Pokémon Go is Making Small Businesses a Ridiculous Amount of Money

Thanks to its augmented reality feature that gets people walking outdoors, Pokémon Go is driving a ton of profit for local businesses.

Despite the game’s recent launch, small-scale ventures are quick to spot the booming market. According to USA Today, research firm SensorTower has recorded at least 15 million downloads, App Store and Play Store numbers combined.

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Local shops, diners, movie houses and other businesses are luring customers through in-app purchases and creative marketing. Businesses also use Lure Modules that attract Pokémon to specific locations, and therefore Pokémon hunters, according to Business Insider. They are purchased within the game and applied to local landmarks and/or businesses.

Pizzerias, coffee shops and more areas across neighborhoods have also become PokéStops or Gyms. Here, players can resupply items or train their characters.

This, of course, increases a store’s chances of customer traffic. Bloomberg gave the example of L’inizio’s Pizza Bar in Queens, which spent approximately $10 on Lure Modules. As a result, food and drink sales were up by at least 30%.

Inc. advised biz owners to order Pokémon Gym badges, announce leading teams and promote screenshots on social media. Gyms are the biggest structures on the in-game map, so be sure to spot the nearest one.

That being said, business owners may want to figure whether their establishment is a PokéStop or a Gym. From here, creative marketing comes in, as there really are countless ways to capitalize on a hype that’s virtually found everywhere.

Pokémon Go is a collaboration between the Pokémon Company and Niantic, the augmented reality company behind Ingress. As of press time, the game is available to download for devices at least in iOS 8 and Android 4.4. While the game proves to be helpful in good business, it has already been knocked-off and used for robbery.

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