Pathmark Will Apply Web Coupons to Loyalty Cards
Pathmark has become the latest supermarket chain to link digital coupons to its loyalty program with the launch on the “Online Advantage”, a new enhancement to its “Advantage Club” program.
Pathmark’s club card customers can go online, register their Advantage card or open an account, and start saving the online coupons they find at the site directly to their Advantage accounts. The savings will automatically be deducted from their bill totals the next time they present their Advantage card at checkout.
Pathmark shoppers can also use their mobile devices in connection with the Online Advantage feature. If their device can access mobile Web sites, they can use their browser to log onto the mobile site for Zavers.com, the platform supplying the technology under the Pathmark Online Advantage program, and add coupons they find there under their Pathmark account. If users opt in to receive texts, Zavers and Pathmark will also send out SMS message notices about new coupons available.
Pathmark follows its parent grocery company The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company in adopting paperless coupons. Last August the company’s A&P, SuperFresh, Waldbaum’s and Food Emporium brands all launched paperless online couponing linking their loyalty card programs to the Zavers.com platform.
“We are proud to offer this exciting new program to our Pathmark customers,” Great Atlantic marketing and communications senior vice president Jennifer MacLeod said in a release. “Digital coupons will allow our customers to not only save money but time as well.”
On the Zavers platform, Pathmark Online Advantage users are able to save up to 40 different coupon offers to their account at a time. The coupon redemption savings show up on the register tape when a paperless coupon has been used, and the coupon then vanishes from the user’s Web account. Paperless coupons at Pathmark do not participate in any of the chain’s double-coupon or triple-coupon promotions and can only be redeemed at face value.
“Since launching in A&P retail banner stores, consumer feedback has been tremendous,” Zavers president and CEO Thad Langford said. “In fact, we are seeing redemption rates as high as 40%.”
Giving loyalty members a way to save discount offers directly to their accounts has become a popular way to incorporate paperless couponing into grocery programs, one that other Web coupon platforms have added to their offerings. Last October Coupons.com included a “Save to Card’ feature in a wide-ranging upgrade of its mobile and Web offerings, and now offers the online service to members of the loyalty programs at Safeway, Vons, Dominick’s and other retail grocery chains.
Rival online coupon distributor Cellfire has also inked deals that let customers with loyalty cards from The Kroger Co. or Safeway save paperless coupons to their accounts either on the Web or via mobile access. Last week Cellfire announced it has signed a deal to distribute online coupons to users of the ShopRite Price Plus card.
