How The Fresh Market Aims to Deliver the 'Ultimate Loyalty Experience'

In its latest effort to drive personalization and customer loyalty, The Fresh Market Inc. announced the launch of its Ultimate Loyalty Experience—the company’s first rewards program in its 40-year history. 

The rewards program will be available in all of the grocer's 159 stores and on its website, Greensboro, N.C.-based Fresh Market said in a March 22 release. It gives members access to exclusive savings on products, rewards and a free slice of cake during a member's birthday month. It also includes "The Club Hub" purchase frequency programs, in which shoppers can earn free items or dollars off on favorite items. The Club Hub will launch initially with five "clubs": Market Meal Kit Club, Artisan Cheese Club, Whole Panini Club, Floral Club and Coffee by the Cup Club.

The Fresh Market said loyalty members will even have a say when picking the next club. “The most in-demand request may become the next purchase frequency club making this the customized loyalty program that guests have been asking for,” the grocer said in a statement. Looking at innovative and relevant ways to engage with its members locally, The Fresh Market will offer A Wine Club in Florida stores and a Little Big Meal Club in Boca Raton, Fla.—giving the program the ability to customize needs down to the store level.

By researching on a global scale what its competitors were offering, The Fresh Market said it positioned itself to apply what works best.

"We took all the best-of-the-best elements from our key learnings and applied them to our brand, our guests and our business model to create the Ultimate Loyalty Experience," said Kevin Miller, chief marketing officer of The Fresh Market, in a statement. "We know that our brand, our products and our guests are special and unique, so we are thrilled that our Ultimate Loyalty Experience has been custom-built from the ground up to provide a strong value exchange for our guests that will help us serve them even better—and we have a few surprises for them in the upcoming months too."

The Fresh Market, which operates 59 stores in 22 states across the U.S., made news in January when it appointed Adrian Bartella as CFO. Bartella has experience in taking a company public, signaling that company is edging closer to its goal of being publicly traded.