E-Coupons Come to Kroger, Giant Eagle

CAROL ANGRISANI

CINCINNATI — Coupon clipping is no longer the only way to save at Kroger and Giant Eagle, thanks to new programs that electronically load discounts directly onto loyalty cards.

Kroger Co. has teamed with Cincinnati-based Proc-ter & Gamble for “eSaver,” an online version of P&G's BrandSaver coupon insert. Available via a link on the Kroger.com website, eSaver allows Kroger customers to load P&G offers onto their Kroger Plus card accounts with the click of a button.

The site is powered by Brisbane, Calif.-based SoftCoin, a consumer goods promotion firm.

Offered exclusively at nine Kroger banners — Kroger, Ralphs, King Soopers, Fry's, Smith's, Dillons, QFC, JayC and City Market — eSaver provides more than $60 in savings on such brands as Cascade, Charmin, Dawn and Downy. Face values range from about 20 cents to $3, including $1 off any two Folgers coffee products.

ESaver is free to use, and allows 25 coupons to be loaded on a card. It takes up to one hour before the coupons are available for use. Offers cannot be doubled.

A Kroger spokeswoman was unavailable for comment.

Under a similar, but different program, Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle kicked off “e-Offers” two weeks ago. Powered by News America Marketing's SmartSource iGroup direct-to-card (D2C) program, e-Offers can be loaded directly onto Giant Eagle loyalty cards.

It differs from eSaver in that savings are from multiple manufacturers, not just one. It will eventually include nearly 100 offers, including savings on such brands as Minute Maid, Kellogg's and Kotex. One of the offers will allow customers to get $1 off any two 64-ounce bottles of Old Orchard Healthy Balance Juice Cocktail.

One of the main goals of the program is to build customer loyalty by increasing the benefits of using store cards, said Giant Eagle spokesman Dan Donovan.

“For Internet-savvy Giant Eagle customers, e-Offers allows coupon offers to be loaded directly to their Giant Eagle Advantage Card for effortless and immediate redemption,” Donovan said.

Manufacturers also benefit, because electronic couponing virtually eliminates any chance of coupon abuse, since each coupon is linked at the UPC level with specific products, Donovan added.

E-Offers can be accessed for free via the gianteagle.com website. After logging into their account, shoppers can browse coupons and select the ones they want. Savings are loaded onto their loyalty card account and automatically redeemed at the checkout.

A total of 20 offers are allowed on a loyalty card. More space becomes available when offers are redeemed or expire.

Offers are available about three hours after they are selected, and are valid for 14 days after selection.

“By eliminating the bulk and hassle of paper coupons — and putting them onto your Giant Eagle Advantage Card — we make it more efficient than ever for you to save big,” Giant Eagle says on its website.

In launching e-Offers and eSavers, Giant Eagle and Kroger join a growing number of retailers offering electronic promotional offers.

Among other examples, Dorothy Lane Market, Dayton, Ohio, launched Club DLM 2.U, which allows Dorothy Lane shoppers to use a fingerprint scan to call up and print a list of 10 weekly targeted offers at an in-store kiosk and then receive the discounts — and pay for their order — via a fingerprint scan at the POS. Then there's Paw Paw Shopping Center, a one-store independent in Paw Paw, Mich., which allows shoppers to scan coupons at home and redeem them electronically in the store.

“We're definitely seeing more of this,” said Michael Schiff, vice president of Partners In Loyalty Marketing, a Chicago-based marketing consultancy.

Such initiatives are beneficial in that they offer customers more convenience, while steering clear of the coupon fraud associated with certain Internet coupons, Schiff said.

But Schiff stopped short of saying paperless coupons will boost customer loyalty. That depends, he said, on how strategic retailers are about using the consumer data they collect.

“Many retailers don't do anything with the data,” Schiff noted.