Woolworths relaunches rewards loyalty program

Woolworths has rebooted its struggling loyalty program, but critics are still questioning its value to shoppers.

Shoppers will from the end of the month be able to earn rewards on all purchases at Woolworths and BWS liquor stores.

Woolworths has unveiled a reboot of its struggling rewards loyalty program, the third rejig of the troubled scheme since October.

The supermarket giant (WOW) announced today that from the end of the month shoppers will be able to earn rewards on all purchases at Woolworths and BWS liquor stores.

The shake-up of the Woolworths rewards program — foreshadowed in The Australian today — will mean the scrapping of the system presented to shoppers last year, under which rewards dollars could only be earnt on orange-ticketed groceries in the store.

These items were difficult to find in the supermarket aisle and essentially forced shoppers to buy certain items to rack up points that could be later transferred into discounts at the checkout.

Under the new scheme announced today, Woolworths will also introduce more ways for Woolworths Rewards members to accelerate their rewards, including exclusive member offers across more than 900 Woolworths supermarkets and 1270 BWS stores, the ability to earn points at 530 Caltex Woolworths sites, and double points on items from essential household categories such as deals on fresh fruit, meat, deli goods and seafood.

The new scheme means Woolworths shoppers will earn a minimum of one point for every dollar they spend in store or online at Woolworths supermarkets. They will receive a $10 discount from their shopping each and every time their points balance reaches 2000 points, or they can choose to bank these savings for Christmas.

There will also be increased personalised offers sent direct to members on items they already buy.

“We are pleased that our members have responded positively to automatically getting money off their shopping,’’ said Ingid Maes, Woolworths director of loyalty and customer data.

“However, we’ve acknowledged that we didn’t deliver enough orange ticket offers in store and while many of our members have been rewarded well, too many have not.’’

Woolworths first unveiled its new rewards program last year, dumping Qantas Frequent Flyer points and introducing the orange ticketing system, under which shoppers received discounts at the checkout after purchasing items tagged with the orange tickets.

However, there was an immediate backlash from shoppers and suppliers, upset over the dumping of Qantas points and the nature of the orange ticket system, which many saw as slashing the discounts actually available.

Suppliers were unimpressed with the scheme and refused to participate, meaning there were fewer orange tickets in store that could trigger discount deals.

Woolworths was then forced to relaunch the rewards scheme only months later, with a deal that ensured Qantas points could still be earned. But the orange tickets remained, as did the shopper anger.

Ms Maes said she was confident the latest changes would be well received by Woolworths shoppers.

David Flynn, editor of Australian Business Traveller, welcomed the changes to the Woolworths rewards program but said the revamped scheme still delivered minuscule value to shoppers.

“Woolworths’ backflip shows that the grocery giant has realised — if a little late — how emotionally connected Australians can be to their frequent flyer points, and it’s no accident that Woolworths Rewards 2.0 is basically a clone of the competing and very popular Coles Flybuys program.

“The revamped Woolworths rewards scheme also reflects a trend towards more frequent shops with smaller baskets, with the new scheme no longer imposing a minimum $30 spend before a single Qantas point was earned

“However, under the new scheme it’ll cost almost twice as much to earn the same number of Qantas points as under the program which Woolworths axed in December 2015.”

Mr Flynn said under the new scheme a $100 spend earns roughly 43 Qantas points, based on 20,000 Woolworths points being equal to 870 Qantas points; in the old scheme, $100 would have earned 70 Qantas points, based on one Qantas point per dollar above a $30 spend.

“Given that you have to spend around $2000 at Woolies, BWS or an affiliated Caltex service station to earn 870 Qantas points, and that it takes 16,000 points for a return economy ticket between Sydney and Melbourne, you’d have to spend almost $40,000 on groceries to get a free flight.”