Safeway’s grocery chain launches mobile coupon program

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Adapted from original article by Giselle Tsirulnik | May 26, 2009

Safeway’s Randalls Food Market has launched a mobile coupon program to help its customers save time, money and trees.

These days, money is tight and people are looking for ways to stretch their dollars, so Randalls is letting customers download manufacturer’s coupons onto their Remarkable Card. The Remarkable Card is Randalls’ loyalty card.

“Mobile coupons provide retailers the ability to reach consumers at home, on the go, and even in the store,” said Dan Kihanya. “It’s the only media channel that is personal, digital and always available.

“Coupons are really a great application for mobile marketing since they bridge the pre-purchase and point-of-sale experiences,” he said.

Randalls is a division of Safeway Inc., one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America, based on sales. The company operates 1,739 stores in the United States and western Canada.

Shoppers can get discounts from brands and select Randalls-labeled products.

“Randalls is one more major grocery chain that has embraced and introduced digital coupons to their shoppers,” Mr. Kihanya said.

“This shows real momentum in the marketplace behind digital promotions,” he said.

“Digital coupons mean that no paper is used to distribute and redeem coupons,” Mr. Kihanya said.

“Eliminating paper from couponing not only saves forests, but also benefits the environment by reducing the water usage to produce the paper and ink, as well as the energy to move the paper out to homes and newspaper stands.

“So mobile and digital coupons are environmentally friendly and have virtually no carbon footprint themselves,” he said.

No more searching for coupons in newspapers and magazines, coupon cutting, or riffling through coupons at the store.

...digital grocery coupons provide convenience, value and relevance for busy consumers looking to save money.

For grocers and manufacturers, this is a more targetable and efficient means of coupon promotion, not to mention the benefits of being able to market to consumers both in and out of the store.

Best of all, with redemption rates 5 to 40 times that of paper-based coupons, it’s highly cost-effective.

“This economy has definitely renewed growth in coupons and promotions,” Mr. Kihanya said. “Coupon usage is as high as it’s been in a decade.”

Newer generations of consumers are more interested in trying to save money and stretch resources.

They are looking to do so using the new technologies they have started to embrace as essential lifestyle tools – like the mobile phone.

“Consumers and corporations alike have embraced digital across many markets,” Mr. Kihanya said. “No reason for coupons to be any different. The phone is the ultra-individual device. As consumers become more and more comfortable with permission-based access from advertisers, the phone will become the ultimate targeted platform for media and specifically for promotions.

“We see mobile emerging as the predominant mechanism for all couponing.”