Cape Town - Consumers have saved billions of rand in offered loyalty programme rewards and are increasingly taking advantage of reward points as the country’s tough economic climate impacts on consumer goods such as fuel, electricity and food.
According to Clicks customer marketing executive Heloise Janse Van Rensburg, the Clicks ClubCard loyalty programme - introduced in 1995 and now one of the oldest - was doing exceptionally well, especially given the tough economic climate the retailer’s trading in.
Janse Van Rensburg said this speaks to how the retailer’s ClubCard customers valued their cashback rewards.
“Our Clicks ClubCard has 7.5million active members. We provide simple, easy rewards that are accessible and convenient to our customers. In 2017 alone, more than R320million was paid to ClubCard members in cashback rewards,” said Janse Van Rensburg.
She said ClubCard cashback could be used to pay for purchases in Clicks, Claire’s and The Body Shop stores.
Janse Van Rensburg added that ClubCard had an array of ClubCard partners like Shell, Discovery HealthCare, Sorbet, The Body Shop, Musica, SpecSavers and Execuspecs, City Lodge Hotel Group, Europecar and Netflorist where customers could earn further ClubCard points and benefits.
John Bradshaw, Pick n Pay’s head of marketing, said the Smart Shopper rewards programme was launched in 2011 to reward loyal customers, the retailer’s way of saying thank you to them.
Consumers making full use of their points as economic climate gets harsher. Picture: Simphiwe Mbokazi/ANA Archives
Bradshaw said customer reaction to the launch of the programme exceeded Pick n Pay’s expectations and the retailer currently had more than 7million active customers.
He added that Pick n Pay modernised Smart Shopper early last year to introduce more personalised discounts and during this financial year offered R3billion in personal discounts to its Smart Shoppers.
“Accessibility is critical and we always look at ways to make this easier for customers across multiple platforms. We have already gone digital with the launch of our mobile app, which has proved very popular. Innovation has played an important role in Smart Shopper’s success,” said Bradshaw.
He added that every Thursday, Smart Shoppers receive personal Just for You discounts on the products they buy most often
“These are worth more than R500 a customer a year. These personalised discounts are automatically loaded weekly for each Smart Shopper. Customers can claim these by loading the discounts on their card at the Smart Shopper kiosk in-store, via email or on the Pick n Pay mobile app. The card is then swiped at the till with the qualifying products to get the savings. These personalised discounts have been well received by customers and more than 1million of them are using their personalised discounts,” said Bradshaw.
Woolworths said the Woolworth WRewards programme was not a traditional points-based programme and customers enjoy instant savings at point of sale (POS) on their till slips and on the Woolworths App, product voucher offers and up to 3 percent cash back when buying with their Woolworths Credit cards.
Woolworths said the WRewards in its current format had been in operation since September 2010. Customers saved a total of R538m in the period June 26 last year to June 24 this year.
“No other programme gives you the opportunity to give back via a Community Loyalty programme such as MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet. To date, the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet programme has given back more than R570m since its inception in October 1997,” said Woolworths.
