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I Tried Shopkick: Here's My Honest Review

Review Updated
Brittney Myers
Author: Brittney Myers
Brittney Myers
Brittney Myers
Writer

Brittney started her writing career in the world of science, putting her physics degree to good use. Her journey into finance started with building her personal credit, but soon grew into a borderline obsession with credit cards and travel rewards. For the last 7 years, she has enjoyed the ability to share her expertise with readers, as well as the opportunity to interview companies and individuals making an impact on our financial lives. She wholly believe most problems can be solved with the right research -- and a good spreadsheet -- and she specializes in translating complex financial topics into actionable advice to help educate and empower readers.

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Ashley Maready
Fact Checked: Ashley Maready
Ashley Maready
Ashley Maready
Writer and Editor

Ashley Maready is a former history museum professional who made the leap to digital content writing and editing in 2021. She has a BA in History and Philosophy from Hood College and an MA in Applied History from Shippensburg University. Ashley loves creating content for the public and learning new things so she can teach others, whether it's information about salt mining, canal mules, or personal finance.

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I had trouble with Shopkick from the start, and I wasn't overly impressed even when I got it going due to disappointing earning opportunities and low rewards rates. There is a lot of potential here, however, especially if you live in a chain-store-rich area.

I think its best use would be as a good addition to another cash back app if you're hitting the stores already.

Shopkick
Best for: Shopping rewardsShopkick

Pros

  • Lots of ways to earn rewards
  • 40-plus gift card options

Cons

  • Value of rewards is very low
  • Nothing works without location access
  • You need to upload your entire receipt
  • App is buggy and slow

What is Shopkick?

Shopkick is a mobile app with which users can earn rewards for various shopping-related activities. Once you earn enough rewards, you can redeem them for gift cards for a variety of brands.

How does Shopkick work?

Shopkick rewards are called "kicks." Users can earn kicks when they:

  • Walk-in: You can earn kicks just for walking into eligible stores.
  • Scan items: You can earn kicks by scanning eligible items with your device's camera.
  • Scan receipts: You can earn kicks by purchasing eligible items. You'll need to select the items from the list of products, purchase them, then use your mobile device's camera to take a picture of your receipt.
  • Shop online: You can use links in the Shopkick app to shop online at partner retailers and earn kicks per $1 spent. Shop retailers through the Shopkick app for it to be eligible for kicks per $1 spent.
  • Watch videos: Sometimes you'll get the option to watch 15- to 30-second video ads for kicks.

You need at least 500 kicks to redeem for the cheapest gift cards. The amount of kicks required for a gift card varies by brand.

What I like about Shopkick

Earn rewards by walking in, scanning, and shopping

Shopkick app offers multiple ways to earn rewards while shopping. In fact, you don't even need to make purchases to earn kicks. The number of kicks you can earn depends on the store and products:

  • Walk-in: These typically earn 10 kicks. (In our test, only four stores were eligible to earn kicks with a walk-in.)
  • Scan items: These can earn anywhere from 5 to 25 kicks each. Most stores had between one and eight scannable items.
  • Scan receipts: How many kicks you earn varies a lot for purchases. Some items earned just 200 kicks for a purchase, while others were worth more than 2,000 kicks for a single item.
  • Shop online: Most online retailers offer a set number of kicks per $1. Kick amounts range from 1 kick per $1 up to 18 kicks per $1. The typical range seemed to be 1 to 3 kicks per $1.
  • Watch videos: You'll usually earn 1 kick per ad.

Redeem kicks for gift cards to dozens of brands

Shopkick may be categorized as a cash back app, but you don't redeem your kicks for cash in your savings account. Instead, you can redeem the kicks you earn for gift cards to more than 40 different brands.

The list of retailers includes all of the popular brands you'd expect, including:

  • Amazon
  • Apple
  • Best Buy
  • Disney
  • Starbucks
  • Walmart
  • Target

The number of kicks required to get a gift card and the minimum size gift card you can get varies by brand. For example, you can get a $2 gift card to TJ Maxx for 500 kicks. On the other hand, the minimum gift card you can get for Walmart is a $5 gift card that requires 1,250 kicks.

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What could be improved

Low rewards rates average $0.004 per kick

You won't get rich from using Shopkick. Most brands require 1,250 kicks for a $5 gift card. This gives you an effective rate of $0.004 per kick.

A typical item scan provides 10 kicks, or $0.04. This means it would take you 25 scans to earn $1. If it takes you 30 seconds to scan an item -- and in larger stores, it may take longer than that to even find the product -- you're looking at over an hour of scanning just to earn a $5 gift card.

It gets even worse when you look at the video ads. A 30-second ad earns just one kick. So you're getting paid less than $0.50 an hour to watch ads.

App is unreliable and doesn't work on all devices

When checking the app store reviews, it becomes apparent that the app isn't very reliable -- and I experienced a lot of technical issues myself.

Reviewers cited issues ranging from being unable to scan items, to receiving incorrect GPS locations for stores, to error messages when trying to redeem rewards for gift cards.

For my test, it took 15 minutes and multiple reloads to get the app to show me any stores at all. Even after they started showing up, the app was slow and often took multiple minutes to load new pages.

You must turn on location services even to shop online

This app does not work if you don't give it access to and turn on your device location. And no, you can't even get online shopping rewards offers without first turning giving the app access to your location data.

In a time when a lot of apps are getting in trouble for secretly stealing your location info, I guess it's preferable that this app is at least upfront about it. But it's something to keep in mind.

Entire receipt needs to be uploaded, which can reveal a ton of data

The location thing aside, the real privacy kicker is when you participate in the kicks for purchases feature by uploading photos of your receipts. Your receipts are chock full of useful data that you're handing right over.

Your entire receipt will need to be uploaded, with nothing redacted. So this means everything you purchased on that receipt is visible, as well as peripheral factors like payment method, location, time of day, and so on.

I suggest, at minimum, purchasing items for the app separately from your other shopping. You may also want to actually read the company's privacy policy instead of skipping straight to "accept."

How much does Shopkick cost?

The Shopkick app is free to download and use. It does take a significant time investment to earn any appreciable amount of rewards from the app, however.

Shopkick online ratings

Although a few people online report making money in the app, the broader comments seem to be either lamenting the low rewards rate or complaining about bugs. I found a significant number of comments from people who could not redeem their kicks for gift cards or who received gift cards that would not work.

  • iOS app rating: 4.6/5.0 stars
  • Android app rating: 3.8/5.0 stars

Shopkick platform

The app is prone to technical issues. When it works, however, the app is simple to use and the interface is easy to navigate.

Shopkick main screen, nearby offers.

Shopkick main screen, nearby offers. Image source: Shopkick, captured by author.

Shopkick offers for a specific store.

Shopkick offers for a specific store (Walmart). Image source: Shopkick, captured by author.

Is Shopkick safe?

As far as I can tell, Shopkick is a legitimate app and shopping rewards program, so it's generally safe to use. That being said, Shopkick collects a lot of personal data through many different sources. Be sure to read the privacy policy very carefully, so you know what is happening to your data once it's collected.

Alternatives to Shopkick

If you want better cash back rates: The Ibotta app is a shopping rewards app that earns cash back on eligible purchases. Once you earn $20 in rewards, you can redeem it for cash right into your bank account or PayPal account. This makes it easy to see how much you're earning as you go.

Ibotta
Best for: Cash back savings appIbotta
Apply now! for Ibotta

If you want automatic rewards: The Fetch app earns rewards points for purchases without the hassle of other apps. Fetch doesn't require users to preselect items before scanning a receipt. Instead, it automatically detects eligible items for you, saving you time as well as money.

Fetch
Best cash back app overallFetch
Read Review

Shopkick might be right for you if:

There are a few cases in which Shopkick might be a good fit:

  • You like to wander around stores and check out random items.
  • You're already using other cash back shopping apps and want to double (or triple) down while you shop.

FAQs

  • Redemption costs vary, but kicks can be redeemed for an average of $1 per 250 kicks.

  • Shopkick is a real app, and it's not an outright scam. However, many users report issues with bugs, and the rewards rates aren't great compared to other apps. You're also giving the app a lot of personal data, so keep that in mind.

  • No, you can't redeem kicks for cash. You redeem kicks for gift cards to popular brands.