Whole Foods customers told company officials what they wanted to enhance the overall customer experience. Customers told the officials they wanted coupons and the company listened.
“Coupons have been the top request among users and, now with a simple scan at the register, preloaded digital coupons can automatically be applied to matching items in a shopper’s basket,” Whole Foods co-CEO Walter Robb said during the company’s Feb. 10 first-quarter conference call, according to Seeking Alpha. “This is a win for customers, a win for us, as well as we will gain actionable customer data on a national scale.”
Over the coming months, Robb added, Whole Foods plans to expand and improve its offers as well as launch a national digital sales flier “bringing our customers great savings on what they love to their fingertips. In addition, we have committed to expanding our Affinity test to a new market in Q3. Our newly designed rewards program builds on the best elements of our initial test, but with lower costs.”
First-quarter sales increased 3%, to a record $4.8 billion.
“We stepped up our value offerings to customers primarily through more and deeper promotions, such as our customer appreciation, love fest, and three-day sale in supplements, which were supported through social media, digital ads, and select radio ads,” Robb said. “Over the remainder of the year, we plan to continue our promotional strategy, including more personalized offers and increase and broaden our price investments as well.”
Last quarter, Whole Foods officials outlined a nine-point plan to fundamentally transform its business, including active steps to improve price perception and further differentiate and enhance the overall shopping experience.
“We are close to completing the pilot phase of our new point-of-sale system rollout, which is now being tested in select stores in 10 regions,” Robb said. “We expect to complete the pilot phase over the next month after which the rollout will accelerate and we are on track to be in all of our U.S. stores before the end of the calendar year. In our ongoing effort to better understand and offer more value to our customers we have accelerated the first component of our national Affinity program. We are excited to announce the launch of digital coupons within our Whole Foods Market mobile app, expanding the functionality beyond recipes and shopping lists.”