Mobile app shopkick has gained significant buzz for its program that offers rewards and coupons to shoppers who download a free shopkick app to their iPhone or Android device, walk into a store, and take actions such as scan bar codes or special posters. Much of the buzz stems from shopkick signing deals to put its system in all American Eagle Outfitters Inc. and Target Corp. stores in the U.S.
Now, a new mobile coupon app called Clip’d delivers mobile coupons to shoppers at stores in malls. Consumers can download the free app via Apple Inc.’s iTunes store for the iPhone or via Google Play, Google Inc.’s digital marketplace, for phones that operate on the Android platform. Stores in 128 malls nationwide are using Clip’d and participating stores include Macy’s and Jos. A Banks.
To use the app, consumers choose a default mall (Clip’d offers nearby malls based on a smartphone’s GPS) in their area and can then pull up stores in the mall that offer discounts via Clip’d. Because the app uses geoloaction, users only see coupons that are relevant for the mall they are in. The next time users walk into a participating mall, the app will deliver a push notification asking them if they would see the coupons that are available for that location. For example, the Fox Valley mall in Aurora, IL, currently offers Clip’d users 20% off a purchase of $50 or more at children’s apparel retailer The Children’s Place and $10 off a $50 purchase at teen apparel retailer Aeropostale, in addition to many other offers. Once a consumer selects a coupon, she can tap “Send to Wallet to Redeem,” to save the deal in a special virtual wallet within the app. When she is ready to check out she goes to her wallet, taps redeem and shows the coupon to the associate to get her discount.
In addition to in-store coupons, Clip’d also tells consumers about current sales in each mall and offers movie trailers, TV show previews and celebrity videos from advertisers such as Lucky Magazine, a print and digital magazine about fashion and shopping
The app was tested in four pilot malls in July in a 10 week pilot study. During the pilot, of those people who downloaded the app, about half of the people that put a coupon in their wallet redeemed it. In some cases, the redemption was as high as 75%. The higher the value of the offer, the higher the redemption rate was, says Bill Ketchan, execitive vice president and chief marketing officer of Adspace Networks, the company that launched the app. Participating stores now include: Macy’s, Express, Stride Rite, Sears Portrait, Things Remembered, Solstice, Crabtree & Evelyn, Aeropostale and Jos. A. Banks.
Adspace Networks, operator of the mall-based digital advertising network Adspace Digital Mall Network, is marketing the app with 15- and 30-second spots on more than 1,700 high-definition screens in malls across the U.S. The spots promote specific coupons and show shoppers how to download the app.
While apps like Clip’d and shopkick have signed big-name retailers, a recent study from Deloitte LLC suggests stores may do better with their own branded store apps because consumers using them to help shop in stores buy more often than when they use applications provided by others.
85% of consumers who said they used a retailer’s own mobile app to help them shop in a store made a purchase on that shopping trip versus 71% who said they made a purchase when they used shopping apps operated by another company.
Macy’s is No. 21 in the Internet Retailer Mobile 400, Express is No. 82, Sears is 29 and Aeropostale is No. 104.