What is Shopkick?
This Shopkick review will serve as a comprehensive guide to make your next shopping experience more beneficial. To reap these benefits, it is essential for us to understand what Shopkick exactly is.
Shopkick aims at making everyday shopping more rewarding and personal than it already is. It allows you to earn points (which are redeemable for benefits) while you follow your normal shopping routine.
The unique thing about this app is that it works not only for online shopping but in-store as well!
How Does Shopkick Work?
Shopkick helps you earn points by walking in stores, scanning items and/or purchasing them and these points are then redeemed for a gift card of your choice.
Shopkick offers a great selection of rewards to choose from and its user friendly interface makes earning easy and fun.
How do I Sign Up for Shopkick?
The Shopkick sign-up process is easy and just takes a few minutes.
You will have to enter some basic information about yourself i.e. your name, gender, email etc.
It is not mandatory for you to link any of your personal information like a debit or a credit card.
While linking your bank cards could earn you more kicks, it is not a necessity. The app will work just as well if you skip that step.
A part of the sign up process is to refer Shopkick to your friends.
This is an optional step, however it does offer an incentive. You earn 250 kicks if your friends or family use your referral link.
After this, your sign-up process is complete and you can browse on the main Shopkick page and start earning!
How to Get Started with Shopkick?
Here is a brief guide on how to start earning with Shopkick.
- Download the app: Shopkick is available both on the Google PlayStore and the AppStore.
- Choose your reward: Here you choose the gift card you want to earn points for. You can change your gift card preference anytime. On the app, the gift cards available range from 500-75000 kicks and the higher amount of kicks you have, the more you can benefit.
- Create an account: Sign up for Shopkick using your facebook account, your google account or your email. An automated email from Shopkick will confirm your identification.
- Invite friends: This step isn’t mandatory, you can totally skip it, but if a friend uses your referral code you get awarded with 250 kicks.
- Complete the offers: The app will show you all the options where you can scan or purchase an item to earn kicks. You can either shop online and earn points for purchasing, or walk into the store and earn points for walking in, scanning and purchasing.
- Stores: you can also view items categorised into specific stores and shop by stores rather than individual items.
- Ways to earn kicks: I will be elaborating on this later, but there are four ways to earn money using Shopkick; walk ins, scanning, purchasing and shopping portals. Earn however you want according to your convenience.
- Redemption of kicks: On this screen you will find your previously chosen reward (gift card) as well as an option to change it. Redeem your points with your choice of gift card and shop away!
How do I Earn with Shopkick?
There are four ways you can earn points in Shopkick. These are; walk-ins, in store scans, purchases and shopping portals.
The shopping portals are kind of inferior compared to the other three which are more popular and easier to get points from, therefore, in this review we’re gonna be focusing on those.
- Walk-ins: This is the easiest way to earn ‘kicks’.
Shopkick offers you points every time you walk into a store.
You have to have your shopkick app on and your bluetooth on (so that it connects to the store’s server) and shopkick automatically collects points and adds them to your account.
The points usually range between 150-250 points for simply entering the store (sometimes you don’t have to enter it and your points are added even if you drive past a store), but it offers increased points i.e. up-to 350 on weekend walk ins.
However, keep in mind that you can’t infinitely earn points by entering stores, there is a certain limit. The stores put you on what’s called a “cool down” period, meaning that you will resume earning points after a few days.
- In store scanning: You don’t stop earning points once you enter the store. You can further earn points by scanning items that shopkick is trying to promote on their app.
Most items that earn you points for scanning reward you with 10 kicks, but there is a good mix of items that offer 25 or 50 kicks per scan.
You can double up on these points and earn upto 200 more kicks if you purchase the scanned item.
- Purchases: You can also earn points by purchasing items. The app offers you a great amount of kicks for specific buys like 600 points for instant pasta.
Another way you can earn kicks is when your store offers a kick per dollar rate.
In this case, either you will have to a) connect your credit card to the app and it will register that way, b) the store will ask you for a receipt or c) the store will have a barcode scanning procedure.
What are the Rewards?
A single point or ‘kick’ amounts to $0.004.
You can redeem your kicks in the form of a gift card.
If you have, for example, 500 kicks, you can get a gift card made for $2. Mostly, stores offer redemption of kicks on 500, 1250, 6250 or 12500 points i.e. $2, $5, $25 or $50.
The store has a barcode scanner in store or a gift card code that you can use online to reap the benefits of your points.
Is Shopkick Legit?
Shopkick has been around since 2009 and has driven over $2.5 billion in total sales.
It has given out over $80 million as cash backs to its users.
It is a completely free app that actually works and has partnered with most of your favourite retailers, helping you earn money even if you just walk into the store.
The app has a 4.3 star rating on the PlayStore, coming from hundreds of thousands of people.
The biggest factor for me, that makes me believe that this is legit, is the fact that the company frequently puts out articles with tips and tricks for users to earn more and more money.
They seem genuine in their attempts and like they actually want people to benefit from this app.
Pros and Cons of Using Shopkick
Here is a list of pros and cons about Shopkick that will help you make an informed decision.
PROS:
- It’s a 100% free to use. You do not have to spend a single cent to benefit from Shopkick.
- It is legitimate. You can earn rewards in the form of cash/gift cards.
- It’s a good tool to make your shopping more fun.
- You learn about various store sales.
- The app interface is user-friendly and easy to comprehend.
- Earning reward points or “kicks” is easy.
- There is a vast selection of available rewards.
CONS:
- It might take a while to collect points or “kicks”.
- You need a lot of points to even get a small gift card.
- Not all stores are partners with this app (even though the app offers a great selection of stores)
- You do not earn actual money. You can only earn money in the form of gift cards.
- This is not really a deal breaker but it might affect you if you’re someone who’s really concerned about their privacy. This app requires a lot of permissions while signing up in order for the app to work; for example, access to your contact information, identity, SMS details, camera, microphone etc.
Tips For Earning Faster with Shopkick
Turn on your Shopkick alerts and/or try checking the app daily.
There are limited time offers and bonus kicks offers that you may miss out on otherwise. It doesn’t take long and might land you with some free kicks.
Make use of the referral earning system as much as possible.
It’s an easy way to earn kicks without really doing much. You can earn upto 2500 points by sharing your referral code with friends and relatives and in addition to the 250 points that you earn when they use your code, you also get a part of their earning for 14 days!
Share your referral code on any social media site that you use like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr etc., this will encourage people to use your code and making it easier for you to earn additional kicks.
An effortless way to earn more kicks is to scan as many items as possible. It takes barely a minute and is an easy way to earn a few extra hundred points.
Search for the scan any item option when you enter a store. Many stores offer 25 kicks for scanning of any and every item. This will make earning kicks much easier as you don’t have to look for specific items.
Make sure that your Shopkick app is turned on whenever you’re outside. Sometimes you don’t even have to walk in the store, Shopkick automatically detects shops around you and adds points to your account.
You can also earn additional kicks by watching ad videos. There are often videos available when you click on the discover icon, these short videos are an easy way to earn kicks.
Consider linking your credit card to Shopkick for additional points. You might be a bit wary of connecting your card to this app, but since Shopkick is 100% safe and legitimate, you can try and earn more kicks.
Check out the Shopkick blog. It is run by Shopkick itself and frequently shares tips and tricks on how to use Shopkick in a more efficient manner which is best interest of the consumer.
Conclusion
Shopkick is a great shopping companion that helps you earn gift cards for free. Their service is 100% legit with a lot of happy customers that benefit from it everyday.
If you’re looking for a way to earn money while doing the bare minimum (literally, the most you would have to do is walk into a store), Shopkick is a great app for you.