CVS/pharmacy joins Shopkick as inaugural retail pharmacy partner

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Shopkick, a shopping application that rewards shoppers for walking into stores and interacting with products, has teamed up with CVS/pharmacy to roll out a first-ever offering of walk-in and other rewards at a retail pharmacy, Shopkick announced on Tuesday.



The program kicks off with a special offer, kicking $5 back to shoppers who visit participating CVS/pharmacy locations with the Shopkick app. 



“The CVS/pharmacy partnership with Shopkick is another exciting step in our ongoing efforts to expand our mobile capabilities for our digitally minded customers,” stated Rob Price, CMO for CVS/pharmacy. “We’re looking forward to working with Shopkick and to delivering on our goal of creating the most personalized and accessible shopping experience for our customers.”
 


CVS/pharmacy customers will receive Shopkick’s cross-retail currency “kicks” for walking in to 1-of-150 stores throughout the San Francisco Bay area, and will receive special offers and opportunities to interact with partner brands throughout their shopping experience. CVS/pharmacy customers will also receive additional kicks when they make a purchase with a MasterCard or Visa card through Shopkick’s “Buy & Collect” program.
 


CVS/pharmacy customers can also redeem kicks for CVS/pharmacy gift cards in the Shopkick Rewards Mall. 
 

“Adding CVS/pharmacy is a big addition for Shopkick users since many CVS/pharmacy customers typically shop several times per week, whether picking up a prescription or shopping for other household or beauty needs. Now customers can earn even more ‘kicks’ rewards for those visits and purchases,” stated Doug Galen, Shopkick’s chief revenue officer. “CVS/pharmacy is the latest top player in Shopkick’s rapidly expanding Partner Alliance. It’s incredibly innovative for the category, and we’re thrilled to have CVS/pharmacy on board.”
 


To provide rewards to shoppers actually walking in stores, the Shopkick app detects a Shopkick signal, emitted from a patent-pending device located in each participating store and picked up by a shopper’s smartphone handset. Because the store is focused on rewarding actual visitors, it then delivers “kicks” via the app, which can be collected at all participating partner store locations. Kicks are redeemed for in-store gift cards, song downloads, movie tickets, Facebook Credits, donations to charities and more.



Because Shopkick is able to accurately detect actual presence inside participating stores, partner retailers ensure that marketing dollars put into the Shopkick program are being spent to reward customers who are physically present in the store, translating into higher value rewards for the shopper, Shopkick stated.


Launched in August 2010, there are now more than 6,500 individual stores across multiple retailers and 300 of the country’s largest malls that have deployed Shopkick’s technology. In addition, at more than 250,000 other stores across America, Shopkick offers smaller rewards for interacting with products from brand partners. Even more rewards can be earned for making purchases at participating partner retailers through Shopkick’s Buy & Collect program.
 


Shopkick is available for free on the iPhone from the App Store and for Android from Google Play.