US shopping app Shopkick expands to Germany

Shopping app Shopkick has expanded into its first international market by launching the app in Germany. From day one it has partnered up with major retailers like Douglas, Media Markt and Saturn, OBI and Karstadt and brands including P&G, Henkel and GSK.

Shopkick, an app with which shoppers can receive redeemable points for taking actions in a physical store, has a new backend which makes the app quickly and easily scalable across countries and languages. First market is Germany, the largest economy and retail market in Europe. “We are going to Germany because it is Europe’s largest and the world’s fourth largest economy, and has one of the highest smartphone penetration levels in the world”, said Cyriac Roeding, the German-born CEO and co-founder of Shopkick.

“We will be national in Germany from day one, with 1,400 stores. There has never been an app to offer walk-in rewards at all locations of any German retailer and yet Shopkick kicks it off with five large players”, he says. “That’s true testament to what we’ve proven in the American market, and we’re excited that German shoppers can now reap the benefits.”

Shopkick locations in Germany
The German network of Shopkick is comprised of more than 1,400 stores: all locations of Douglas (largest beauty retailer in Germany), Media Markt and Saturn (together the largest consumer electronics retail chain in Germany), OBI (one of the largest do-it-yourself retailers in Germany), and Karstadt (one of the largest department stores in Germany) are included. Shopkick partners up with brand partners P&G, Henkel and GSK.

Shopkick will do everything in its power to make the app also successful in Germany. It went into a strategic partnership with German mass media company ProSiebenSat. 1, which will run Shopkick television commercials as well as integrate it into “some of the countries’ largest mobile apps”, as the press release states.

About Shopkick
Shopkick launched in the US in 2009 and has expanded to 10,000 large retail stores across 15 national partners. In January 2014, it was rated the most used real-world shopping app by Nielsen. The app shows the best deals and products and delivers high-value rewards in a currency killed “kicks” for several actions shoppers take as they go shopping. They get rewarded for being present in a store, interacting with products and of course purchasing products in participating stores. Kicks can be redeemed for store gift cards, a free coffee or dinner, song donwloads, movie tickets, et cetera.