MSE News: Tesco slashes Clubcard points to finance price drop

globetraveller

Tesco is offering something that other supermarkets are not. If you stop shopping at tesco just because they have reduced the value of cc points then you are chosing to shop somewhere which has no points at all. Doesn't make any sense to me
If you stop shopping at tesco because you knowingly spent more money just to get the points then presumably you were savvy enough to work out that the points meant more than the savings.
IF you have choice then it is always wise to search online for the cheapest deals.
The points should always be looked upon as a bonus and not the sole reason you shop.
Although in the early days before I dropped down from the 800 rate, my tesco shops, paying for it with an amex( and paying it off every month) plus a couple of actual paid for flights gave me BA miles for one long haul flight (in club or first) every 18 months or so. This also automatically gave me a free companion ticket. A particular flight in first would have cost £9000 for the 2 tickets so I think I did really well and had an experience I would never have been able to afford.:)

globetraveller

mustrum_ridcully wrote: »

The data we give them for free when we apply for a clubcard and do our shopping gives them data that is worth £££.

They don't do this out of the kindness of their hearts. They want to know who buys what and when and how much.

If anyone is worried about the data they are giving a store- just stop using the clubcard. Its simple really.

HateLPG

VT82 wrote: »

Not quite - because:

• not all transactions have the points collected for them
• not all points collected will be spent
• and for every 100 points spent at 1x value in the store this doesn't actually 'cost' Tesco £1, just the cost price of the £1 of goods

So it doesn't really cost Tesco 1% to offer 1 point per pound. Meaning that if you make best use of points, you are being partly subsidised by people who don't, rather than wholly by Tesco putting up their prices by 1%.

I think everyone is completely missing the point here. It doesn't cost Tesco (or any other loyalty card scheme) anything to offer clubcard points. They are not free. Not by a long shot. Ultimately, it's all just down to how they juggle a whole range of factors (price, offers etc) to maximise profit. Nothing more; Nothing less.

Remember, the only purpose of a loyalty card is to map, understand and predict the purchasing habits of the holder and to enable the store to target marketing. If they didn't offer some kind of [STRIKE]bribe[/STRIKE] reward for that information, no one would bother with a loyalty card, so it's all just a balance for the supermarkets.

How any particular organsation collects loyalty card points and what rewards they give card holders is driven by two things:

1) Their determination to drive Brand Loyalty (i.e. Tesco don't really want you shopping at Sainsbury's or Asda, so in that respect it's an incentive to get you to stick to one brand. As most supermarkets now have loyalty cards and people will tend to try to collect all their point on one card, that's less significant these days;

2) (and this is the important one) How much the data on your shopping habits is worth to them and how they use that data to try to sell you more things that you didn't realise you wanted (!). Nothing is "free", so if you get clubcard points worth £100 in a year, you can bet that is worth considerably more than that to Tesco. Now the worth of this data to them as a targeted marketing tool in the current climate has declined for a number of reasons, including:

• In general, money is short, so people will think more carefully before deciding to buy something they wouldn't normally choose, whether that be a premium brand or a new product entirely;
• As online sales grow, Tesco (and other supermarkets) now have a detailed purchasing profile and contact details for many customers anyway, without requiring a clubcard to track them;
• Profiling information now comes from an increasingly wide range of other sources (the really scary one is Facebook - the most incredible free targeted marketing tool ever seen by man) and so manufacturers far have more channels to exploit when promoting their products and are not so dependent on the supermarkets;

In some cases, data can also be used to reduce risk. For example if you apply for a bank loan or health insurance from Tesco they would certainly check to see whether you are regularly buying 20 bottles of cheap wine a week, or don't buy much fresh veg etc. Nectar is particularly evil in this respect as a whole range of varied organisations have access to your purchasing data read the Nectar smallprint!!!).

Personally, I would be happy to see an increasing range of BOGOF offers on non-persishable (or very long shelf-life) in exchange for a reduction in clubcard rewards.

happygolottie

Tescos like all the other supermarket give with one hand and take double with the other. The prices are rising on a daily basis across the board.

dazza.mk

VT82 wrote: »

Not quite - because:

• not all transactions have the points collected for them
• not all points collected will be spent
• and for every 100 points spent at 1x value in the store this doesn't actually 'cost' Tesco £1, just the cost price of the £1 of goods

So it doesn't really cost Tesco 1% to offer 1 point per pound. Meaning that if you make best use of points, you are being partly subsidised by people who don't, rather than wholly by Tesco putting up their prices by 1%.

OK, possibly agree with the first point as not everything had points on, however with poiints 2&3 you're arguing that it isn't a 1% increase in cost to Tesco (which would be true), whereas the original poster was saying they saw it as a 1% price rise to them (as a points collector

mustrum_ridcully

globetraveller wrote: »

If anyone is worried about the data they are giving a store- just stop using the clubcard. Its simple really.

I don't give a monkies quite frankly.

However, the data is worth a fortune, if they employed a research company they'd pay millions and still not get data as good as what they (and everyone else) gets from loyalty cards.

matmad

Anyone know if Clubcard Plus holders will still keep collecting double points?

richardw

globetraveller wrote: »

The points should always be looked upon as a bonus and not the sole reason you shop.

Exactly, just a bonus.

These loyalty card schemes change, we've seen https://www.airmiles.co.uk change recently, nectar stopped redemption at Ask restaurants, may not be worth getting sucked in.

DCFC79

pbemtim wrote: »

There WILL be another double up promo during November

and you know because

Richamorgs

Is the Tesco Club Card Plus still on offer / affected?