Social shopping and loyalty rewards – joining up the dots

Is this the way we will shop in the future: a mix of real world shopping (physically going into shops), social shopping (taking photos, sharing with friends) research (browsing other stores online before actually visiting, price comparison) and loyalty activity (checking in for loyalty discounts, redeeming offers etc)?

A recent article in the Guardian reports how teenagers shopping for clothes are already actively using their mobile phones to photograph themselves in the changing room and share photos and price information with friends in a kind of collective shopping experience.

Then Alex Horner in New Media Age asks the question "Are location-based rewards the new models for loyalty?" before deciding that we're not there yet, principally because it's too easy to 'game' the system and check in to a place without actually being there.

But how long before, as Alex says, 'RFID or similar is built into phones'? It can't be long - I can see plenty of people being happy about the idea of their every move being tracked - if it means they are rewarded, if it adds value to the shopping experience and is, above all, fun.