Google is all ready to compete with location-based mobile check-in programs as foursquare, Facebook Places and shopkick. Google Inc. is adding check-in offers from national chains including American Eagle Outfitters and Finish Line to its Google Latitude app.
American Eagle Outfitters is offering up to 20% off a total purchase for check-ins, sandwich shop Quiznos a free sub when consumers buy one sub of equal or greater value, and Finish Line $10 off on purchases of $50 or more. Radio Shack is also participating and Macy’s will soon join in.
Now consumers can check in to receive discounts at thousands of locations across the U.S., Google says in a blog post. To check in, a consumer opens the app and taps a button to activate the GPS that senses the consumer is within a store or other location.
To gain access to deals and discounts and to share their locations with friends, app users check in using Latitude. Users can make their way up Latitude’s three status levels as they make return visits to merchants. They also can monitor their levels to see how close they are to reaching the next tier. At each level, merchants offer various discounts and rewards for checking in.
- Each time a user gains a higher status, she can unlock any available check-in offers.
- These can range from discounts to a free snack where users can see both available and locked offers at places.
- To redeem an offer, a shopper selects it from the merchant’s Latitude Place page, taps Redeem and presents the offer on her phone to the merchant.
Google Latitude is available for smartphones running Google’s Android mobile operating system and for Apple Inc.’s iPhone. To start unlocking offers with Latitude, consumers need to update to the latest version of Google Maps for Android.
Latitude requires Android verison 1.6 or higher. iPhone uses can download the Latitude app for the iPhone, which comes with Google Maps pre-installed.The Google app, uses a smartphone’s built-in GPS technology to pinpoint the location of a consumer.