Loyalty Blogs

As we know that grocery stores witnessed a huge increase in demand during the pandemic, customers now rely on them to stock their necessary items for day-to-day life. To stand out from the competition, grocery store owners must adopt digital marketing strategies and meet evolving demands of customers more effortlessly. Making use of well-planned grocery loyalty program is a must to engage customers and build long-term loyalty.

In this blog, we will find out why retailers must go beyond discounts and use loyalty programs that add value between purchases.

Challenges in Traditional Grocery Loyalty Program

One of the mistakes that many brands do is that they aim to attract customers with discounts only, which can attract shoppers in the short term but they fail to win customers’ hearts in the long term.

Here are some of the points that speak about the challenges associated with discount-based loyalty programs-

· Short-term Benefits vs. Long-term Engagement

Ensure that you keep the focus on the importance of keeping a balance between short-term sales and the desire to build long-term customer engagement and loyalty. Though discounts can be a great way to attract buyers in the short term, it is crucial to use discounts in conjunction with other effective grocery loyalty program strategies.

· Risk of Discount Fatigue & Brand Devaluation

Research by Edelman says that 46% of consumers think that discounts and promotions degrade the brand’s image. Relying too much on discounts can decrease the perceived value of the brand and lead to customer fatigue. Another thing about discounts is that it attracts only price-sensitive customers and not the ones that are likely to stay loyal in the long term.

Ways to Build a Grocery Loyalty Program that Creates Value

As we know, discounts are no longer enough to make a place in the grocery business. It’s time to stay ahead of the crowd with an effective loyalty program. Check out the ways that can help to create a winning loyalty program for your grocery business-

· Enhance the Shopping Experience

Keep focus on collecting unique zero and first-party data to build robust customer profiles based on the details shared such as allergic foods, favorite ones, diet restrictions, household needs, and more.

Understanding your customers’ needs can help in creating personalized shopping lists, relevant recipes, etc. helping your brand offer relevant ingredients to customers making their lives easier. Today, customers value convenience more than currency.

· Engage with Gamification

Ensure that you add gamification to engage customers that order from your store and create a sense of excitement around your program. You can make use of reward tiers that enable customers to unlock better benefits as they reach certain milestones

Gamification in loyalty programs encourages customers to stay engaged with the excitement to unlock better rewards and build a sense of achievement at every level.

· Provide Exclusive Perks

Go beyond discounts and offer exclusive experiences to your program members to make them feel valued and special. This can be anything such as early access to products, special events, and experts’ advice.

· Develop Mobile Apps & e-Wallets

By implementing a dedicated app and e-wallet with your loyalty program, you can provide easy access to loyalty program benefits and rewards. You can make use of targeted promotions and offers to help customers stay engaged with your grocery store for a long time.

Customers that are getting easy access to rewards and benefits are more likely to spend more money on their groceries at your store.

· Social Media Integration

Social media acts as a great way to reach customers and build brand loyalty. To make the program more effective, you can partner with social media influencers to build engaging content and share about your program’s benefits.

This will encourage new customers to try your products, join the loyalty program and increase brand awareness leading to increased sales and higher revenue for your grocery store.

· Analytics for better access to Customer Data

Getting valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences will help to tailor marketing efforts and come up with personalized offers and recommendations based on purchase history.

Why Your Brands Must Go Beyond Discounts?

In the grocery sector, brands must offer unique rewards and experiences rather than just keep focusing on discounts, which will help to keep their customers engaged with loyalty programs. This will not only help to stand out from the crowd but also offer an enhanced customer experience with better brand value.

· Gain a Competitive Advantage

As we know grocery sector is quite competitive, and discounts are not enough to set grocery stores apart from competitors. That is why, you must consider offering unique loyalty program rewards that provide additional value to customers and set apart your store from others in the market.

· Enhanced Customer Experience

Making use of an effective loyalty program can improve the overall customer experience by providing tailored rewards and experiences along with unique perks to make customers feel valued and appreciated.

· Higher Brand Value

Brands must offer unique rewards and experiences that are desirable and valuable to your customers that can enhance the overall perception of your brand & increase the long-term value of your brand with a higher customer retention rate.

Final Takeaways

Grocery shoppers today are looking for more than just transactional relationships with their brands. That is why store owners must move forward by switching to innovative loyalty programs rather than traditional discount-based programs. Leveraging the right set of technologies in your loyalty program will not only enhance the shopping experience but also build lasting relationships with customers.

If you are thinking to enhance customer loyalty and add more value to your grocery business, take the help of Novus, a reliable Gift Card Loyalty Management Software that has enabled thousands of grocers across the world to build lasting relationships with shoppers. To know more, contact us today!