Category: News

Shopkick welcomes new Chief Technology Officer

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This week Shopkick is thrilled to announce the appointment of our new CTO, Chethan Visweswar. With more than 20 years of experience in Silicon Valley building large scale enterprise SaaS applications, Visweswar brings deep knowledge in software development, mobile applications and customer adoption for travel, loyalty and enterprise companies.

Some of his recent career highlights include:

  • Upleveling company performance: Helping orchestrate business travel software company Deem, Inc.’s growth through product strategy and technology vision.
  • Modernizing technology: Leading efforts on Coupa’s first supplier management and analytics products and modernizing the expense product.

In addition to senior roles at Deem, Inc. and Coupa, Visweswar has held engineering and product roles at Merced Systems, Outerbay Technologies (acquired by HP), WebVan, Inc. and Wipro Technologies. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Bangalore University in India.

Read the full press release.

Welcome to the team, Chethan!

Rewarding consumer experiences anytime, anywhere

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Bill Demas, Chief Executive Officer

Our vision as a company is to create rewarding consumer experiences for our users anytime, anywhere. We are taking another step in fulfilling that vision today by releasing a web version of Shopkick. This gives users more ways to earn kicks and discover new products, brands and services.

For our partners, the expansion to desktop completes our omnichannel solution, offering deeper insight into consumer behavior across channels and throughout the fragmented shopping journey. Brands and retailers now have the opportunity to reward our users for shopping across desktop, mobile and brick and mortar.

Launch partners include Walmart, Macy’s, Groupon, JCPenney, Sephora, Sam’s Club, Payless, the Body Shop, Stride Rite, Ann Taylor, Loft, Nordstrom, Francesca’s, Lane Bryant, Foot Locker, Sur La Table, and See’s Candies. In addition, we continue to expand our online merchants in the Shopkick app. Most recently we have added Asos, eBags, Etsy, Fandango, the Home Shopping Network, Hulu, Lane Bryant, and Living Social.

Stay tuned for more announcements coming soon on our exciting product roadmap! To learn more about our new e-commerce offering, get in touch at partners@shopkick.com.

If you have any feedback on this new initiative or any other Shopkick omnichannel solution, send me your thoughts at ceo@shopkick.com.

2018 tax refund trends: early filers spending on travel

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If the only sure things in life are death and taxes, then tax refund spending is surely a seasonal shopping moment that shouldn’t be ignored. We recently conducted a survey to find out when Americans file their returns, and how they plan to spend their refunds.

The majority of those surveyed (66%) expect a refund this year and nearly 80% plan to spend at least part of it – and they plan to do so soon. Travel was a common theme, with 23% of people planning to spend tax refunds on a vacation.

70% of respondents file as soon as they receive W2s, compared with just 6% that wait until April to file. And the earlier you file, the earlier you can spend your refund. For the 23% of respondents planning to spend their refund on a much-needed vacation, filing early can make all the difference when it comes to finding and booking the cheapest flights, hotels and entertainment.

“We filed our tax return the minute our W2s came in January,” said Oklahoma City resident Kendra Barreda. “We’re planning our family summer vacation now and 90 percent of the funding for our road trip out west to Disneyland is coming from our tax refund. This isn’t the first year we’ve used our tax refund on vacation either, last year we took the family to Universal Studios and Harry Potter World thanks to our refund!”

Returns aren’t just going to vacations, however. Other ways Americans will be spending their refunds this year include:

  • Doubling down on debt: 62 percent will put their tax refund toward paying down existing debt
  • Being basic: 36 percent will use the money to pay for everyday expenses
  • Loving life: Home improvement projects (19 percent), major investments like a car or home (17 percent), self-care (16 percent) and shopping spree (11 percent) round out reported spending

Twenty-four percent of people will be saving the entirety of their refund by:

  • Sticking it in savings: 70 percent will send it into their savings account
  • Preparing for the worst: 17 report using the refund to create an emergency fund
  • Being sensible: 3 percent plan to invest in retirement accounts, the stock market or college savings accounts, respectively
  • Keeping It old school: 4 percent will stash the goods under their mattress

Shopkick now offers opportunities to earn rewards when booking travel through a variety of partnerships with leading travel sites Booking.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire and CheapOair.

Valentine’s Day Shopping Habits: Survey Results

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It’s that time of year again, when kids bring valentines to school, romantics make grand gestures and the flower and chocolate businesses boom. We’ve polled Shopkick users to find out what kind of gift giving they are planning this year, and how gender, family, and age come into play.

According to our survey, men are spending more than twice as much as women: an average of $207.60 on their significant other and $70.24 on their children. On the other half of the heart, women plan to spend $89.54 on their sweeties and $40.30 on the little ones.

Some more key insights on Valentine’s day shopper behavior include:

  • Guys are more giving: More men (40 percent) than women (31 percent) believe it’s “very important” to give a Valentine’s Day gift
  • But most don’t care about getting in return: Fifty-five percent of men don’t find it at all important to receive a gift, and not many of either gender find it very important; only 17 percent of women and 11 percent of men
  • Getting crafty: Women are more likely than men to make a gift (15 percent vs. 7 percent) or give experiences (16 percent vs. 10 percent)
  • Tried and true: The most popular gifts are the traditional dinner out (27 percent) or flowers and chocolate (21 percent)

And finally, despite the reports that having children kills romance, mom and dad still plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Seventy-six percent of parents consider themselves romantic and 38 percent start planning the big day a month in advance; 55 percent are more excited about Valentine’s Day since becoming a parent.

Wishing all of our partners and friends a very happy V-day!

2018 trends from Shopkick’s CEO

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With 2018 officially underway, Shopkick CEO Bill Demas shares some of the most important trends that brands and retailers need to keep top of mind to succeed this year.

  1. Real-time is key. Being able to track and react to shopper behavior across environments, stores and platforms will be key for sophisticated marketing. Shopkick helps expose otherwise opaque behavioral data, and it’s often what most directly impacts bottom line.
  2. One source to rule them all. While the world is now rich with data, it’s often piecemeal, and weaving together a complete picture of a brand’s impact, or an individual shopper’s path to purchase is time consuming and muddy. A central source of first-party data will be table stakes for future marketing.
  3. Fight for the full funnel. Rather than wasting resource divvying spend among initiatives, future marketing will examine holistic metrics vs. an amalgamation of the various parts. As consumers become savvier and channels continue to multiply, it’s the whole of a campaign that matters for ROI vs. any one element.
  4. The race to the bottom is done…and most brands and retailers lose. Only the giants can compete in this race, and no one else can even begin to approach them. So stop trying. Brands and retailers must compete on different value propositions – of experience, excellence, exclusivity and other elements that don’t dilute brand value.
  5. Pay for performance will gain prominence. In uncertain times, guaranteed returns will grow increasingly valuable.
  6. No room for fakes. Brands won’t tolerate fraud, so safe haven media buys are essential.
  7. New formats will change behaviors. Augmented Reality, incentivized video (already huge in Asia/S. Korea), and shoppable branded content (Pinterest) will change how and where people buy products.

While there are many trends already starting to take shape this year, we believe these are the biggest and most important for brands and retailers. It will behoove marketers to pay attention to each of these and think about what they mean for your business as we move forward into 2018.

5 Trends from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday

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Throughout the beginning of the year, the media was consumed with stories of a retail apocalypse; exemplified by mounting bankruptcies and store closures as well as consumer spending shifting away from retail and towards experiences, dining and travel.  So all eyes were on the biggest shopping weekend of the year, Thanksgiving-Cyber Monday, to evaluate both the current health and the long-term viability of the beleaguered retail industry.

The results? Blockbuster sales all weekend long for both physical and online retailers, propelled forward by aggressive promotions and a surge in mobile shopping. Adobe Analytics reported that American consumers spent $19.62 billion online over the five-day period from Nov. 23, 2017 (Thanksgiving) through Nov. 27 (Cyber Monday). This was $2.6 billion and 15% more than they spent during the same timeframe last year. At Shopkick, our users actively shopped throughout the long weekend both in-stores and on their phones at retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, TJX, Walmart, Kohls and eBay.

Below, we explore 5 key Thanksgiving-Cyber Monday trends and what they mean for the rest of the holiday shopping season.

1. Shopping is spread out throughout the whole weekend

Given that discounts are readily available to consumers year-round, and holiday discounts started in early November, Black Friday has mostly lost its significance as THE make-or-break shopping day. Also the nature of the event has changed, as better online and mobile experiences has meant that the days of millions of consumers waiting outside for doorbuster deals and enduring jostling crowds are largely over as consumers can shop from the comfort of their own homes or phones.

While Shoppertrak found that foot traffic did decline on Thanksgiving and Black Friday by 1.6% from last year, sales were up, especially online sales.  Thanksgiving Day saw a surge in online spending in the U.S., with purchases growing 18.3% to $2.87 billion compared to last year’s $1.3 billion, according to Adobe Analytics. On Black Friday, a record $5.03 billion was spent online, an increase of 16.9% over last year and a new record for the day. A good deal of the shopping took place on the websites of physical retailers – not just online only retailers. Finally, on Cyber Monday, a record $6.59 billion was spent online, an increase of 16.8 % over 2016, making it the largest mostly U.S.-based online shopping day in history and nearly a billion dollars more than last year at $5.6 billion.

2. A surge in mobile shopping

Consumers are now much more comfortable shopping and transacting on mobile devices. On Black Friday, Adobe reported smartphones accounted for 45% of visits and 26% of revenue for online retailers, working out to just under $2 billion in sales. On Cyber Monday, purchases made on smartphones broke records with $2 billion in sales. Adobe said early data for Cyber Monday activity showed mobile driving nearly 40% of online sales.

Another positive sign is that conversion rates on mobile are improving, due to improved apps, wallet integrations, and mobile transactions closing at a 12 percent higher rate year on year. Conversion rates on smartphones were at 3.5%, a 10% increase over last year according to Adobe.

3. Amazon vs. everyone else

Amazon continued to assert its dominance, and not just on Cyber Monday. Amazon accounted for half of Black Friday online sales. Based on web traffic, Amazon and Walmart increased their combined market share by 1.5%, while Target, JCPenney, and Sears all lost ground. Cyber Monday was Amazon’s biggest shopping day in company history, beating out the previous record holder, Prime Day. Amazon isn’t planning on slowing down anytime soon as their Amazon Prime subscriber growth — in terms of both numbers and how much they spend — sets them up nicely for the rest of the season.

4. Differences between online and in-store shopping

NRF and Prosper Insights found that more Americans shopped both in-stores and online, rather than sticking with just one channel. 38% of shoppers shopped both online and in-stores whereas 33% shopped online only and 29% shopped in-store only. These multichannel shoppers are more valuable to retailers, spending $82 more on average than the online-only shopper, and $49 more on average than those shoppers who only shopped in stores.

Aside from shoppers, successful omnichannel retailers are tailoring their marketing and merchandising strategies to each shopping environment. Walmart, for example, had more discounts online for heavy or bulky items like electronics that are more suitable for shipping, whereas in-store was stocked with deals for smaller, impulse buys.

5. Driving the sale: differentiated experience or discounts

Retailers essentially had 2 options to drive sales during this time: either rely on discounts or create a differentiated experience. Those that can drive sales through differentiated experiences, such as product assortment or a stellar in-store and mobile experience will protect their margins and equity against those that solely rely on heavy discounting.

Smart, not blanket, promotional strategies will win out as retailers are under tremendous pressure to feed today’s discount-driven consumer, with research showing that more than 60% of holiday shoppers are motivated by discounts. In fact, retailers have already discounted goods 10% more this year than last. These major discounts early in the holiday season lead consumers to believe that deeper discounts will be coming.

A positive outlook for the rest of the season!

While the immediate week following Black Friday was slower, as consumers recuperate and remember the doorbuster deals, December is poised to be strong for retailers. Healthy economic conditions for consumers and strong confidence should result in robust sales for physical and online retailers alike. Retailers must focus on strategies that engage shoppers across channels with relevant content, merchandise, experiences and promotions.

Continue the battle to defend net neutrality

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With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just behind us and the busy holiday shopping season still very much in swing, our free and open Internet is still at risk. We have tried to fend off the attacks, but the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) is now calling for a December 14 vote to end Net Neutrality as we know it.

What is Net Neutrality?

Right now we have access to every website from every Internet connection in the world. This freedom of information is easy to gloss over and often taken for granted. After all, this is all we know – the Internet started this way and has always been this way. Net Neutrality is the basic principle that protects our free speech on the Internet.

What are we fighting for?

Today, this very fundamental right is under threat. The companies that provide the Internet network connections (telecom and cable companies mostly) want to charge more for our right to access certain websites depending on the content within them. This will mean that the Internet will become more like cable TV, and will offer premium ‘channels/websites’ for an additional fee.

Furthermore, the free and open internet is fueling economic growth with e-commerce growing to nearly $400 billion in retail sales last year. Our current net neutrality rules support innovation and free and open competition for retailers and entrepreneurs.

The FCC recently released a draft order that would end this open commerce. Without net neutrality, internet service providers will be able to favor certain websites and e-businesses, or the platforms they use to garner new customers. They can control the speed at which content is delivered to visitors based on how much the websites and businesses pay.

What can we do about it?

At Shopkick, we proudly join many major tech companies including Airbnb, Reddit, and Pinterest in the fight to save Net Neutrality. Together, we can stop censorship and corruption. Our recent letter to the FCC warned of this disastrous net neutrality reversal.

This is one step in the right direction, but everyone’s help is needed. Join the battle to save the Internet.

Travel Rewards Kicking In

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Bill Demas, CEO

Introducing kicks for travel at Shopkick

We are pleased with the traction we’ve seen with our new Mobile Shopping offering since its launch in last month. In just three short weeks, we saw repeat purchase rates close to 20% at two of our leading mcommerce partners, and Shopkick users tapped 8x more than industry benchmarks.

As we continue to grow our product offerings, we focus on what our users want and pay close attention to their feedback. I love receiving emails from our users and read everything that comes to ceo@shopkick.com. One consistent theme has been requests to earn kicks while traveling. Some examples:

“Please add reward travel for Marriott, Hilton and airlines. My parents are getting old and I wanna take them on one last epic trip.”

“Want kicks to travel to a family reunion with the first cousins.”

“I am retired and love to travel. Was a foster parent for teenage girls for 15 years.  Now it’s OK to do something for me.  Want to use kicks to travel.”

Today, I am happy to announce that Shopkickers can earn kicks at hotels.com, a popular online accommodation booking website with properties all over the world, when booking a stay at one of their huge assortment of hotels.  Hotels.com is our first partner in travel with more to be announced shortly.

Now, our users can enjoy earning kicks while they travel!  After the trip, they’ll have more kicks waiting to be redeemed for gifts cards at Amazon, American Eagle, Best Buy, eBay, Groupon, Starbucks, TJ Maxx, and our ever-growing list of rewards partners.

Other additions to our mcommerce platform include Minibar and Seatgeek, which mark our entry into the alcohol delivery and ticketing spaces.  

Happy Shopkicking and feel free to reach out to me anytime at ceo@shopkick.com. I welcome your feedback!