Earn Gift Cards with Shopkick!
Have you been interested in trying Shopkick but you’re just not quite sure how it works or what it’s all about? If you’re looking for honest Shopkick reviews, this is your go-to post on all things Shopkick!
{Looking for other ways to earn gift cards? Check out our list of The Best Legitimate Paid Online Surveys!}
My Honest Shopkick Review
If you’ve been really curious about Shopkick but you’re not sure how to get started, this post is for you!
The Shopkick app can be a little bit overwhelming to navigate when you first get started, so in this post I want to walk you step-by-step through everything you need to know to get started!
What is Shopkick?
Shopkick is an app that you can download to your mobile device and use to earn gift cards.
And the best part of Shopkick? You don’t even have to buy anything to earn gift cards!!
All you have to do is walk into stores and scan products (if you want to) — and it can be done when you’re already out and about running errands and doing your shopping.
Is Shopkick Legitimate?
Yes, Shopkick is 100% legitimate. I’ve been using Shopkick for a couple of years now and love it!
And many readers have commented in the past with positive Shopkick reviews, too! (See a couple of those reviews here and here.)
If you’re looking for a legitimate way to earn some extra gift cards without much extra effort, Shopkick is a really great app to try.
How Does Shopkick Work?
To get started with Shopkick, you simply download the app, turn on Bluetooth, and look under the “Earn” tab to see what kind of kicks are available at stores near you!
If you look in the photo above, you can see the three different symbols that represent the three different ways to earn: walk-in, scanning, or kick bates.
Many stores will give you “kicks” just for walking in! {Hint: Sometimes you don’t even have to walk all the way in. You can just walk by the store and you’ll earn your walk-in kicks!}
You can also earn kicks for scanning product barcodes — no purchase necessary! There are other ways to earn, such as purchasing products that offer “kick bates,” but I don’t bother with linking up my debit card to the account.
So that you don’t waste a lot of extra time, I recommend that you only Shopkick at stores that you’re already planning on shopping at or that you’re nearby when you have a few extra minutes to spare.
How Do I Redeem Kicks on Shopkick for Gift Cards?
It’s super easy to redeem your kicks for rewards in the Shopkick app. Just select which reward you want to try to earn kicks towards, and the app will let you know when it’s time to cash in! It’s SO simple.
And there are some great rewards to choose from, including Amazon, Starbucks, TJMaxx, Target, Walmart, Old Navy, Best Buy, Lowe’s, Macy’s, Barnes & Noble, and more!
When you’ve earned enough kicks to redeem for a reward, here’s what to do:
- Go to the “kicks center” in your app by clicking on your number of kicks at the top center of your screen.
- Click on the image of the gift card you’ve chosen as your reward.
- Click on “redeem kicks” at the bottom of the screen.
- (Or you can choose to “change goal” if you’d like to keep earning towards a higher valued gift card.)
You can find all of your rewards under the “my rewards” tab in the kicks center! When you’re ready to use one, just have the cashier scan the barcode of the gift card right from your Shopkick app!
How Much Can You Realistically Earn With Shopkick?
Here’s the cool thing! By simply walking into stores and scanning products, you can easily earn at least one $5 gift card per week!
Shopkick is one of the quickest and easiest ways to earn gift cards of just about any app I’ve tried.
And you could choose to spend your smaller gift cards on splurges as you receive them OR save them up throughout the year to stretch your Christmas budget! (If you earn $5 per week, you’ll have almost $250 to use for Christmas gifts when December rolls around!)
And honestly? You can definitely earn more than that, but I like to keep it simple and not waste extra time. I only use Shopkick when I’m already out and about, shopping in a particular store, or have some extra time to kill. I never go out of my way to get kicks!
{And I’ve heard SO many Shopkick reviews from readers who report these similar earnings!}
Some Final Shopkick Tips
Here are just a few more tips to make you even more successful on your Shopkick adventures:
- Walk-ins are often the most prevalent and highest in value on the weekends.
- Pay special attention to the holiday weekends, because they often offer higher value bonus walk-in kicks on those weekends!
- Consider getting a group of frugal-minded friends together for a fun, free afternoon of Shopkicking. It also gives you good exercise from walking around shopping centers!
Sign up here with Shopkick to get started.
What’s your experience with Shopkick? Leave your Shopkick reviews in the comments! I’d love to hear!
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62 Comments
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Ramona N says:
I have earned close to $500 in gift cards and cash. You can earn kicks and get a paypal gift card which you can transfer to your bank account if you need cash.
They will have big kicks for walkins on a weekend or some days during the week. Watch for them. Try to get them that day or the offer may go away the next day.
Also, you can refer friends and you both get kicks. Make sure they enter the code on the app.
I love shopkick! -
One more thing…press the Discover tab on the app and you can earn kicks for watching videos and looking at the store ads. Look for ‘tap the blue surprise’ in the ad and you can get a kick.
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Megan Stitt says:
I have always wondered about this app but I think it would use up a lot of data or battery on your phone. Is that true?
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Meg says:
I haven’t found that to be the case. You do have to keep Bluetooth running on your phone while using the app, but you can totally turn it on and off if you don’t want to keep Bluetooth on in the background while not using the app! (But I keep mine on and don’t really have any issues.) Hope that helps! 🙂 -Meg, MSM Team
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Tanya Drewes says:
I don’t feel that it uses a lot of data. Besides just log into the stores WiFi if you are concerned about that.
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Barbara says:
I love Shopkick! You can get kicks for buying particular products, but I never do that. I just get the walk-ins, scans and video points. I have earned hundreds of dollars of gift cards since I’ve been doing it, and I get some exercise while I’m walking around scanning!
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Same here! I never do the kick bates, but I’ve earned hundreds just from walking in and scanning! It’s the best!! -Meg, MSM Team
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Becky says:
My daughters and I all have Shopkick on our phones! We collect Kicks when we’re out running errands, particularly the Walk-Ins, which we refer to as “Drive-By’s”! They use theirs to get Starbucks gift cards for when they go out with their friends, and I supplement our Christmas budget with mine.
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You have to earn your scan kicks within 7 days of signing up to get the bonus. Hope that helps! -Meg, MSM Team
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Marie says:
Both my fiend and I signed up via the msm5 code and completed tasks within 7 days. Neither of us have received the 1250 kicks and are only getting excuses from the Shopkicks staff. Count us out!
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Hi, Marie! Can you please e-mail me at meagan@moneysavingmom.com and let me know the e-mail address you signed up with? I’ll get in touch with our contact and make sure you get credit! Thank you!
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Leaj says:
Do you know what they are using the information for? Getting paid to just walk into a store or a scan thing seems too good to be true LOL! They must be getting something out of it.
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I think it’s probably market research on shopping trends. Also, I think it’s an incentive to get you inside the store and hope you buy something! 😉 -Meg, MSM Team
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Laura says:
I like Shopkick and keep it on my phone, but I’m lucky to get 2 gift cards per year. $5 a week wouldn’t be realistic for me, and I’m out often and live in a huge metro area with multiple malls and shopping areas within 5 miles. Most stores only offer around 15 kicks for a walk-in, and they only let you walk in twice a month for that. It takes me about 6 months to accumulate enough for a gift card.
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Cris says:
I agree on $5 per week being unrealistic for me too. I used to save mine for a $25 and a $10 cheesecake factory gift card at a time and could do this 2x/ year max. I’ve been shopkicking for 6 years now and have earned $400 in gift cards so I will keep using it. I do walk-ins and scan items at least 2-3 times a week and never buy the suggested items. When I started using it, the walk-ins to grocery stores were bigger and now are only 10 kicks every 10 days or so. With all that being said, it is still great as extra fun money or to go eat at a place I wouldn’t without a few gift cards to offset the cost. I’ve also traded for shutterfly to cover the shipping cost of free items, macy’s do splurge on a fancy lipstick, hotels.com to help with trip costs and a few others.
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That really surprises me! I live in a big metro area with a huge outdoor mall, and I can earn a $5 gift card in an afternoon without hardly trying! I think it probably just depends on your area and what it’s worth to you. 🙂 -Meg, MSM Team
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Karen says:
I would sign up, but the app wants too many permissions. Why would it need the ability to make calls?
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I don’t think it asks for the ability to make calls. I’m pretty picky on what permissions I allow, and I just allow limited permissions on it “while using app”. Hope that helps! -Meg, MSM Team
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Wow! I didn’t know you could limit permissions. It did ask for ability to make an dmanage phone calls. However, I did just look again and Shopkick says that they use it only to secure the account, that they would never make a call. That sounds okay 🙂
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Sandy says:
I ❤️ Shopkick! I got my phone with a Black Friday deal and paid for it with gift cards from Shopkick. Now I’m saving for a new iPad mini-almost there!
I can usually get at least 300 kicks While getting my other shopping done. It helps that the stores with the most kicks are clustered together. -
Sharyn says:
I signed up a few weeks ago but also didn’t receive the $5 for using the msm code. But I will still keep using ShopKick- every little bit helps!
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Hi, Sharyn! I’m going to e-mail you about this. Be on the lookout in your inbox! -Meg, MSM Team
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Jenny says:
I agree that $5 per week is totally unrealistic unless you ate going out of your way to get kicks. I’ve had the app for over a month, since the last time it was mentioned on MSM. I earned the initial $5 with the promo code, but I not earned any additional gift cards. The 3 grocery stores that I shop at weekly have no or very few kicks. If I go to Walmart or Target, where they have more kicks, my kids get totally annoyed by me walking all over the store trying to find these items to scan.
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Aw, bummer! I’m sorry you don’t find it useful! I really love it, but it probably depends on your area and what it’s worth to you. 🙂 I don’t have kids, so it’s easy for me to spend some time going around and grabbing kicks! I find it fun! -Meg, MSM Team
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I’ve gotten lazy about using it but I have cashed in some gift cards with it. Outlet malls are a great place to rack up some kicks too! Sometimes you can get kicks by just walking by the door.
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Adrione says:
I signed up for Shopkick over the weekend and I love it! I have received my $5 gift card and I’m now working on my second one. I liked it so much that I convinced my son to sign up as well. He received his $5 gift card as well by using the code that you provided but he is not receiving any of the walk-in bonuses for the first 7 days. On my app it shows a countdown clock, but his does not have it. He’s missing out on a lot of bonus points for the walk-ins. Any assistance that you could provide with this would be great.
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Jordan says:
I’m sorry he’s having trouble! The $5 dollar gift card is the deal when signing up with the code. If he’s having trouble with walk-ins I would contact Shopkick. I hope that helps! -Jordan, MSM Team
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Anna carfagno says:
When I pushed redeem for my gift certificate it wouldn’t work. We have left two messages to them. And they are not helping. Right now I a man not happy
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So sorry you’re having issues! I’ve reached out to our Shopkick contact to make sure you get taken care of. 🙂 -Meg, MSM Team
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Hi, Anna! I reached out to Shopkick customer service and they said you redeemed for a $25 Starbucks gift card on July 31st. Are you not able to see that gift card in your kicks center? Just click on your number of kicks at the center top of the screen in the app, then click on “my rewards” and you’ll see your gift cards there that you can use. Hope that helps! -Meg, MSM Team
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Janise says:
I see, seem like a glitch in their system? As far gift cards not been funded. Me too. I redeem an amazon gift card on July 30 today 3 days later I have not received anything, no email, no notification, I even checked my spam emails. Also, I made an online purchase during the Amazon Deal Days and has not been reflected.
I fill out the contact info for both issues and received an auto email like they received my inquiry but that is all.
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After you redeem for your gift card, it automatically shows up in your account. Just click on your number of kicks at the center top of the screen in the app, then click on “my rewards” and you’ll see your gift cards there that you can use. Hope that helps! -Meg, MSM Team
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Hi Meg thanks a lot for your response. Yes, I went through all those steps. I can see under kicks activity that kicks were deducted;; for an Amazon gift card. However, I haven’t’ received the gift card code, I have been checking every day my spam and regular email for any gift code and nothing.
Any idea how long it takes to get your gift code?-
Hi, Janise! When you redeem kicks, the gift card is automatically added to your account. It doesn’t come by email. In the kicks center, just look under the “my rewards” tab and you’ll see it. Hope that helps! -Meg, MSM Team
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Mallory Duborg says:
Does the $5 bonus gift card (Kicks) automatically show up once you scan your first kick? Mine has not shown up.
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Hi, Mallory! Yes — the 1250 kicks should show up after your first scan. If they haven’t, please email me at meagan@moneysavingmom.com so I can get this taken care of for you! Sorry you’re having troubles! -Meg, MSM Team
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K says:
Is this promotion code still valid? It appeared so at first, but the account is showing 0 kicks. When the code was entered, it said 1250 kicks were received, but then showed 0 kicks. Tried entering the code again. Said code had already been entered. Still showing 0 kicks.
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Kelly says:
I just signed up & was wondering this also! If it’s invalid, I wish that I had used someone else’s code.
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The code is still valid. Please email me at meagan@moneysavingmom.com if you have any issues! -Meg, MSM Team
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Received replies from both Meg & Shopkick—and my rewards! Super fast & friendly service from Shopkick: very impressed. Actually, I’m glad to have found both MSM & Shopkick—Aloha & Mahalo from Hawaii!!!
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So glad we could help you out, Kelly! 🙂 Happy Saving and Shopkicking!! -Meg, MSM Team
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Yes, it is definitely still valid. Please email me at meagan@moneysavingmom.com so that I can look into this for you! -Meg, MSM Team
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Yes, it is definitely still valid. Please email me at meagan@moneysavingmom.com so that I can look into this for you! -Meg, MSM Team
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It’s totally up to you! I personally don’t, but I’m really strict with who I give those kinds of information to. I’ve never connected my card and I’m still able to earn a lot without doing the rebates! -Meg, MSM Team
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Jennie says:
I have been using shopkicks for the past year and I did link my card. I would say that I earn about 50% of my kicks with my linked card and via the kicks rebate. There are several stores that will give you kicks no matter what you purchase just by using your linked card. For example TJ max and Marshall’s always offer at least 1 kick per dollar, very often 3 kicks per dollar, and around holidays I’ve seen up to 10 kicks per dollar. And it’s a great way to double dip on the very same app. For example, we’ve been saving kicks for hotel.com gift cards for my daughters volleyball tournaments. Over the past two months my hubby and I earned $75 in hotel.com gift cards. I just made a reservations with hotel.com via the shop kick app and earned 6 kicks per dollar. This earned me over 1400 kicks to go towards another hotel.com card. We typically save up kicks for bigger items…we earned $300 in Disney gift cards for our Disney trip this fall. Like with any of these apps, the more you can maximize all the features the faster you earn rewards.
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Karen says:
I signed up last week and went and did my scans but did not receive the bonus either.
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The code ended on December 31, 2019. So if you signed up after that, it’s no longer valid. We’ve updated the post since then. You’re welcome to email me at meagan@moneysavingmom.com if you signed up in 2019. Thanks! -Meg, MSM Team
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