Asda drops forecourt loyalty card

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By: Wise Marketer Staff |

Posted on January 29, 2002

Asda drops forecourt loyalty card

UK supermarket chain, Asda, has dropped its fuel loyalty card after seven years, and will pass on its savings as lower prices.

UK supermarket chain, Asda, now owned by Wal-Mart, is dropping its Fill 'n' Save fuel loyalty card. The money saved by dropping the programme will be passed on to customers as lower prices. The programme was launched seven years ago. The company has tried withdrawing the card at ten of its filling stations, and subsequent customer research showed "overwhelmingly" that customers preferred lower petrol prices to points.

Fill 'n' Save members earned one point per litre of fuel bought. Four hundred points could be exchanged for an £8.00 George clothing voucher or a £5.00 grocery voucher. The last points will be issued at the end of April this year, and they can be redeemed until the beginning of November - including those on partially filled cards.

Price is better motivator When the card was launched, many industry sources thought that it would prove to be the forerunner of an in-store loyalty card programme, but that never materialised. In fact, Asda ran a four year pilot of an in-store programme in 19 stores, but dropped it in 1999 when research showed that price was a greater motivator of customer loyalty than a card programme.

According to Asda's non-food director, Tony Page: "Our petrol receipts are already the best loyalty cards we could have. Customers aren't fooled by loyalty cards - they know there's no such thing as a free lunch. Loyalty cards lead to higher prices and are costly and complex to administer."

More Info: 

http://www.asda.com