Carrefour has launched a new loyalty programme in France, called “Club Carrefour”. Its ambition is to attract half a million new members through discounts and an improved shopping experience.
Stopping the drain
Carrefour has fourteen million card holders in its home market, but lost a whopping 150,000 of them just last year. That loss was partly due to a new law limiting discounts on food, hygiene and beauty products, but also to the fact that the retailer used different customer loyalty mechanisms per shop format. For example, holders of a certain card got a 10 % discount on fruit and vegetables in supermarkets, but not in hypermarkets or online.
This needless complexity should be over with the new Carrefour Club card, which the retailer calls simple, uniform and generous. On top of the general 10 or 15 % discount, customers can earn additional points and discount vouchers with games and monthly challenges. Moreover, the Club card programme should instil a sense of community among Carrefour customers, through a platform with exclusive content such as product tests and customer reviews. Cardholders can also save points for their local amateur sports club with the purchase of fruit and vegetables.
Marketing Director Caroline Dassié points out that “A customer with a card spends an average of 52 euros per visit, three times more than a customer without a card“, French news website LSA reports. “Thanks to this new loyalty programme, every customer who signs up earns an extra 45 euros a year on average”, she claims.
