[ad_1]
Checkers says that Xtra Savings helped it gain 4 billion rand in market share in the last financial year.
- Checkers says its rewards program has been instrumental in gaining R4 billion in market share from its competitors.
- It launched its rewards program in October 2019, after other retailers.
- The retailer had to be creative and offer instant cash savings.
Checkers says its loyalty program, Checkers Xtra Savings, has helped it take approximately R4 billion in market share from its competitors in the last financial year.
The food retailer launched the rewards card in October 2019, a rather late arrival as most food retailers, including Pick n Pay, Woolworths, and Spar, had rewarded their customers for being loyal for years.
Checkers said Tuesday that since Xtra Savings launched a year ago, it has been registering more than 15,000 customers daily. The show now has more than 5 million members.
“Xtra Savings has been instrumental in helping Checkbooks gain 4 billion rand in market share over its competitors in the last financial year, according to Nielsen. It has seen phenomenal acceptance,” the company said in a statement Tuesday.
When Checkers finally joined the rewards game, it had to get more creative like competitors like Pick n Pay Smart Shopper, which had already built up a large member base and was constantly innovating and offering personalized discounts to keep customers engaged.
Checkers decided to deviate from the reward point system used in many retailers’ loyalty programs, opting to offer instant cash savings instead, similar to Woolworth’s WRewards.
The retailer launched its offering at a time when the use and novelty of loyalty programs was disappearing among South Africans. According to Truth & BrandMapp’s 2019/20 South African Loyalty Landscape Technical Report, loyalty program usage in the country had decreased by 7% since 2017. According to BrandMapp, the top reason people left or they didn’t even start using loyalty programs was that they weren’t spending enough to earn “decent” rewards, too complicated to understand, or because redeeming points was too complicated.
Neil Schreuder, Shoprite Group’s head of strategy and innovation, said Checkers believed it was the fact that their customers didn’t have to go through the hoop to receive discounts that helped the retailer gain market share. He said the discounts that Checkers offered also came at a crucial time as South Africans have become more price sensitive.
“We’re offering lower prices at a time when shoppers need the discounts the most. When customers are truly rewarded without the smoke and mirrors, they come back,” Schreuder said.
