Three years in planning, its 'smart shopper' programme is aligned to global best practice, such as the successful programme operated by Tesco, the UK's largest grocery chain.
The group is partnering in the launch of the programme with six key suppliers: Coca-Cola, Kimberley-Clark, Nestle, Tiger, Unilever and Vodacom. Participation will be extended to other national suppliers post-launch.
Pick n Pay CEO Nick Badminton said at the launch yesterday, 17 March 2011, "The programme takes customer centricity one step further - by rewarding customers for shopping with us. It's all about saying 'thank you' to our customers.
"We considered launching a loyalty programme back in the early 2000s but decided the time wasn't right and technology wasn't sufficiently advanced at that point. Advances in technology within the group have improved so much that we're able to run the programme efficiently and in a way that makes sense to customers. This means we'll be able to talk directly to them and their needs by understanding and acting on their requirements.
"We have been undergoing significant change at Pick n Pay over the past three years to ensure that we have a sustainable business model. At the centre of this change is making sure that we consistently offer greater value to customers through our price competitiveness and in-store offer. We felt that we needed to develop a programme that was not 'just another card'. It had to be simple and easy to use, while incorporating our values.
"Loyalty programmes are not new to South Africa, but to date, there has been no dominant grocery loyalty scheme which allows customers to benefit from rewards on almost every item in their basket. What we do know is that customers who are engaged, do use their loyalty card to benefit from rewards. Swiping, points, cash back and coupons are all familiar and attractive concepts for customers."
"Including the franchise operations, we currently run at over 50 million transactions per month. That gives our customers a number of opportunities to swipe at the till and receive the benefit of their spending in our stores.
Pick n Pay marketing director Bronwen Rohland, who heads up the loyalty programme, said, "The programme is and will always be clear and transparent and provide a real customer benefit, beyond the financial rewards. Very importantly, the technology and security systems we have employed will make sure that absolutely no confidential information on our customers is shared in any way, ever, with any third parties."
Smart shopper has been designed as a very easy three-step process of signing up, swiping the card and switching points to Rands once cardholders have collected 1000 points. When switching their points, customers can elect to donate to a charity or environmental cause instead.
The only till transactions that don't earn smart points are third party payments such as household service bills, traffic fines, tobacco products, PnP gift cards, Lotto, money transfers, financial services, fuel or prescription drugs.
