This page may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you sign up through my links, at no cost to you.
The Shopkick app is a tool everyone should have in their app tool belt for earning free gift cards while doing your regular shopping. Earning “kicks” is easy and some can even be done from home with the Shopkick hidden kicks feature.
If you don’t already have an account you can signup with my link here: Shopkick (my code is KICK885768)
What is Shopkick and What Are Kicks?
Shopkick started off as just a scavenger hunt app where you’d earn points for finding certain products in stores and scanning the barcodes. The app also rewarded you for entering certain stores.
Kicks are the name of the points earned in Shopkick and they are very easy to earn. A kick is worth approximately .004 cents. Shopkick has come a long way and over the years they’ve made it even easier to earn kicks. Here are some of the ways you can earn them:
- Earn kicks for walking into certain stores
- Earn points for scanning certain products
- Earn hidden kicks each day without leaving the couch
- Buy certain products and submit your receipt
- Shop online through the app and use Shopkick as a cashback portal
- Invite your friends to join Shopkick
After you download the app fill in all of your profile information and add your primary credit/debit cards. (I’ve never had an issue with adding my credit cards to the app and this helps with some of the in-store offers where they offer a certain amount of kicks per $1 spent.)
- 250 kicks = $1
- 1,250 kicks = $5
- 2,500 kicks = $10
- 6,250 kicks = $25
Stores You Can Earn Kicks with
- Walmart
- Target
- Kohls
- Carter’s
- Rite Aid
- Walgreen’s
- Aldi
- Petco
- T.J. Maxx
- Ulta Beauty
- Marshalls
- Sam’s Club
- Whole Foods Market
- Overstock
- Domino’s Pizza
- and many more!
Is Shopkick Legit?
Yes, is both safe and easy to use! As of the writing of this post Shopkick has great ratings in both the Apple App store (4.7 out of 5 stars) and in Google Play (4.3 stars out of 5). A quick search on Reddit also shows that many people vouching for Shopkick.
Earning Kicks Nearby While Shopping In-Store
On the “Nearby” screen the app will tell you what stores are closest to you and the different ways you can earn points in them. You’ll see a few different types of activities here: Walk-in, Scan, Receipt, and Linked Card.
Walk-Ins are triggered by having the app open and the Bluetooth turned on as you walk into the entrance of certain stores. There have been times when I’ve had the app open in the car and riding past the entrance of a store slowly can work as well.
The scan offers are the scavenger hunt portion of the app. Once you’re in the store click the scan option and look through the product categories to see what the app wants you to find. If you click the item you can see it closer up to help find it. Take the product off the shelf and scan the barcode, if you’ve found the right product you’ll hear a ding and a big green checkmark comes up. The number of points per scan varies and sometimes you may not find the given product.
The receipt offers come up on the scan screen too and you can earn even more kicks this way. Not all receipt products have a scan on them and not all scan products have a receipt feature. I don’t go out of my way to buy things I don’t need but if I need the product anyways this a great way to build up more kicks.
The ‘Linked Card” feature allows you to earn kicks in a particular store based on the credit cards you have linked to your account. Make your in-store purchase as you would normally and you’ll earn kicks automatically. It takes 30 days for these kicks to hit your account but the offers are often worth the wait because Shopkick may offer multiple kicks per dollar spent.
Kicks earned on this tab can only be done about once a week meaning you won’t be able to go out and scan the same items later in the day or the following day. There are plenty of other options to keep earning each day though, so keep reading.
Earning Kicks Online
To earn kicks for shopping online you’ll click on the “Online” section and find the store you’d like to shop from. Clicking a store will bring you to that store’s offer page showing you various items you can earn even more kicks on or you can click “shop now” to begin shopping. Always make sure you read the “details & exclusions” section to be sure the products you’re buying will earn kicks. Again, don’t just buy stuff to earn kicks if it’s not something you actually need. This feature also takes 30 days to earn kicks.
How to Get Free Kicks with Discover
The last screen is the Discover section where you will find your hidden kicks. I love this section of the app because you can earn kicks while sitting on the couch. First, click the “Quick Kicks” icon and the app will play a short video and reward you kicks for watching. Keep clicking the “Quick Kicks” until you’ve watched all of the videos.
You’re not done here just yet, you can earn Shopkick hidden kicks if you go through each of the ads in the different sections and scroll through you will find little gift symbols with more kicks. The app will tell you which icons you’ve viewed so when you come back you don’t have to look there again.
I can usually pick up 10-20 kicks a day using the Shopkick hidden kick feature. I’ll often do this during those odd idle times like while I’m standing in line to make my purchases in the store.
Earn Kicks for Inviting Friends
Build your Shopkick team and earn kicks for each friend you get to join. You’ll earn 250 kicks for each friend that uses your referral link (under you profile) and used the app within 7 days to earn at least 50 kicks of their own.
Cashing Out
If you click your kick score at the top of the app you’ll enter the rewards section of the app. Shopkick pays you in the form of digital gift cards which can be handy when you know there’s something you’ll need at one of the stores offered. You can also make donations with your kicks to places like Feeding America and The American Red Cross.
As you scroll through this section you’ll notice that the type of gift cards available at each level of kicks changes. You can select the one you’d like to work towards and the app will track your progress for you. This is very helpful so you’ll know the moment you have enough kicks for your desired gift card. If you’re interested in cold hard cash there’s a gift card for PayPal as well but it will take more kicks to earn PayPal cash outs (rate is .0038 cents).
Wrapping Up
Shopkick is a simple app you can use to earn free gift cards while shopping. I like to treat it like I’m getting a big coupon off my orders for Instacart or Amazon here and there.
Sign up here if you’re interested and join my team: Shopkick (my code is KICK885768)
You can also check out my income reports for more ideas on how to earn extra money each month.