Woolworths backflips - QF points are coming back

[medhead]

It's all right while they are making a billion a year but would having plenty of Ansett points in 2000 have been a problem......

not a problem in the last quarter of 2000.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Got an e Rewards Survey asking what I would say to Woolworths.
2000 WWRewards = 1000 QFF points I wrote back.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Got an e Rewards Survey asking what I would say to Woolworths.
2000 WWRewards = 1000 QFF points I wrote back.

I trust you told them them whilst an improvement on 870 QFF points, the $2000 spend to achieve the 1000 QFF points is hardly appealing.

 

[JohnK]

Got an e Rewards Survey asking what I would say to Woolworths.
2000 WWRewards = 1000 QFF points I wrote back.

One for one at a minimum.

Not chasing QFF points as QFF points are close to worthless with high fuel surcharges. Premium cabin is only worth as much as I am prepared to pay for economy.

Think we will take the cash discount but think parents will lose interest if it's $10 discount every $2000 spent.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

I said or wrote I would come back to WW if it was $2000 for 1000 or 1100.
Dont know if the message will actually get back to WW or WWRewards though.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I said or wrote I would come back to WW if it was $2000 for 1000 or 1100.
Dont know if the message will actually get back to WW or WWRewards though.

Hopefully a few others put through $2000 for 2000 QFF points

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Putting my data analysis hat on for a second, I do wonder if the revised rewards program will actually boost customer loyalty or generate revenue for WOW.

Old QF Program:
- Under $30 spend you earned nothing. This had a double bonus for woolies where office workers/casual shoppers wouldn't cash in on their daily lunch time shop. Added benefit of potentially pushing the average customer spend to above $30 per transaction. Customers received instant rewards on every shop and could see their points balance increasing on a weekly basis.

New 'me too' Program:
- Everyone regardless of transaction size will earn points. Sure it takes longer to achieve $2,000 spend and many people will never reach this - or it will take a long time - and/or exceed the spend and therefore the cost to woolworths on QF points will never match the customer spend.
- The $10/870point reward likely has little appeal because now there's a set amount on earn/return. It's a poorly designed discount program. It's a long game to collect anything meaningful and there's no interim instant satisfaction along the journey for customers.

Coles works well because they've invested the GDP of a small nation into data analytics. Woolworths doesn't appear to have to the same level.

Professional Insight: New program will fail to move the needle on customer spend or transactional basis because it's not gamified. In fact, I would suggest many customers won't bother to swipe their card and thus woolies will lose the ability to track customers at a micro level. Wallet real estate is becoming more valuable as purses/wallets become smaller and carry less loyalty cards than ever before. At some point - the lowest value rewards cards won't make the cut and won't be carried with consumers on a daily basis. Plus, with the same earn as Coles - it doesn't matter where you shop. The rewards/loyalty program therefore offers no defining benefit for customers to go out of their way to shop at woolies.

Loyalty is a game but the real money is made with data.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Putting my data analysis hat on for a second, I do wonder if the revised rewards program will actually boost customer loyalty or generate revenue for WOW.

Old QF Program:
- Under $30 spend you earned nothing. This had a double bonus for woolies where office workers/casual shoppers wouldn't cash in on their daily lunch time shop. Added benefit of potentially pushing the average customer spend to above $30 per transaction. Customers received instant rewards on every shop and could see their points balance increasing on a weekly basis.

New 'me too' Program:
- Everyone regardless of transaction size will earn points. Sure it takes longer to achieve $2,000 spend and many people will never reach this - or it will take a long time - and/or exceed the spend and therefore the cost to woolworths on QF points will never match the customer spend.
- The $10/870point reward likely has little appeal because now there's a set amount on earn/return. It's a poorly designed discount program. It's a long game to collect anything meaningful and there's no interim instant satisfaction along the journey for customers.

Coles works well because they've invested the GDP of a small nation into data analytics. Woolworths doesn't appear to have to the same level.

Professional Insight: New program will fail to move the needle on customer spend or transactional basis because it's not gamified. In fact, I would suggest many customers won't bother to swipe their card and thus woolies will lose the ability to track customers at a micro level. Wallet real estate is becoming more valuable as purses/wallets become smaller and carry less loyalty cards than ever before. At some point - the lowest value rewards cards won't make the cut and won't be carried with consumers on a daily basis. Plus, with the same earn as Coles - it doesn't matter where you shop. The rewards/loyalty program therefore offers no defining benefit for customers to go out of their way to shop at woolies.

Loyalty is a game but the real money is made with data.

That's all too complex for me but I think I agree with you

Old Program
Driven to do one big weekly shop at Woolies as anything over $30 was 1 pp$
Spend $2k per month with return of 1880 QFF points.

New Program
No incentive for big weekly shop there but if I did decide to still spend $2K per month return is 870 QFF points.

I'm no maths whiz but it certainly isn't attractive to the big spenders.

Think I'll shop where and when I choose and stick to flying, CC bonuses and Epiqure.

 

[cmon0005]

Old Program
Driven to do one big weekly shop at Woolies as anything over $30 was 1 pp$
Spend $2k per month with return of 1880 QFF points.

I too used to be a fan of a big weekly shop, and since WW 'rewards' came in my shopping has become small sporadic shops and a split between Coles, WW & foodworks. So they have definitely diluted my spend with them.

The key to WW getting me back on-side (not necessarily loyal) is to issue bonus QFF points offers like the old days with decent points earn.

 

[pauly7]

Coles works well because they've invested the GDP of a small nation into data analytics. Woolworths doesn't appear to have to the same level.

Professional Insight: New program will fail to move the needle on customer spend or transactional basis because it's not gamified. In fact, I would suggest many customers won't bother to swipe their card and thus woolies will lose the ability to track customers at a micro level. Wallet real estate is becoming more valuable as purses/wallets become smaller and carry less loyalty cards than ever before. At some point - the lowest value rewards cards won't make the cut and won't be carried with consumers on a daily basis. Plus, with the same earn as Coles - it doesn't matter where you shop. The rewards/loyalty program therefore offers no defining benefit for customers to go out of their way to shop at woolies.

Loyalty is a game but the real money is made with data.

The real money is made with data, but I think you'll find Woolworths has sunk the equivalent of a small nations GDP into data as well. I work with both retailers as clients so I can't say too much but if you google Quantium and Woolworths you will see a little bit of what they are doing.

 

[sezza]

Hopefully a few others put through $2000 for 2000 QFF points

That's what I just did!

 

[Pleb Status]

Like FB, it is all about the bonus promotions more than the base earn of the program.

If WWR hand out triple point offers/coupons every second week (like FB) and you group your shops around these offers/coupons, you could get an effective 1pt/$ spent overall ($666/870pts or 1.306pt/$ spent on the bonus shop and 0.435pt/$ the remainder of the time).

 

[medhead]

I too used to be a fan of a big weekly shop, and since WW 'rewards' came in my shopping has become small sporadic shops and a split between Coles, WW & foodworks. So they have definitely diluted my spend with them.

The key to WW getting me back on-side (not necessarily loyal) is to issue bonus QFF points offers like the old days with decent points earn.

The problem with multiple small shops is that you tend to buy opportunity items that you didn't intend to get. They want you in the shop more often to maximise that additional spend. Which makes the old woolworths scheme seem counter-productive.

A big weekly shop gives only one opportunity to make you buy stuff you didn't want.

 

[CaptJCool]

I trust you told them them whilst an improvement on 870 QFF points, the $2000 spend to achieve the 1000 QFF points is hardly appealing.

Sounds like a bit of foreign exchange arbitrage going on here. The 'bank' of WOW is the winner

 

[Mr_Orange]

Wallet real estate is becoming more valuable as purses/wallets become smaller and carry less loyalty cards than ever before. At some point - the lowest value rewards cards won't make the cut and won't be carried with consumers on a daily basis.

I don't carry a single loyalty card in my wallet. They are all on my phone in an app called Stocard.

 

[odysseus]

Putting my data analysis hat on for a second, I do wonder if the revised rewards program will actually boost customer loyalty or generate revenue for WOW.

Old QF Program:
- Under $30 spend you earned nothing. This had a double bonus for woolies where office workers/casual shoppers wouldn't cash in on their daily lunch time shop. Added benefit of potentially pushing the average customer spend to above $30 per transaction. Customers received instant rewards on every shop and could see their points balance increasing on a weekly basis.

New 'me too' Program:
- Everyone regardless of transaction size will earn points. Sure it takes longer to achieve $2,000 spend and many people will never reach this - or it will take a long time - and/or exceed the spend and therefore the cost to woolworths on QF points will never match the customer spend.
- The $10/870point reward likely has little appeal because now there's a set amount on earn/return. It's a poorly designed discount program. It's a long game to collect anything meaningful and there's no interim instant satisfaction along the journey for customers.

Coles works well because they've invested the GDP of a small nation into data analytics. Woolworths doesn't appear to have to the same level.

Professional Insight: New program will fail to move the needle on customer spend or transactional basis because it's not gamified. In fact, I would suggest many customers won't bother to swipe their card and thus woolies will lose the ability to track customers at a micro level. Wallet real estate is becoming more valuable as purses/wallets become smaller and carry less loyalty cards than ever before. At some point - the lowest value rewards cards won't make the cut and won't be carried with consumers on a daily basis. Plus, with the same earn as Coles - it doesn't matter where you shop. The rewards/loyalty program therefore offers no defining benefit for customers to go out of their way to shop at woolies.

Loyalty is a game but the real money is made with data.

Without access to their actual transaction data, that's one hypothesis, but there's an equal case the other way.

The previous programs had little appeal for those who did shop around, or did make frequent pop in visits.

I often wouldn't swipe my card, as what was the "point"? If the spend was less than $30 there was often no benefit - and even getting 5 points for $35 or similar amounts was hardly a big deal. And as many people post here, they're not going to markedly change their behaviour or get worse value for points that are less value overall.

Thus, the only data they got was the register transaction data, not the shopper data, so less value to the company.

At least with this new program, more data, more return and hence more value.

 

[nickfromeastryde]

"New program will fail to move the needle on customer spend or transactional basis because it's not gamified.iii

New players might have come in but at the moment Coles is still their main competition. I'm quite certain seeing as the new program looks and feels just like flybuys that they will most definitely be "gamifying" the system and will be providing instant gratification on the way to those 2,000/870 WOW/QFF conversions. Just like Coles in other words

I'm happy to see the scheme back, it may not be as lucrative as before but long ago, I made the decision to make QFF my main scheme as it was only scheme where I could channel just about all my point earning opportunities. This has become harder and the value not as good but it has delivered in my eyes at least some fantastic outcomes which I would not have achieved cannibalising my point earning across multiple schemes. I need to shop, I don't really like much of the home brand product so happy to direct most of my shopping to WOW and pick up some points along the way

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

If you make it a point to pay with QCC or any other QF linked credit card, your balance per $1 with WWR will go up faster.
For me, I only have QCC so they will have to do something drastic to pull me back to WWR.
For others who have the true true credit card where you actually owe the bank or a card issuer at the end of the month, and have to pay the debt 14/21 days later, $1 spent can earn you a bit more QFF points.
For me personally, I am still waiting to see what happens, if they will enhance/enchance the WWR.

 

[exceladdict]

New program will fail to move the needle on customer spend or transactional basis because it's not gamified. In fact, I would suggest many customers won't bother to swipe their card and thus woolies will lose the ability to track customers at a micro level.

<snip>

The rewards/loyalty program therefore offers no defining benefit for customers to go out of their way to shop at woolies.

Loyalty is a game but the real money is made with data.

Completely agree. It's interesting, as a second mover WOW have decided to, for all intents and purposes, copy flybuys (albeit poorly). As nickfromeastryde said we will hopefully see woolworths gamifying the system but standard cashback per dollar spent doesn't generate excitement. A 'prize' with an indeterminate value (let's face it, not everyone maximises points with J redemptions, my past self included) has an aspirational value that half a cent in woolworths rupees per dollar just doesn't deliver.

Just to clarify, for a 'prize' to seem worthwhile in my book, it needs to be a few hundred points, not 36 points (or less) for my $36 spent. Despite the fact I consider myself an over-analyser of these programs, I do still get excited stacking multiple docket deals, emailed offers and mailout coupons to get X,000 fly buys points most weeks.

The problem with multiple small shops is that you tend to buy opportunity items that you didn't intend to get. They want you in the shop more often to maximise that additional spend. Which makes the old woolworths scheme seem counter-productive.

A big weekly shop gives only one opportunity to make you buy stuff you didn't want.

I agree - and it seems that WOW completely lost the plot in terms of what they are trying to achieve with their rewards scheme over the last 9 months. Perhaps it's total customer value, perhaps increased spend on high margin items (perhaps someone who works in retailing can compare profit margin for us on a big shop vs a small shop with impulse buys?).

I don't carry a single loyalty card in my wallet. They are all on my phone in an app called Stocard.

Enter a new challenge in enslaving the next generation to the duopoly. Both systems need NFC-driven apps, and badly!

 

[basso]

system but standard cashback per dollar spent doesn't generate excitement.

This is true of many many programs. the standard reward is a pittance. And from what I can see, far too many people are getting hung up on this. The true worth is in the promotions. But there needs to be a base level earning - this was a fatal flaw in the program put in place late last year.