Last updated on August 20, 2021

The concept of saving money is nothing new to Canadians, and according to Statista, about 60% of Canadian consumers that use online platforms for saving money, specifically used loyalty programs.

In July, Caddle asked our panel of Canadians prevalent questions pertaining to loyalty programs and their strategies for saving money.

Many different grocery stores and retailers are introducing and strengthening their reward programs in hope to sway consumers into shopping at their stores. Better yet, to continue to shop at their locations on a regular basis. With loyalty in mind and the frenzy of saving money in the mind of consumers, how exactly is the concept of loyalty programs working for retailers?

More Often Than Not

“Your total is $52.38, do you happen to have a loyalty card with us?” When we asked Canadians how frequently they use loyalty reward cards, specifically for grocery purchases, a majority (31%) responded a few times a week! Following this response 26.7% utilize them on a weekly basis, 10.9% daily, and 7.2% multiple times a day. Looks like that answer was yes!

How frequently do you use a loyalty reward card for grocery purchases?

Incentivized Loyalty

With most Canadians being active users of loyalty reward programs, we wondered what the benefits for retailers would be. Realistically, consumers could be members of various programs which would not be ideal for most retailers looking to gain their loyalty. To determine the benefits, Caddle asked Canadians whether their loyalty programs influenced where they would be grocery shopping. Approximately 44% of respondents agreed that they are somewhat likely to be influenced and about 34% were very likely to be influenced by their loyalty programs to shop at the respective stores. Loyalty definitely pays.

How likely is a loyalty program to influence where you make grocery purchases?

The Cool Retailers Club

With all the talk about loyalty and reward programs, which grocery players are winning over the loyalty of Canadians? Caddle wanted to identify which loyalty programs Canadians utilize most often. It comes as no surprise that PC Optimum is the most used loyalty program, with over 83% of Canadians having a membership. Runner up is Air Miles with over 66% of Canadians being members. Personalized PC points and travel bonuses seem to be winning over Canadians.

Which of the following loyalty programs do you currently use? (Please select all that apply)

Savers Strategy

Now that we have covered the effectiveness of loyalty programs, what else do Canadians do to stretch their dollars? Strategy might be the key to saving. Canadians are taking window shopping to a new level by browsing products inside of stores and later purchasing them online to take advantage of better deals. We asked our panel how often they partake in this tactic and although only about 38% said this is something they only do sometimes, about 21% said they partake often! Not-so-secret saving strategy.

How often do you search for products in-store and then shop online for better deals?

Main Takeaways

No.1 |

Canadians use loyalty programs frequently and are influenced by them to shop at specific stores.

No.2 |

PC optimum and Air Miles are the most favoured reward programs in Canada.

No.3 |

Many Canadians will browse in-store but later purchase online for better deals.

*Disclaimer: all data presented is owned by Caddle and has a Margin of Error of 1% or lower.

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