Buy & Collect – SnipSnap

Want a Fit New Year? Here’s How to Mobile Coupon at Sporting Goods Stores:

January 2, 2013

If the holiday season’s left you feeling a little bit, well, gross, it’s time to whip yourself back into shape. Sporting goods are expensive (a good pair of running shoes would ordinarily set you back and least 100 bucks and you’ll need to update a few months in). But don’t worry! You can be fit and frugal, by searching the SnipSnap database and stacking store coupons with loyalty coupons, store sales, and other mobile savings methods. Check out how I scored my most recent pair of Nike Frees for cheap at Sports Authority with SnipSnap.

I’m an athlete, so I like to keep my favorite sporting goods store coupons to retailers like Modell’s, Sports Authority, and Dick’s together in my “Sports” coupon bundle. (Want to learn how to create your own coupon bundle? Read about ’em here.)

How can you shop savvy for your next pair of running kicks? Make sure you check out Mo’ Money’s Mobile Store Guide for tips on how to save with your smart phone at your favorite sporting goods store. Sign up for your store’s loyalty program (most have them and it’s free and easy to sign up) and start earning points towards free rewards like ten dollar gift certificates.

Next? Scour the SnipSnap database for store coupons, plus additional “bonus points” loyalty coupons, like these two for Dick’s Sporting Goods. You can use one offer to earn ten dollars off your purchase of 50 dollars or more, plus you can stack the second offer to earn double bonus point with your purchase, which puts you 200% closer to earning a ten dollar gift certificate the next time you shop at Dick’s. Plus, depending on your store location, you may be able to combine these store coupons with store sales to save even more.

What’s the best store to shop at when it comes to saving with your smart phone? It depends on what you want to buy and when you want to buy it. But here are some key tips to follow when comparison shopping for coupons. The breakdown between Modell’s, Dick’s, And Sports Authority:

Modell’s – You’ll get the most bang for your buck when it comes to loyalty points here without a coupon ($400 spent earns you a $20 coupon) but Modell’s doesn’t typically offer double or triple points bonus coupons like Dick’s does.
Dick’s – Dick’s loyalty points aren’t the best value on their own ($300 spent earns a $10 coupon) but you can rack up double or even triple points per purchase when you SnipSnap the right coupon.
Sports Authority – Sports Authority competes with Modell’s when it comes to loyalty points (every $100 spent earns a $5 coupon) and, since Sports Authority is a shopkick supported store, you can save a whole lot more. Link your credit card to shopkick’s Buy & Collect program, and you could earn 1250 kicks (enough to redeem for a $5 Starbucks card) for your $125 Sports Authority purchase. You can also redeem your kicks for Sports Authority mobile gift cards in the shopkick store (1250 kicks = $5) and stack those savings with SnipSnapped store coupons and sales.

TIP: All of the above retailers will accept each other’s competitor coupons, so don’t feel like you have to limit yourself to the store with the best coupons, even if it’s not the store with the most colorful kicks.

Shopkick 3.2: Faster Friend Referrals, New Holiday Promos, More Buy & Collect Kicks

December 20, 2012

Great news! There’s a new shopkick update. If you’re not using shopkick, come out from under your rock. Check out my previous reviews of shopkick here and here.

Shopkick’s the mobile shopping app that rewards you for the shopping you already do with “kicks” you earn by walking into stores, scanning items, and making purchases. You can redeem your kicks for smaller ticket items (like a $2 Target gift card for 500 kicks) or larger ticket items (like a pair of Nike Frees for 18,750 kicks). To give you some perspective: If you’re a typical, casual shopper, you can easily earn 500 – 1,500 kicks in a shopping day, depending on where you shop and what you buy (you’ll earn exponentially more kicks when you make a purchase at a shopkick supported store). All those kicks could add up to a free Starbucks drink (1250 kicks) at the end of a shopping day, or a free Coach handbag (75000 kicks) at the end of a fruitful shopping year.

What’s new in shopkick 3.2?

New Buy & Collect Supported Stores
Updated Friend Referrals
Contests to Win More kicks

If you’re a hard-core shopkicker, and you haven’t already done so, you need to link your credit card to shopkick now, so you can receive kicks for qualifying purchases at stores like Old Navy and Crate&Barrel. After you make a purchase that earns kicks, you’ll receive a notification and your points will bank until the return period for that particular store is over. Then the kicks are all yours. You can earn thousands of kicks this holiday season for modest purchases of around $75-$100. That means you could earn 5% back in rewards for what you would already ordinarily buy. Link your MasterCard today and earn an extra 200 bonus kicks.

Want thousands upon thousands more kicks? Shopkick’s friend referrals are the way to go. When you refer a friend to shopkick through the app (Unfortunately you can only invite friends via email right now and that kind of stinks), you’ll send her a special referral link. When she signs up via the link and starts doing a little shopkicking of her own, you’ll start to earn 50% of the kicks she accumulates in her first two weeks (up to 2500 kicks per friend). You get 100 friend referrals that qualifyy for kicks, which means, if you play the game right, you could earn 250,000 kicks, which puts you at almost the half way mark to earn a Princess cruise around the world.

The easiest way to earn kicks in the shopkick app right now is by taking advantage of all the holiday contests going on. You can enter to win thousands of kicks by scanning special items or favoriting gift ideas in the select holiday look book.

Have you updated to SnipSnap 2.0 yet? The only real way to shopkick is with coupons in tow. Check out the new, social SnipSnap and create your own curated coupon bundles to save with coupons by the dozen!

Shopkick: Buy & Collect – Earn up to 1,000 Kicks

October 8, 2012

Ok, ok. Look, I’m all about shopkick – used (almost) exclusively as a money-maker, not an evil shopaholism enabler. So, usually when I shopkick, I try not to buy anything. I try extra, extra hard. You know, because I’ll walk all the way to the other side of the mall just to collect 60 kicks at Macy’s. (Sixty kicks converts to less than 50 cents in rewards currency.) I don’t want to blow twenty bucks at the MAC counter just because shopkick compelled me to. And then I don’t want to spend two dollars for a bottle of water at the mall food court. In fact, I’ll spend the rest of the day pondering what 50 cents means to me, to starving children, my great, great, great grandmother struggling to feed a family of fourteen… you get the picture.

BUT that doesn’t mean it isn’t advantageous to use shopkick when you plan ahead to buy stuff you need anyway. Because shopkick isn’t just about walk-in kicks and item-scan kicks. If you pay attention to the “Deals & Finds” section of any store’s shopkick home screen, you know there are really great coupons, discounts, and heads up to be uncovered (like this world famous BOGO Starbucks coffee coupon at Target). What’s one of the best deals you can find? Shopkick’s Buy & Collect incentive lets you earn tons of kicks when you spend money at stores like Old Navy, Best Buy, and American Eagle. And you don’t have to shell out an enormous amount; a modest haul at old Navy ($75) will earn you 1000 kicks.

That’s almost just enough to land you a free $5 Starbucks card.

How do you get paid to buy? When you first enter the Buy & Collect page for any store, you’ll be given the option to link your Visa or MasterCard to shopkick, so it can recognize your purchases and bank your rewards. You’ll have to enter the mobile number associated with your shopkick account too, to further identify you as a Buy & Collect participant. Once you make a qualifying purchase at a participating retailer, you’ll receive a real-time notification of your kicks. Surprise!

Here’s the deal: shopkick really does pay out, especially during the holiday season, when it’s way too easy to spend $100 dollars at Best Buy. ($100 gets you 1,000 kicks.) With walk-in kicks and item-scan kicks, you could earn well enough for a $5 gift card in the shopkick store, just for buying a holiday gift (and spending a few extra minutes hunting down and scanning random merchandise with your phone. Hey – it’s only weird when you’re alone). I’ll definitely be using Buy & Collect while I scour stores for gifts this year. I’ll have plenty of free, venti pumpkin lattes to keep me going all season long.