Nectar loyalty card
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Nectar loyalty card is a loyalty card scheme in the United Kingdom issued by a partnership of suppliers including the supermarket chain Sainsbury's, the credit card American Express and the petrol distributors BP. It was launched in the autumn of 2002.
The Nectar scheme was launched by the founder of Air Miles, Sir Keith Mills and is operated by the privately held Loyalty Management UK (LMUK). The Nectar Helpline is based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Mumbai, India.
The Nectar Card scheme was relaunched in Summer 2007 to celebrate 5 years of the card. The rewards of the scheme were repositioned as treats at this time.
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[edit] Benefits to consumers
Sainsbury's shoppers effectively receive just under 1% discount on goods purchased there. After spending £250 (with each receipt rounded down to the nearest pound) 500 points are earned, which translates to a rebate of £2.50 to be redeemed at the next shop. To be eligible to redeem at a certain store, a customer must have bought something from that store before, and at least 24 hours earlier. Extra points may be earned when shopping online, buying certain products or during particular promotions as well as not using plastic bags to carry one's shopping home.
[edit] Benefits to retailers
- Estimated initial 50%-250% return on investment
- Increased retention — Due to the nature of the Nectar scheme, a customer who shops regularly with more than one partner company can gain points faster. This reduces the chances of disillusionment or fatigue.
- More sophisticated offers — he points out that in many cases Tesco is spending several hundred pounds giving discounts to customers who would be loyal in any case.
- "Overlap" — The collaboration increases the chance of attracting new customers, for example a frequent customer of a BP filling station who joins Nectar may be tempted into a nearby Sainsbury's where they otherwise would not shop (and vice versa) to gain rewards faster.
- To turn "tertiary" or secondary buyers into "primary buyers" — i.e. (to use the Sainsbury's example again) to turn a customer who buys just the essentials at their local store into a customer who does the main shopping at that store.
[edit] Criticisms
In its early days, the Nectar scheme received criticism from Which? magazine as being amongst the worst loyalty schemes on offer. At the time, Which? said some consumers who spent £5,000 on Barclaycard received as little as £12.50 in points to redeem, while Sainsbury's customers had to spend as much as £1,000 just to get two tickets to the cinema.[1]
There also remains concerns similar to all loyalty programmes with users worried about the commercial use of the personal data collected as part of the programmes. Consumer purchases can be tracked and analysed resulting in more efficient marketing and advertising.
[edit] Current members
Launch members:
Other members (in the order they joined):
- Ford
- EDF Energy
- Expedia
- Hertz
- Brewers Fayre
- Beefeater
- American Express (Co-branded credit card)
- Dollond & Aitchison
- The AA
- Thomson Directories
- Gala Bingo
- Table Table
- TNS mysurvey.com
- Homebase
- Argos (Redemption only)
- Homebase
- Jokers' Masquerade [2]
- Amazon
[edit] Former members
- Barclaycard (Was a launch member, however membership ended on 31 August 2005)
- Threshers
- Magnet
- Winemark (Northern Ireland only)
- ebookers (Membership ended on 1 June 2009)
- Debenhams (Was a launch member, however membership ended on 15 February 2008)
- TalkTalk (Membership ended on 31 August 2009)
[edit] See also
- Tesco Clubcard - Rival supermarket Tesco's loyalty card scheme.
[edit] References
- ^ Has Nectar played its cards right? bbc.co.uk
- ^ Jokers' Masqerade join Nectar Points nectar.com
[edit] External links
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