Big Y adds social shopping to loyalty card

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By: Wise Marketer Staff |

Posted on June 21, 2011

Big Y adds social shopping to loyalty card

In the US, Big Y Foods has partnered with Incentive Targeting, HaloEffect, and Groupon to bring social buying to the grocery retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) market, combining Groupon's social buying platform with Incentive Targeting's retail marketing, HaloEffect's creative experience, and Big Y's loyalty scheme.

The new partnership makes Big Y will be the first grocery retailer to offer Groupon deals that are digitally loaded onto shoppers' loyalty cards. Big Y's first Groupon offer, distributed among Springfield, MA, subscribers on 7th June 2011, was for a newly introduced Shellfish Grill Pack, including lobster tails, mussels, clams, and other seafood suitable for grilling, which retails at US$39.99 - and offered at a 40% discount (US$24.00).

To take part, the shopper enters their Big Y Express Saving Club membership number via Groupon, and the relevant special deal is electronically loaded onto the shopper's loyalty card. When the shopper subsequently purchases the promoted products at any Big Y supermarket, the deal is automatically credited at the check out.

According to Michael D'Amour, vice president of sales and merchandising for Big Y Foods, the 61-store grocery chain expects to attract new customer interest as it explores new avenues in interactive customer marketing.

"Consumers in the US spend over US$550 billion a year on groceries," said Tom Schneider, president for HaloEffect. "CPG companies devote some US$35 billion annually to marketing and promotion, so we see this kind of partnership as having the potential to revolutionise grocery marketing."

Win Burke, president and CEO for Incentive Targeting, explained that by using the combined Groupon and Incentive Targeting system, CPGs and grocery retail chains can not only deliver special offers to loyal shoppers but also measure the effectiveness of the programme in real time, including how many new shoppers have been engaged.

Groupon, launched in November 2008, features a daily deal on foods, activities and merchandise in more than 500 markets around the world, and uses collective buying power to offer reduced prices on more than 900 daily deals globally. Incentive Targeting offers a self-service web-based application to allow marketers to create, manage, and measure behaviourally-targeted promotions throughout its network of retail partners. Brands and chains can then use the system to collaborate on shopper insights.

For additional information: ·  Visit Groupon at http://www.groupon.com ·  Visit HaloEffect at http://www.haloeffect.com ·  Visit Incentive Targeting at http://www.incentivetargeting.com ·  Visit Big Y Foods at http://www.bigy.com