What small businesses can learn from Shoppers' Optimum program. Take a peek inside the average Canadian's wallet and you'll likely see a different kind of plastic behind the Amex or Visa – an array of loyalty rewards cards. Optimum Program Guide. We've completely reinvented your program guide. Now, it's even more powerful and informative about everything Optimum has to offer. Explore the features of the RBC Shoppers Optimum Banking Account, which offers unlimited debits and a way to earn Shoppers Optimum Points even faster. The RBC Shoppers Optimum MasterCard lets you earn 15 Shoppers Optimum Points for every $1 in purchases at Shoppers Drug Mart and 5 points anywhere else. Join; Login; About Optimum Program; FAQ Optimum; View all Optimum Offers; Visit a Store. Shoppers Drug Mart (Pharmaprix in Quebec). Canadians are obsessed with loyalty and rewards programs, so much so they've become an essential part of doing business. Just how important are they to companies looking for creative ways to attract and retain customers? A whopping 8. 6 per cent of Canadians participate in at least one loyalty program, while the average Canadian household is active in more than nine programs, according to Cincinnati- based loyalty- marketing research firm Colloquy. Compare that to the United States, where 5. Americans carry at least one reward card and slightly more than six households participate in loyalty programs. Add the fact that loyalty participants are 7. Canadian companies have jumped on the rewards bandwagon as they seek to shape customers' spending habits. But owners of small- and medium- sized businesses who think loyalty programs are beyond their reach should think again. Tim Wilson, a specialist in business- to- business loyalty with the Air Miles Reward Program, says that small and medium enterprises, or SMEs, are just as capable of organizing a loyalty plan as a larger firm, and can glean just as many benefits. Number of Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix stores. The Shoppers Optimum program might be kept or merged with PC Plus or PC Points within the next 3 years after. Welcome to Shoppers Food and Pharmacy. Shoppers offers exclusive coupons, savings and recipes as well as all your pharmacy needs. Access your personalized offers and load them directly to your digital Shoppers Optimum Card. 1-800-SHOPPERs, by mail at Shoppers Drug Mart. PARTICIPATING STORES 1. The Shoppers Optimum Program By providing loyalty rewards, businesses have an opportunity to differentiate their offerings and compete outside of the price arena, he says. How? One successful plan – Shoppers Drug Mart Corp.'s Optimum points program – can provide lessons for SMEs looking to test the waters.“Shoppers has managed to change the retail game in that space by targeting individual consumers with offers they can't refuse,” says Niraj Dawar, a marketing professor at the University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business. After accumulating 8,0. Customers have their card swiped after each purchase, are provided with a running point tally on their receipts and can redeem them against their purchases at the cash register. The nationwide chain also runs regular bonus point promotions to encourage customers to spend more on different products such as a slow- selling brand of toothpaste or a higher- margin cosmetic product. While Optimum is a standalone plan – it is operated in- house by Shoppers – others such as the popular Air Miles Reward Program are coalition plans, owned and operated by third- party firms. While coalition programs generally offer a cheaper and less time- consuming option for retailers looking to provide rewards to their customers, standalones such as Optimum offer greater control and, in many cases, analytical insight retailers can use to shape everything from store design to promotions. For the average small or medium business, developing and managing a loyalty program as successful as Shoppers' Optimum seems like an insurmountable task. Luckily, emulating the program's basic principles to attract and retain new customers is not. Keep it simple, targeted. The Optimum program works because Shoppers Drug Mart listened to its customers, who said they wanted a simple program with easily redeemable points that saved them money on everyday purchases such as shampoo and toothpaste, says Rob Wilson, a professor of marketing at Ryerson University's Ted Rogers School of Management. By expanding their product line in recent years to include food, electronics and high- end cosmetics, Shoppers has been able to grow its customer base and offer rewards on a wider range of goods.“Before any program is put into place, you need to do a tremendous amount of analysis and thought to what you're trying to accomplish,” Ryerson's Mr. Wilson says, adding that customer relationship- management software is a key tool in collecting and organizing that customer spending data. So, just how many clients does a company need before setting up a loyalty program? Dawar, SMEs don't necessarily need massive scale to run a successful loyalty program, but they do need a significant number of customers to be able to obtain data and draw conclusions from their spending habits to build out a targeted program that offers rewards those clients might actually want. A firm with five customers probably doesn't need a loyalty program to glean information or drive behaviour, but one with 1. Reward good behaviour. There's a good reason why most coffee chains have given up their buy- nine- coffees- get- the- 1. They rewarded existing customers with discounts, but did little to encourage people to spend more or lure in new java aficionados.“You want a program that's going to change behaviour on the margin,” says Mara Lederman, assistant professor of strategic management at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. She points out that the Optimum program has successfully changed behaviour by offering an incentive for customers to buy products at Shoppers Drug Mart they would usually buy elsewhere, such as dairy products or cosmetics. And by offering bonus points on various items, the company has provided itself with an alternative means to discount and move lagging inventory out of stores, Ms. Lederman adds. Think outside the lines. Shoppers has cleverly taken a non- linear approach to its reward structure, she says, something she thinks SMEs would be wise to replicate in their own loyalty plans. With the Optimum program, the value of points is higher when cashed at greater amounts. This benefit encourages customers to continue shopping and saving points to maximize their eventual reward.“That's something every firm should do, otherwise people cash out points when they earn a minimum and might start shopping with someone else,” she says.
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