// Sainsbury’s will be giving discounts to customers using its digital loyalty scheme
// The ‘My Nectar Prices’ offers will be additional to other loyalty points offers already available on the app.
Sainsbury’s will offer lower prices to customers using its digital loyalty scheme and self-scanner service, deepening ties with shoppers and cutting costs in the latest wave of innovation to hit the industry.
As Britain’s second largest grocer, Sainsbury’s said the move to offer tailored digital discounts via its Nectar scheme was the most advanced for UK grocers, although it follows similar targeted initiatives by some US and French food retailers.
The retailer said it goes beyond the traditional loyalty model of customer spend translating to points that can be redeemed on products and is designed to encourage shoppers to use its SmartShop scanner service.
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This can be either with handsets or on their smartphones, which ultimately will reduce the number of manned check-outs required in stores.
The supermarket said that from next Wednesday, Nectar app members shopping in stores will be able to access lower prices on a selection of up to ten branded and Sainsbury’s own-brand products selected for them on a weekly basis.
In comparison, Tesco’s ‘Clubcard Prices’ scheme offers lower prices to all Clubcard members on certain products, but the offers are not personalised.
Sainsbury’s chief marketing officer Mark Given told Reuters the price reductions, called My Nectar Prices, would be a minimum of 10 per cent per product.
He said more value conscious customers would likely get regular discounts on vegetables, fruit, meat, fish and poultry.
More loyal Sainsbury’s shoppers will get rewarded on things they usually buy and also offers on other products their data suggests they would be interested in.
“Advances in cloud computing and automation mean you can now process genuinely unique offers that are personalised to you with more real time data,” Given said, adding his team had been working on the personalisation algorithms and engines for up to five years.
The My Nectar Prices offers will be additional to other loyalty points offers already available on the app.
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