Dive Brief:

• RetailMeNot announced the expansion of its online Cash Back Offers program to include in-store cash back offers in its mobile app for shoppers of about two dozen brick-and-mortar retailers, according to a company press release.

• Participating retailers at launch time included Macy's, Kohl's, Sephora, Home Depot, H&M, Big Lots and Pier One Imports, among others, the company stated. The new program is available both on the Android and iOS version’s of RetailMeNot’s app.

• More than 230 large retailers have used RetailMeNot’s app as a marketing tool to drive more than $236 million in sales from 23 million monthly unique users, the company said.

Dive Insight:

RetailMeNot has been evolving from being just a coupon app. While it once was the newcomer against companies like Ebates, it is now being followed into the space by others, like Dosh, which recently raised $44 million to power its own cask back app. 

Marissa Tarleton, CMO of RetailMeNot, explained the rationale behind in-store cash back offers to Retail Dive via e-mail, noting that it has a lot to do with the notion that around 85% of shoppers still shop in brick-and-mortar stores, despite the apocalyptic headlines.

"Consumers are shopping both online and in-store, and RetailMeNot’s strategy is to partner with retailers and brands in every channel they operate to meet the consumer where they are," she said, adding, "Using the RetailMeNot app to link a card to an in-store offer is incredibly easy, and there’s no need to show the cashier anything but your payment for the transaction."

She also said that a big key for retailers to participate in this kind of program is the ability to directly attribute sales to in-store. She described that as "a significant priority" for the retailers who have adopted the program at launch.

Some of the retailers adopting its in-store cash back offers at launch, such as Macy’s, have also participated in the online version of the program, and may see the same value in being able to leverage as cash back offer as a marketing tool in-store. It’s definitely a different approach than traditional in-store marketing or coupon offers, and bringing something new to the table just might keep customers coming back to stores when they could be doing their shopping from anywhere.