Kraft and other consumer packaged goods brands such as General Mills and Kellogg’s are testing the Shopitize app to offer exclusive deals to shoppers. Following a three-month pilot, the app can now be downloaded by any smartphone user in Britain.

“Offering an earned reward to shoppers – in this case cash back triggered by their verified purchase – allows CPG brands to subtly alter the loyalty relationship by demonstrating loyalty  and commitment to their customers,” said Graham Halling, commercial director of Shopitize, London.

“Rather than having to seek-out a generally advertised discount promotion and investing the effort of complying with the appropriate mechanics – cut-out, print from web, collect proof of purchases, visit particular retailer and so on – the consumer is able to discover and select the offer through the convenience of their smartphone and earn their tangible reward within their normal shopping experience,” he said.

Rewarding shoppers
Approximately 320 billion coupons were distributed in 2012, with mobile playing a bigger role in couponing all the time because of its ability to present the right offer to a consumer at the right time, thereby lifting response.

However, one of the challenges of mobile coupons has been giving marketers a way to track results for digital ads with a coupon offer and linking that to in-store sales.

Shoppers who have downloaded the Shopitize app and are inside a supermarket can scan the bar codes on the items featured in the app and then snap a picture of their shopping receipt. These are automatically processed and validated by Shopitize’s platform.

The value of the offer is instantly credited to the user’s Shopitize account, with users receiving a payout once their account reaches five British pounds.

Cash back is not the only reward that shoppers can earn through Shopitize. Brands can also choose to reward shoppers with exclusive interactive content or game play.

Real-time results
The current Philadelphia with Cadbury offer available on Shopitize is being marketed primarily through social media channels.

Users can also earn greater rewards for sharing offer.

The app was piloted with 15,000 shoppers in Britain over a three-month period and saw an average redemption rate of 15 percent. It was opened up to the general public and currently features approximately 50 deals with a variety of different brands.

The Shopitize app, which is available for iPhone and Android phones, enables brands to offer mobile coupons direct to consumers, enabling brands to gather information about their customers, including where the offer was discovered.

“Brands who are part of the Shopitize offering have the confidence of knowing that the engagements they drive are with ‘real’ consumers of their products and the insights that they glean are based on actual buying, as it happens,” Mr. Halling said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York