Lidl has overhauled its loyalty scheme with the addition of new discounts for members on a weekly rotating selection of products.
The new Lidl Plus Offers are in addition to the existing ‘coupons’ that give shoppers personalised discounts on a regularly changing selection of products tailored for them.
Unlike the coupons, the Lidl Plus Offers are not personalised, but simply exclusive additional discounts for all loyalty scheme members.
WATCH MORE: How grocery can use data to win shoppers’ loyalty.
With the coupons, users must ‘activate’ each one in the app beforehand in order to redeem it when they scan their phone at the checkout. The process enables Lidl to collect data on the discounts they activate most, as well as their shopping habits, in order to personalise further coupons.
However, with Lidl Plus Offers there is no need to activate them. Instead, they will be redeemed automatically against a shop when members scan the app at checkout.
Though the Lidl Plus Offers themselves are not personalised, the addition of them will enable even greater personalisation of the coupons, according to the discounter.
The new feature has been added to the Lidl Plus app in the past few days.
“To make it even easier for customers to save on their shopping we’ve introduced Lidl Plus Offers,” said a Lidl spokeswoman.
“This benefit, which is in addition to our personalised Lidl Plus for You Coupons, gives Lidl Plus users access to an amazing selection of savings that don’t need to be activated and will automatically be applied at the checkout when customers scan their Lidl Plus app.
“It also means that we’re able to provide even more personalised discounts through our Lidl Plus for You Coupons, giving customers a tailor-made way of getting the things they love at even lower prices.”
Seventeen products are discounted in the current weekly cycle of Lidl Plus Offers, valid from 9 May until 15 May. They include 95p Freshona Peach tinned slices in a bogof deal and Formil Laundry Gel with 40p off, bringing the price of a one-litre bottle down to £1.99. Bakery products are also included, along with general merchandise such as a kids’ pedal go-kart reduced by £10 to £39.99.
The Lidl Plus app was launched in 2020 and by November last year had 38% of shoppers as active users [Nielsen Homescan].
The app has been credited by discounter experts as a key weapon helping Lidl grow sales faster than Aldi since October last year, including at Christmas. The addition of bakery products is seen as particularly shrewd, highlighting a proposition which is unique to Lidl in the discount supermarket space.
Read more: What has happened to Aldi’s stratospheric growth story?
Lidl has been the fastest-growing bricks & mortar supermarket for eight months in a row, according to Kantar. Its sales were up 9.1% year on year in the 12 weeks to 14 April, putting its market share at a record-high 8%. Aldi’s growth, meanwhile, had slowed to 2.8%, behind the total market’s 4.3%. Aldi’s market share stands at 10%, down from 10.1% a year earlier.
Paul Foley, who was Aldi’s UK & Ireland CEO from 1999 to 2009, recently told The Grocer: “There is no doubt in my mind the Lidl loyalty scheme is a winner and that this marketing tool is at the centre of their current success.
“The loyalty scheme is hailed worldwide within the discount industry as the first scheme that encourages more than 60% transaction penetration, so you get a treasure trove of information, but does not cost anything like the 2%-plus of revenue that traditional points systems do.”
No comments yet