Trax Buys Shopping Rewards App Shopkick

Retail and consumer goods image recognition and analytics firm Trax has acquired US shopping rewards app Shopkick for $200m. The deal combines Trax's shelf and shopper data with Shopkick's data, which tracks how shoppers enter stores and how they can be guided to certain products.

Shopkick provides rewards and gift cards to customers who browse content and online offers, watch videos, go into offline stores, scan product barcodes, and make purchases. For brands, Shopkick offers insights into customer behavior and loyalty.

Singapore-headquartered Trax's in-store execution solutions, market measurement and analytics services, powered by proprietary image recognition, machine learning and IOT platforms, are used to convert photos of retail shelves into shelf and store-level insights. Following the transaction, Shopkick will continue to operate independently from its headquarters in Redwood City, California, under the Trax brand.

Joel Bar-El (pictured), CEO and co-founder of Trax, comments: 'Bringing together shelf and shopper data will deliver new and powerful insights to CPG brands and retailers. Shopkick's unique direct access to customers, first-party database on consumer in-store actions, omnichannel insights and access to a broader ecosystem of retailers and brands made this a strategic fit for Trax.'

Web sites: www.traxretail.com and www.shopkick.com .