NEW YORK — The nation’s biggest mall operator is teaming up with a Silicon Valley startup to reward smartphone-equipped shoppers for walking into its shopping centers.
The partnership between Simon Property Group, which owns 370 shopping centers including Town Center at Aurora and Colorado Mills in Lakewood, and technology company Shopkick Inc. is a big step in realizing retailers’ long-held dream of using cellphones to beam ads and coupons to people passing by.
Simon is launching the program by the end of the month in 25 malls in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.
Separately, four retailers will start offering Shopkick offers at the same time at some stores, including Macy’s Inc. and electronics chain Best Buy Inc. The other two are being kept under wraps.
The potential to expand the program and affect how and what shoppers will buy is huge, according to Mikael Thygesen, Simon’s chief marketing officer. He is traveling around the country to recruit more retailers into the program.
Thygesen expects to roll the program out to 100 of Simon’s 370 shopping centers over the next couple of months.
He anticipates one-third of the centers’ stores to sign up over the next year.
Each center averages about 140 stores.
