Poundland is gearing up for a UK rollout of a loyalty scheme this year, following pilots in Northern Ireland and the Isle of Wight.
Called Poundland Perks, the digital loyalty scheme rewards users with discounts on promotional products. The discounts can be redeemed against purchases in store by scanning a barcode in the app at checkout.
The process is similar to that employed by Lidl’s loyalty scheme, called Lidl Plus, which allows the supermarket to collect data on customers’ purchases so rewards can be personalised. The scheme was credited by experts with helping Lidl outperform Aldi in sales growth over the Christmas period, by giving it the customer insight needed to land products and ranges at the optimal time.
However, Poundland Perks rewards are not currently personalised. The promotional products are chosen from a cross-section of categories and rotated every two weeks, according to a terms & conditions page in the Poundland Perks app.
The T&Cs say the app will collect customer data in line with the privacy policy on Poundland’s website, which stipulates this could include products viewed and items in a basket.
Also like Lidl Plus, Poundland Perks features ‘spin the wheel’ competitions. Poundland’s prizes are either an item of merchandise sent by post or loyalty points in the app. The spin the wheel competitions will be made available by Poundland “from time to time at its discretion”, according to the T&Cs.
For every £1 spent in store, Poundland Perks users also get 100 points in the app, with 5,000 points earning them a £1 voucher for their next shop.
A four-store pilot of the app on the Isle of Wight resulted in almost 10% of the island’s population downloading it, according to Poundland. The retailer is currently monitoring customer feedback in Northern Ireland, where Poundland Perks launched in November, “ahead of an expected wider UK launch” this year.
Zsuzsa Kecsmar, cofounder and chief strategy officer at loyalty cloud platform Antavo, said: “Given the great success that Lidl has seen with its Lidl Plus scheme, it’s not surprising to see that Poundland’s follows a similar format.
“I think we can expect to see even more discounters following in their footsteps as the cost of living continues to bite and the battle for customers remains fierce.”
A Poundland spokesman said the loyalty scheme “brings new technology to Poundland as it expands its digital services”.
While other discounters such as B&M and Aldi have retreated from online in recent years, Poundland has moved in the opposite direction, relaunching its website as fully transactional in September. The move was the result of the variety discounter migrating its e-commerce operation from Poundshop.com, which it bought in 2022, to its own consumer-facing site at Poundland.co.uk.
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