activities to do with my girlfriends has always been shopping. I guess it started way back when I was just a little girl when my mom and aunt would take me and my cousins out shopping to our local mall. Then it continued when I went to high school, and a fun Friday night was all about searching for the best new tops at the mall. So many memories! The tradition of shopping with my friends has even followed me into adulthood.

These days, everyone in my circle seems to be living busy lives, and we can’t always find time to catch up over drinks, or brunch, or coffee like we used to. So what do we do? We find ourselves once again going shopping together! Even if it’s just out for groceries or for a quick run to Walmart or Target. We even shop together online. Oh, and like time, another thing that’s more limited these days than it once was is our budget. So, we obviously spend a lot of time trying to save as much money as we can once we hit those aisles, and, believe it or not, we’ve actually found some new technology to be helpful. That’s why today I want to talk about three apps that help you save money when shopping with friends.

3 apps that help you save moneyI’ve always loved shopping with my friends. It’s just so much more fun when you have someone to help you decide if you should purchase that cute top, or even to brag a little bit about the deal you got on shampoo last week. I also, of course, love saving money with helpful apps, I mean, who doesn’t? That’s why combining the two is such a no-brainer for me, and I’m 100 percent sure that you’ll love these apps, too!

Apps That Help You Save Money With Friends

#1: Bestie Shopping

I’m not quite from the generation that calls all of their friends “besties,” but I definitely know what the word means, which is why I want to talk about an app called Bestie Shopping. This app is basically a social media app for shoppers, and with it, you can follow stores you love, view products posted in many different categories, and—this is my favorite part—share your favorite items and deals with your friends.

The best part of Bestie Shopping is that it’s so easy to fit it into your schedule since it’s basically all online based. Like I mentioned above, one of the biggest challenges these days is to find time to actually go out shopping with your friends. Well, with Bestie Shopping you can recreate that old experience of going to the mall with your besties whenever and wherever with your phone. Plus, I don’t know how many times one of my friends has pointed me in the direction of a great deal that helps me save money. This app helps you really save money and that’s a win-win!

#2: SnipSnap

The next entry on our list is an app that I like to use for shopping with my friends when we all have a little bit more time. It’s called SnipSnap, and the way that it works is you take photos of coupons from newspapers, junk mail, or circular ads, and the app converts those coupons into mobile, digital versions that you can redeem when you’re actually in the store with your phone or tablet.

What my friends and I like to do sometimes is set aside a whole afternoon (time permitting, of course), and meet up at one of our houses with all the coupons that we can find, usually also with coffee or wine, depending on the time of day. Then we pass around our coupons and start using SnipSnap to log them in our phones. Sometimes we head out shopping together afterward, but sometimes we also go our separate ways and use them later. It gives you that flexibility, which is also quite nice!

#3: Shopkick

The final app on our list today is also my favorite. It’s called Shopkick, and one of the main reasons that I love it so much is that you can basically use it to shop your way to free gift cards! How it works is pretty easy too. Basically, you just do the normal things you do when you go shopping, things like walking into the store, scanning certain items to get more information about them, and scanning your receipt after making purchases. In exchange, Shopkick gives you points that you can redeem later for free gift cards!

Shopkick is also a ton of fun to use with your friends. It basically turns every trip to the store into a scavenger hunt for points. Me and my ladies love to go out to the store together and share tips on where to find the items to scan that give you the most points. We also like to use Shopkick’s social media channels, where we can jump into threads that are filled with more tips about using the app, as well as a bunch of super fun memes and jokes. I just can’t recommend this one enough!

Those are just a few of the apps that help you save money with friends that I’ve found to be worthwhile. There are, of course, a ton more out there, and I’d encourage you to give some of them a shot! I really hope you’re able to gain the same experiences as I have.

Oh yeah, plus you can start earning gift cards that are just as good as cash. And I don’t know a shopper alive who’s not interested in doing that!

I’d also strongly suggest using Shopkick. It really does turn every trip out to the store these days into fun, whether you end up going with your friends or all on your lonesome. Oh yeah, plus you can start earning gift cards that are just as good as cash. And I don’t know a shopper alive who’s not interested in doing that!

Ready to start taking advantage of the best of these apps that help you save money the next time you’re out shopping with your friends? Just download Shopkick and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered the rewards of shopping with us!

And, if you love using your smartphone to stay up on social media, join us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for daily shopping inspiration.

Image courtesy stokkete

Stay entertained with kicks this summer from Fandango and Hulu

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Check out two new places to earn kicks online through the Shopkick app! Get access to binge-worthy TV series and hit movies with a Hulu membership. Use Fandango to discover the hottest new movies this summer. Plus, earn kicks!

Lights, cameras, kicks!

Check out three new places to earn kicks online through the Shopkick app. Snag cutting-edge fashion on ASOS, discover hundreds of brands online on HSN, and find the latest looks for all women on Lane Bryant, all while earning kicks for your purchases. What’s not to love about getting rewarded for being fashionable?

Fandango – 3 kicks per $1

get kicks while enjoying movies with fandango

Check out the summer’s biggest blockbusters on Fandango! Plan your whole movie night from watching trailers, reading reviews, finding movie times, to buying tickets online. What’s more, you’ll earn kicks for every dollar spent when you shop through the Shopkick app.

 

Hulu – 1980 kicks

get kicks while enjoying tv with hulu and shopkick

Hulu brings all your TV to one central place. Hulu offers thousands of movies and TV shows, allowing you to watch your favorites anytime, anywhere. Plus, you can earn a whopping 1980 kicks when you join Hulu through the Shopkick app. What’s not to love about getting rewarded for getting entertained?

 

Happy shopkicking!

 

How it works

Shopkick rewards you for the shopping you already do. There are many easy ways to earn reward points (we call them kicks). Redeem your kicks for free gift cards and enjoy. It’s that easy! With a wide selection of gift cards available from Starbucks to Target, Sephora to Amazon, you can be sure to find the perfect gift card to treat yourself.

Don’t have Shopkick yet? Download it now and to start earning rewards today!

Three New Product Marketing Strategies: How to Plan for Success

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Three New Product Marketing Strategies: How to Plan for Success

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To be successful in today’s highly competitive CPG industry, brands should develop new product marketing strategies that work in an ever-changing environment. By using agile innovation strategies, many challenger brands can compete with massive CPG conglomerates. Agile innovation is a strategy born in IT, but it is applicable in digital marketing—especially in the way it can be used to introduce a new product to a crowded market. By breaking down larger campaigns into smaller components, brands can create a strategy that’s flexible enough to adapt to changing consumer demand.

There is no one single new product launch plan that can be said to work for all brands, but of the plans that succeed, we can see common themes. A successful launch depends on timing, how the target audience is reached, and, above all, partnerships with the right platforms to drive product awareness. Through these strategies, brands can bring a product to market in a way that makes an impact.

 

Agile Innovation in Marketing

Agile innovation—as it applies to marketing—is a process that involves creating one large, overarching goal and breaking down the steps needed to get there. By breaking a CPG marketing campaign down to its basic components, there’s more flexibility in the process.

Hypothetically, if a brand was about to launch a new breakfast cereal—with an overall goal of gaining $1 million in sales in the first year—the brand would need to break that goal down to determine who would make those purchases, when they would make them, and how those consumers could best be reached.

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Demographic

The brand should test market the cereal with adults and children to determine the target audience. For example, a child may request a particular cereal, and even pick it out in the store, but it will ultimately be the parent who purchases it. How will marketing efforts need to change to address both of these audiences?

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Timing

When is the best time to go to market with this particular cereal with consideration for market demand? For example, a healthy cereal may sell better in January when people are trying to lose weight. Meanwhile, a children’s cereal may sell better during the summer, when kids are home from school.

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Platform

Early test campaigns on specific platforms can help to reveal opportunities to gain an audience for a new product. As examples, the cereal brand might consider partnering with a mobile gaming company to reach kids and a shopping app like Shopkick to reach parents.

The benefit of breaking these tasks into components is that it allows rapid pivoting for a brand, which is what agile marketing is all about. As the digital space continues to change rapidly, with new products and campaigns appearing almost constantly, it’s essential to create a campaign that can easily be adjusted based on audience, platform, and timing.

 

Strategy #1: Understand Your Audience to Time Your Launch

Correct timing of a new product launch is imperative, as it will determine the demand of the market. Consider Unilever-owned ice cream brand Breyers. It’s no accident that the brand announced four new flavor mashups at the start of summer as this is a time of high demand for ice cream. However, timing isn’t always as obvious as that. Brands must consider several factors when launching a new product, including the following.

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Season

Season may not seem like it impacts all product types, but it can. Consider sugar, as an example. Since sugar is used year-round, it might seem that season would not affect demand. However, consider the holiday season when consumers may be baking more and having more gatherings. This increased hosting—and baking—will increase demand during the holidays.

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Culture

Sometimes, current events and popular culture can result in a sudden increase or decrease in demand for an entire category of products. A landmark case of this occurred in 2006, when the movie Blood Diamond was released, which highlighted some of the atrocities that happen in the diamond trade. Reputable jewelers became rightly concerned that it would impact sales even for stores that did not engage in any black-market dealings. Even if the seller was legal, releasing a new diamond collection at the time would have been a risky and controversial move.

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Economy

Economic performance doesn’t feel like it should impact products with such low-price points, like some CPG products, but economic slumps absolutely can. When the economy is weak, consumers may use more coupons or switch to store brands, causing a drop in sales for brands at higher price points. On the other hand, a weak economy may be an ideal time for a discount challenger brand to compete, as consumers will have a more substantial focus on value.

Releasing a product at the wrong time makes it harder to gain attention. However, proper timing can be difficult to pinpoint as the causes aren’t apparent. Brands need to be able to understand why consumers choose to buy when they do. Mobile apps and the data they collect through user behaviors can offer an opportunity to CPG brands that want to calibrate their campaigns more effectively.

 

Strategy #2: Use Data to Focus on a Specific Audience

Oftentimes, only a small portion of the population determines the success of a new CPG product. In a study of over 40 million U.S. shoppers, just 1.5% accounted for 80% of purchases in the year following a new product launch. That means that brands should focus more on reaching the right consumers instead of all consumers.

One way to manage this can be through a beta launch using a shopping app. In this case, the brand may choose to make the new product available in a few areas and partner with a third-party shopping app that uses proximity marketing to drive awareness. With Shopkick’s app, as an example, brands can incentivize interactions with a specific product by offering kicks (aka rewards points) when consumers find and scan items in the store.

The brand can then use the data from those signals of purchase intent to determine the best audience for that specific product. For example, if they notice that most of their engagement is coming from women in their thirties with children, they can aim their marketing efforts to reach that specific group of consumers.

The benefit of doing this via a shopping app is it allows brands access to consumers who make purchase decisions for their household. As shopping apps are typically used while in-store and those who download and actively use them tend to be regular shoppers, the shopping app can essentially become a diverse focus group for brands to test the reception of each product. By identifying these consumers, brands are better able to connect with them on the digital platforms they use.

 

Strategy #3: Partner With the Right Platforms for Your Demographic

Partnering isn’t just about reaching out to consumers on a platform. It’s about understanding the resources available to brands. Most platforms offer a specific program for brands, which marketers have used with varying levels of success. A few different types of platforms to consider include the following.

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Social Media

Social media is the obvious choice when it comes to brand marketing as these platforms typically offer many features that brands can use to reach specific audiences. Facebook Ads, as an example, give brands the opportunity to share ads with consumers based on age, interests, gender, and more, providing a chance to reach high potential sales leads.

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Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing isn’t driven by platform but instead by where the influencer chooses to maintain their following. Working with an influencer could include placing ads on that influencer’s website or on an existing platform like YouTube or Facebook.

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Video Platforms

Video continues to be a significant engagement driver, with video content receiving 1200% more shares than text- or image-based content. Video platforms not only support video formats but also features like pre-roll ads and rewarded video, which tend to offer high sales conversion potential.

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Propietary Apps

Brands can choose to create in-house apps to offer consumers another way to engage with them. This strategy is something we can see with Starbuck’s top branded app, which gives consumers the ability to make purchases and skip lines at the store, as well as obtain rewards points for purchases. By offering an app that supports the purchase of their product, that app becomes an extension of their product. The issue here is that consumers who use a branded app are likely already loyal to that brand, making this a difficult place to reach a new audience.

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Third-Party Apps

Partnering with third-party apps allow brands to reach a new audience of consumers through that app’s user base. Third-party app partnerships with rewards programs as well as with popular gaming and mobile video apps work very well. These platforms provide consumers with an introduction to the brand, which can help to improve awareness of a new product.

All these platforms offer the opportunity for brands to connect with the correct audience to gain sales for new products. A few can even be a means of acquiring data ahead of a hard launch. In either case, a brand can go into the new product marketing campaign with more insight, increasing the likelihood of success.

Tying New Product Marketing Strategies Together

Breaking your marketing strategy into components makes it a much more flexible plan. In the digital age, a brand’s success with a new product will be determined based on its ability to pivot. Applying the standards of agile innovation to your marketing plan can help you gain that flexibility.

Testing marketing strategies through shopping apps can support all of this as it gives you insight into who is buying your product and why. The knowledge gained through this can help with the timing of your product launch as well as where to reach out to your target audience. Shopping apps can help improve your marketing strategies by giving you a better understanding of your consumers, which you can be ultimately used to improve sales.

Shopkick’s app allows our partners to harness the conversion potential and insights gained through an innovative shopping app that incentivizes consumer interaction. For more information about becoming a partner, contact us.

The Top Cash Back Apps for Techies in 2018

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The Top Cash Back Apps for Techies in 2018

Part of being a techie is not just keeping up with all of the latest and greatest devices. That’s important, of course, but it’s also about following major tech companies, social media platforms, and app developers in the news. I kind of follow these companies like I do sports, looking out for the rookies that I think are going to become stars someday. I’ve even noticed that there’s a trajectory those companies tend to go through: they start with an idea, then they get funding, then they start developing their idea so that it also incorporates a public-facing component, and finally they find a way to generate revenue.

It’s a kind of tried and true trajectory of the tech development world at this point. What’s funny to me though, is that I recently realized that I’ve started to take a similar path as a technology and app user. Crazy, but true. This is my path: I discover or hear about a new app or device, I spend money to get it, I play around with it, and finally, I start to use it to make money. Sometimes that means using it to make my work day or my personal life more efficient, and other times it means exactly what it sounds like. This is especially true of cash back apps.

Now, you might just happen to be totally unfamiliar with the concept of cash back apps, and, believe me, that’s okay because that’s exactly what I’m going to talk about today. Cash back apps are exactly what they sound like: apps you can use to get cash back for certain activities. In fact, today I’m going to do you one better than simply sharing the definition with you. Today I’m going to be talking about some of the top cash back apps for techies in 2018. When you’re done, hopefully, you’ll find yourself on a path to earning some of your cash back.

 

The Top Cash Back Apps for Techies 2018: CoSign

One of the most common and classic tech success stories has to do with social media platforms. As the storyline goes, someone starts a website in a garage or on a college campus. At first, they think it’s just going to be for a certain group or type of person, and then all of a sudden it explodes and ends up being worth A TON of money. At various points, we saw this happen with Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram to name a few. I have to say though, my all-time personal favorite just so happens to be Instagram, because I love sharing my photos with friends. This is also why I like using CoSign because it is an app that offers rewards.

CoSign lets me get rewarded for upgrading pictures to social media, which, let’s face it, is something that I would be doing anyway. Using CoSign, I just tag images that I put up on Instagram (or on Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc.) with information about any products that just so happen to be in my pictures—stuff like my sweet new laptop bag for work, or my cool new sneakers that I only wear sometimes because I’m not trying to get them scuffed. With CoSign, you can tag tech products, books, movies, clothes—even food. Then, if your followers and friends happen to buy any of the items that you post, you get a commission of up to 35 percent, depending on the product, which CoSign then pays you out through PayPal or gift cards, which are as good as cash at stores.

 

#2 Gigwalk

Gigwalk is fairly new to me. I just started using it somewhat recently (keeping up with the best cash back apps for techies like me is a never-ending battle), and I like it quite a bit. With Gigwalk, you just open it up on your phone, and you get a map of the area around you, a map that has a bunch of pins on it. Each pin represents a task that you can do and get paid for, and these tasks can take you anywhere from as quick as three minutes to as long as an hour to complete.

The actual gigs on Gigwalk are pretty varied in terms of what they entail, but they basically all have to do with helping brands make sure that their products are visible. It’s kind of like the app is briefly contracting you as a field marketing rep. So, as a user, you might get asked to go out to a store and take pictures of how a certain company’s branded displays look, or you might be asked to go out and verify that certain prices are still clearly listed on retail shelves. For your troubles, you get rewarded by getting cash back. I don’t usually get up and leave my home to do any of these gigs, but I do glance at the available tasks whenever I happen to be out and about running errands or getting some quick exercise at work by going for a walk.

 

#3 Ipsos

When I was younger, I used to have a reputation around my house for having strong opinions. It didn’t really matter what we were talking about—dinner, movies, toys, cartoons—I usually had something to say to my mom and my sister about it. I guess that’s why I like the next cash back app for techies on the list so much. This one is called Ipsos, and it is focused on gauging public opinion, especially when it comes to finding out what the population thinks about some weightier topics such as advertising, politics, and other things that often tend to be hot sources of debate on the national level, you know, the things that your parents maybe told you not to discuss in mixed company.

The average user of Ipsos gets about eight survey invitations a month, which can be accepted or declined. Like I said, someone like me who has a long history of voicing his feelings is probably going to accept all eight, but how many you do in a given month is really left up to your discretion. Users can earn points for completing each survey, and those points can then be cashed in for prizes, including gift cards that are 100 percent as good as cash, especially seeing as you get to pick which store the gift cards are from. The number of points earned per survey depends on its length, difficulty, and other factors, such as what demographics you belong to. I guess Ipsos can tell what I like to talk about because I often find myself getting a lot of surveys about one of my favorite things: technology.

 

#4 Shopkick

I don’t try to play favorites with my devices and apps—mostly because I have way too many and that would be really hard—but I think of all the top cash back apps that I’ve been using to make money in 2018, my favorite is this app called Shopkick. I don’t hate shopping, but it’s also not my favorite thing in the world. The reason that Shopkick has become one of my favorite cash back apps is that it has actually helped me look forward to my trips out to the store. If you would have asked me if I thought something could ever make me excited to go out to the store a few years ago, I probably would have laughed. I just always used to see shopping as a hassle, something that takes up too much of my valuable time.

How this app works is actually pretty simple: you go out and you do all of the same things that you do whenever you go to the store, things like physically walking into the store, scanning the barcodes on certain products for more information, and, of course, making your purchases. Once you’re finished, just use the app to scan your receipt, and Shopkick then dishes out all the points that you earned that day for your efforts. You can then trade in your points for gift cards to many of your favorite stores, and, as I’m sure you are well aware of, those gift cards are just as good as cash. Another really cool thing about Shopkick is that it also just so happens to have a grocery list functionality, which is really helpful for someone like me, who hardly ever uses pencil and paper these days to make lists. Without a grocery list app on my phone, I’d be a million times more likely to forget all the things I needed.

Finally, one last thing that I really like about Shopkick is that I can use it to get rewards for both shopping online and in person. In those cases, instead of getting points for walking into a store or for scanning the barcodes on a certain item, I instead get my points for watching product videos online, and, of course, for also making purchases. There’s just so many ways to get cash back with Shopkick.

 

#5 Swagbucks

It’s not quite as good as Shopkick, but another cool cash back app for techies that I’ve been using a lot in 2018 is Swagbucks. Most of the ways to earn your cash back through Swagbucks are things that techies like me (and I’m guessing you too if you’re reading this) do online already, including searching, playing games, watching videos, and taking surveys. All you have to do is incorporate Swagbucks into your daily digital routine. It’s that easy.

For example, I open up the Swagbucks app, just as I would any of my social media apps, and check out the many ways to earn points. I might take a survey, watch an informational video, or do whatever else the app is awarding points for. Swagbucks doesn’t pay that great—usually just $0.01 to $0.36 per task—but if you’re always on your device, like me, that can add up. Once you get at least $3 you can cash out via PayPal or gift cards.

It’s amazing how much we can do from the palms of our hands with smartphones. In the early days of smartphones, I can remember being excited because I was able to check and send emails for work from anywhere. Nowadays, there’s so much more I can do, including using a wide array of cash back apps.

I like using all of them, and they’re all a valuable part of my efforts to get cash back from using my smartphone, but if I had to choose one, it would definitely be Shopkick. Not only is it the most effective, but it helped me—that’s right, me—start to look forward to going out to the store. Now that’s a piece of technology that I can get behind.

Get to know the many different ways that techies can get cash back using Shopkick and start collecting your points to trade in today. Download Shopkick’s free app and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered how much you can earn with the help of a free shopping sidekick.

And, if you’re on social media catching up with friends, be sure to also join Shopkick on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for a little daily fun and inspiration.

The highest kicks of the season are HERE!

Posted on by shopkick

Don’t miss HUGE upcoming kicks in stores and online! Our Blue Weekend event runs from June 8, 2018 through June 10, 2018. Check out the kick plan below to see how to earn your kicks during the biggest kick event of the season, or open the app to start earning kicks now!

BIG KICKS IN-STORE
June 8 – 10
100 kicks
6/9 ONLY
brought to you by
50 kicks
6/8-6/10
100s of kicks
6/8-6/10
1000s of kicks
6/8-6/10
30 kicks
6/8-6/10
brought to you by
100s of kicks
6/8 & 6/10 ONLY
1000s of kicks
6/8 & 6/10 ONLY
50 kicks
6/9
brought to you by
100 kicks
6/9 ONLY
100 kicks
6/9 ONLY
200 kicks
6/8-6/10
10 kicks/$1
6/8-6/10
200 kicks
6/8-6/10
8 kicks/$1
6/8-6/10
6 kicks/$1
6/8-6/10
6 kicks/$1
6/8-6/10
2 kicks/$1
*Scan your
Shopkick QR code
6/8-6/10
150 kicks
6/9 ONLY
2 kicks/$1
*Also at
Fabletics.com
6/8-6/10
2 kicks/$1
6/8-6/10
10 kicks/$1
6/8-6/10
6 kicks/$1
6/8-6/10
25 kicks
6/8-6/10
50 kicks
6/8 ONLY
brought to you by

 

BIG KICKS ONLINE
June 8-10

15 kicks/$1

15 kicks/$1

15 kicks/$1

15 kicks/$1

15 kicks/$1

25 kicks/$1

15 kicks/$1

15 kicks/$1

15 kicks/$1

15 kicks/$1

15 kicks/$1

15 kicks/$1

3500 kicks

1200 kicks

 

*Exclusions apply, check the app for details.

 

Happy shopkicking!

Start earning rewards today!

Don’t have Shopkick yet? Download today to start earning free gift cards for the shopping you already do!

How to earn a gift card using free apps

Posted on by shopkick

One piece of advice that I’ve learned over and over again as a shopper is that there’s more than one way to find what you want. This has especially become true with online shopping. Way back when, in order to find a certain type of electronic device or that absolutely perfect blouse you saw last week on display, you had to go to one specific store that sold it, and if that store didn’t have it, well, you were just out of luck.

Thankfully, that’s no longer the case. Because now, I’m able to have my go-to online shopping sites, brick-and-mortar stores, and vintage and consignment shops when I’m looking for the perfect clothes for all seasons and occasions: winter, summer, work, exercise, going out, you name it! This same attitude also applies to savings strategies, like sales, deals, and gift cards. In fact, that last one is what I want to talk about today. There is more than one way to earn a gift card, and today I’d like to share with you how to earn a gift card using free apps.ways to earn a gift card

Gift cards earned through free apps have actually become a cornerstone of my hybrid shopping routine, both online and in my favorite stores. Today, I want to share some of that shopping love with all of you!

How to Earn a Gift Card Using Free Apps for Surveys

One of the most common ways to earn a gift card using free apps is by taking surveys. That’s where Ipsos comes in. The Ipsos app’s mission is to find out what the public thinks, especially when it comes to topics like advertising, politics, and other sources of debate on the national level. The way Ipsos works is that the average user receives about eight survey invitations each month, which they can then accept or deny. For completing each survey, users get points that can later be cashed in for prizes, including gift cards to many different places, which to me are just as good as cash.

There are so many different survey apps out there, with more and more new ones seeming to pop up every week, but Ipsos is certainly one of the most popular. If you are looking for a survey app that will give you gift cards, know that you can use Ipsos via a smartphone app, which gives it a leg up over some other survey platforms that require you to use a desktop computer.

How to Earn a Gift Card Through the Lock Screen on Your Phone

You know the lock screen on your phone, the one you see every time you hit a button on your device without unlocking it first? That screen can give you free gift cards. Well, with the help of an app called Fronto, that is. All you have to do is be willing to swap out whatever photo you have there now, whether it’s stock wallpaper, a photo from your vacation, or a cute snapshot of your kids.

Opt in to receive news and ads selected by Fronto and each time you view one of these of ads, you’ll earn points. Sometimes the app will ask you an interactive question to help you earn extra points. Once you have earned at least $10 worth of points, you can exchange them for free gift cards. A word of advice, though, for those of you who are tethered to your phone all day like I am: Fronto can be a bit rough on your data plan and your battery life, so make sure you have available data—and a full battery—before you download it.

How to Earn a Gift Card for Shopping

Taking surveys and renting out the lock screen space on your phone are both great ways to earn a gift card with a free app, and you should definitely use them—I know I do. However, I think my absolute favorite way to earn a free gift card that helps me save money when I’m shopping is through shopping itself. That’s right, you can literally shop your way to free gift cards with a free app called Shopkick.

How it works is that Shopkick turns every trip to the store into a super fun scavenger hunt for points, which the app calls kicks. It’s also super easy to use, and the tasks that users like us have to complete for kicks are ones we do every time we go shopping anyway. At its core, Shopkick is basically a free app that pays you to shop. For example, if you download the app, then walk into a partner store, you’ll earn kicks. Scan featured item barcodes, get kicks. Buy a featured item, get more kicks! Shop from your sofa using the app, get kicks! Watch videos when you have a little downtime, get kicks! There are also “instant surprises,” kicks you can find when you look around in the app—it’s an in-app treasure hunt, you just have to look around to find them, tap on them, and collect them! Once you’ve earned enough kicks, you can then trade them in for gift cards to a super wide range of stores. One of my favorite things about Shopkick is that you really don’t have to go out of your way at all. It really is that easy!

Now, you should know that these are just my personal favorites and that there are many more out there.

I’m so glad that I got to tell you how to earn a gift card using three of my favorite free apps. Now, you should know that these are just my personal favorites and that there are many more out there. I’m sure now that you’ve learned about the game, you’ll come up with a hybrid shopping routine of your own, involving free gift card-earning apps of course.

If I had to choose just one of these apps, it would definitely be Shopkick! Like my personal shopping routine, it works both online and off, and I just can’t imagine what my budget would look like without all the free gift cards I’ve been earning through Shopkick.

Ready to take your online and brick-and-mortar shopping games to the next level? Start using Shopkick today to earn gift cards for free. Just download Shopkick and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered the rewards of shopping with us!

And, if you love using your smartphone to stay up on social media, join us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for daily shopping inspiration.

Image courtesy Rido81