Shopping can be fun, so why not make it a game? The latest trend in social media is location-based services such as Foursquare in which that consumers use their iPhones or other smartphones to explore their city.  Foursquare lets users "check in" to a place when they’re there, tell friends where they are and track the history of where they’ve been and who they’ve been there with. Businesses offer incentives to users so that they are enticed to come visit, and the GPS feature used by the program shows players what participating businesses are nearby.

According to Emily Glazer’s blog in the Wall Street Journal was built for small, local businesses — but is being used by national chains as well to compile statistics about their individual locations, and where customers go before and after visiting.

Facebook’s location-sharing service is called Places, and it is going to give Foursquare some competition.  But Foursquare is free, at least for the time being, which gives it a head start.  And in just over a year, it’s made quite a strong start, with close to 3 million users. Over 15,000 venues (in cities where the program is active) offer specials.

Users get points and “badges” for checking in (by showing their phone) while running errands and socializing.  The application is meant to be a game rather than just a promotional vehicle.  You can even be appointed the mayor of a certain business by checking in more frequently than anyone else (or if you’re the owners son, like Erik, you can grab the mayoral title right off the bat by setting up the store on the program.)

Foursquare is a social game in which you as an independent shopkeeper can always be a winner, especially as long as there is no charge to participate. All you need to do to sign up is to offer discounts or prizes to those participating in the program. There are simple directions on the Foursquare web site.

You can only offer one special at a time, but you are encouraged to mix it up a bit — with count-based specials valid on the customers’ third visit, for example, or “wildcard” specials that require some extra condition be met such as the purchase of an additional item. Foursquare reviews all offers before allowing them to go live.

We’re just starting out on Foursquare, offering a free gift for anyone playing the game on their first visit. Since we have wrapped birthday gifts on hand for those participating in our preferred customer program, it’s easy to use these for Foursquare as well.  It will be interesting to see how successful we are as Madison’s newest Foursquare venue.  If you’ve participated in the program, please post your experience in the comments to this blog.  Foursquare sounds like an intriguing new way to help customers “find” your store!

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder