MSE News:Waitrose unveils its new loyalty scheme 8 February 2018 at 1:22PM in Food shopping & groceries 39 replies 7.3K views

Former_MSE_Megan_F

Waitrose will replace its 'pick your own' offer with a new scheme to send customers vouchers and offers through the post...

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'Waitrose unveils its new loyalty scheme'

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redfox

Not a good start. If the vouchers are supposed to be tailored to you based on previous shops then they have a big problem with their system somewhere.

I got two product vouchers in the mail today - one for £2.50 off beef and one for £1 off soup. Neither of which items I have ever bought at Waitrose as I make my own soup and buy beef from our local butcher!

[Deleted User]

It was good while it lasted. Although for the past year, the offers from pick your own have been a bit hit or miss. Largely miss.
I'm not a regular shopper at Waitrose so I doubt the new system will be of much use.

Doc_N

redfox wrote: »

Not a good start. If the vouchers are supposed to be tailored to you based on previous shops then they have a big problem with their system somewhere.

I got two product vouchers in the mail today - one for £2.50 off beef and one for £1 off soup. Neither of which items I have ever bought at Waitrose as I make my own soup and buy beef from our local butcher!

It'll be tailored as much towards what you don't buy as what you do buy. They know they can sell you stuff you've already bought, but vouchers might encourage you to buy things you don't normally buy there.

Yorkshire_Pud

redfox wrote: »

Not a good start. If the vouchers are supposed to be tailored to you based on previous shops then they have a big problem with their system somewhere.

I got two product vouchers in the mail today - one for £2.50 off beef and one for £1 off soup. Neither of which items I have ever bought at Waitrose as I make my own soup and buy beef from our local butcher!

They want you to buy things you don't usually buy from Waitrose!?

I did get targeted vouchers for £1 off organic milk and £2 off chilled drink (a beer from the chiller? ) and four x £4 off £40 spend which I've done once in 23 years so far and I'm not going to use. Prefer Tesco £3 off £20 spend when it comes up.

2013yearofthehouse

I only buy about 4 items (all PYO items) from Waitrose and the new vouchers I got are for 2 of them (well not brand specific, just one for Yogurt and one for bread), so it seems some people are getting vouchers for products they do buy and some aren't.

NBLondon

Doc_N wrote: »

It'll be tailored as much towards what you don't buy as what you do buy. They know they can sell you stuff you've already bought, but vouchers might encourage you to buy things you don't normally buy there.

Yorkshire_Pud wrote: »

They want you to buy things you don't usually buy from Waitrose!?

That's how Sainsbury used to be until a few years back - which meant I threw away 2/3 because I had no need for e.g. baby food. Then it changed to being bonus points on items I had bought in the past or different brands of items I had bought - so they must have changed the algorithm. I still throw away one in three though, because the timing is off...

I have also had the £4 of £40 etc form Waitrose - and I've never used them. Sainsbury keep offering me triple Nectar points on £50 which we rarely reach in one shop. After a few months, they drop it to £40 and I might manage that, so the next voucher is £60 :wall:

redfox

Doc_N wrote: »

It'll be tailored as much towards what you don't buy as what you do buy. They know they can sell you stuff you've already bought, but vouchers might encourage you to buy things you don't normally buy there.

the email I received explaining the change says "After listening to our customers, we believe there is a better way of giving you savings on the products you buy most often."

It specifically says that the vouchers will be on the products you buy most often - but I never buy beef or soup. So I still think their system must be inadequate and I can't see these so called personalised vouchers being of any use to me at all.

unrecordings

And there's a problem for Waitrose here. If the vouchers are less relevant, you bother to flash the card less. Waitrose get less customers data, the vouchers become even less relevant and a vicious circle develops ending in less customer data for Waitrose and people eventually forget about the whole scheme

Paper vouchers also increase checkout times

unrecordings

Actually thinking about it, there's some canny reasoning behind the change - maybe - although doing it with vouchers is a regression. A generic voucher for 'toilet paper' allows us to deviate from our previous buying habits without losing the reward. Waitrose get enhanced sale data on toilet roll in general, not just the two or three option that PYO had. Question is, will the enhanced data make up for the inevitable reduction in the pool of data ?

sarah1972

unrecordings wrote: »

And there's a problem for Waitrose here. If the vouchers are less relevant, you bother to flash the card less. Waitrose get less customers data, the vouchers become even less relevant and a vicious circle develops ending in less customer data for Waitrose and people eventually forget about the whole scheme

Paper vouchers also increase checkout times

I certainly won’t flash my card less as it gives you the magazine for free.