Loyalty Cards

That familiar question when you're standing at the checkout of your local supermarket, "Do you have FlyBuys/Everday Rewards?" Having worked at a supermarket I know how annoying that question is, trying repeating it for every single customer that you serve. Some people have it ready before I even ask, others take forever digging around in their purse to find it. I have even had people say they don't have a card only for them to open their purse or wallet and I see the card in a prominant position.

There are consumers who use their loyalty cards to their advantage, collecting points and redeeming them for gift cards and luxury items. Others simply collect points haphazerdly or leave the card in the stack of other disused loyalty cards. With retail stores, in particular the major supermarkets, collecting so much information about an often weekly shopping adventure, this information isn't being put to much use.

Knowing what groceries consumers buy is such powerful information, in particular for marketing purposes. If you can discover that a particular person only buys Tim Tams when they are on sale why not exploit that piece of information. Despite the annoyance of constant spam emails the occassional email to the main grocer buyer, saying Tim Tams are on special this week, come to our store wouldn't hurt. There is the possibility of getting spammed with weekly or even daily emails about specials at our local supermarket. I wouldn't mind an email telling me that a particular product that I buy every single week is on special.

I can imagine many consumers being outraged this information is being collected, but what did they really think these loyalty cards were about, giving gifts to consumers? No, its about companies finding out information about their consumers so they can better target their needs. If Coles or Woolworths can find a way of using this information to their advantage in an ethical, responsible and useful manner it's a win-win situation.