Industry overview
What is shaping retail
Retailers and D2C brands compete across stores, apps and marketplaces. Store experience, availability and convenience decide where shoppers go next.
- Shoppers move freely between online and offline
- Store experience is a key differentiator
- Loyalty programmes and personalisation drive repeat
Client background
A supermarket chain, working in Australia & New Zealand. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A supermarket chain
- Sector
- Retail
- Team engaged
- Market Research
- Services
- Consumer panel, Quantitative research, Research consultancy
Client challenge
The chain’s points-based loyalty programme was costly but did not seem to change behaviour. Many members collected points without shopping more, and management wanted to know which rewards would actually increase loyalty.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: redesigning a supermarket loyalty programme.
- Understand the views, needs and behaviour of members.
- Produce results that can be compared across groups and locations.
- Give the client evidence it can act on within 9 weeks.
Target audience
The work focused on 3,000 members.
- members3,000
Audiences we typically reach in retail
ShoppersStore staff and managersOnline customersLoyalty membersFranchisees
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Australia & New Zealand. Markets: Australia and New Zealand.
- Australia
- New Zealand
Research methodology
A structured quantitative design, so results could be compared across groups, locations and time.
- 1Brief
- 2Member survey with choice exercise
- 3Transaction data analysis
- 4Insight
We surveyed members about how they valued different rewards, including instant discounts, personalised offers and partner rewards, using a choice exercise. Results were combined with anonymised transaction data to see which members responded to which types of offers. A pilot in selected stores tested personalised offers against the existing programme before full rollout.
Consumer panelQuantitative researchResearch consultancy
Sampling strategy
- members
- 3,000
- Online respondents were drawn from verified panel members who matched the screening criteria, with quotas on key profile attributes.
Data collection
- The online survey was mobile-friendly and offered in respondents' languages.
Data quality & validation
- Digital fingerprinting and duplicate checks
- Attention, speed and straight-lining checks
- Review of open-ended answers
- Logic and range checks on the final data
- Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures
Data analysis
- Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
- Significance testing on the differences that mattered
- Price and trade-off analysis
Key findings
- Personalised weekly offers on products members already bought drove more additional spending than points.
Rewards that felt personal changed behaviour more than generic points.
Recommendations
- The chain shifted its programme towards personalised offers and simplified points redemption.
- Share the findings with the teams closest to customers so they can act quickly.
What we recommended, and the client put into practice
Business impact
- Programme costs fell while member spending increased.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: are stores delivering the brand standard?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.