What is in this article?:
- Safeway Q2 Profits Down 16%
- Just for U Results
Safeway said net income fell 15.8% to $122.7 million in Q2.
Just for U Results
According to Burd, results of Safeway’s Just for U personalized pricing program are running ahead of the chain’s expectations. Even if competitors were to develop their own digital platforms, he added, Safeway would have a lead of at least 18 months and plans to continue to tweak the program to improve it.
Burd said approximately 70% of Safeway customers have tried Just for U, with 35% using it on a regular basis.
He also said conversions of customers to become regular users of the system is 20% higher than Safeway anticipated; the average spend by those customers is 100% higher than anticipated; and the average spend by more casual users is 50% higher than anticipated.
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The results are exceeding Safeway’s expectations, he explained, because it wasn’t sure how to gauge the impact of adding a mobile application to the system, noting that the number of people using the mobile app are 50% higher than those using a desktop.
“What we’re doing is still in its infancy,” Burd added, “and if the current program is Just for U 2.0, we still have a 3.0 and a 4.0 in the planning stages.
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“And while we believe other companies will follow us in developing more personalized shopping systems, it would require a minimum of 18 months for them to develop it, so we believe we have a substantial lead. And our system will be so much better in 18 months that it won’t matter who else is into personalizing their offers.”
In response to a question, he declined to say how many people had registered for Just for U “because it might provide too much encouragement to competitors to develop their own programs,” Burd explained.
He said Safeway expects to introduce Just for U in Canada, though he did not offer a time frame.
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