Discount Retail Chain Lidl also seems to have recognized the superpower of free items: In September, users of the Lidl Plus app will have the chance to fish a free baked good out of the bun prison in the app-integrated "Bake-off Roulette": from the "Sonnencrusti" to the "Pinky Donut". The shopping reward materializes within the app in the form of a wheel of fortune, which can be virtually "spun" in order to win random natural prizes. (These must be picked up at the store within five days to avoid expiration.)
At the same time, the "bake-off roulette" is just one of many measures with which the discounter is trying to massively push its app, which is also attested by market researchers to have high usage rates (except in the Payback study, in which 'oh wonder!' Payback is ahead).
A second is the immediate discount campaign "Save week by week", in which customers who shop for at least 10 euros receive a 1 euro flat discount at the checkout in the first week; in the second two, in the third three, etc., up to a total amount of 21 euros over the course of six weeks (19 August to 28 September).
Without an app, you pay more
At the same time, Lidl is boldly advertising individual items, some of which Plus users can get at a much lower price than everyone else: in the Berlin area, Werder tomato ketchup at the Lidl Plus price of 1.49 euros instead of 2.29 euros (-34%) and regional whole milk from Hemme for 1.11 euros instead of 1.49 euros (-25%).
The accompanying campaign comes in the familiar Lidl comparison style: "You have the choice" is written above it, and then: "Without Lidl Plus or with Lidl Plus". (So far, almost exclusively classic brands have been compared with Lidl's own brands or their prices in this way.)
For example, Lidl is obviously trying to increase the frequency of use of the app after it was often only very sporadically worthwhile for many registered users to scan the Plus QR code when shopping, because the discounts displayed were attractive to a limited extent at best. (Personalization has hardly worked so far, despite personal preferences.)
Manageable benefits
The aforementioned analysis in the "LZ" contract came to the conclusion that the concrete benefits of retailer apps for most households are rather limited: "Consumers reduce their everyday spending in food retailers and drugstores by less than 1 percent per purchase on average through bonus programs."
Lidl was even ahead in the comparison test: "with an average saving of 0.99 percent on total expenditure per purchase". Recently, the discounter has been advertising with the statement that you can "save over 1,000 euros a year" with Lidl Plus.
But that's mainly PR bluster. Even the asterisk text notes on it lets the air out: The savings only apply "if all article-related store coupons are redeemed in the calendar year 2023", based on "the redemption of one item per coupon and assumed weight of 1 kg when dispensed by weight". Would Lidl be able to find even one customer who has shopped in this way?
In any case, Lidl's treasure trove of data, which is to be leveraged with Plus, seems so valuable that it does not shy away from a permanent reduction in margins (or has found a way to recoup the costs elsewhere).
Aldi and Lidl in a competition for points
In Switzerland, the discounter has just started to replace its monthly Lidl Plus "discount collector" with a new bonus point system, which links the awarding of virtual points to the respective purchase value (one Lidl point for 1 CHF value of goods). Collected points can then be converted into discounts or rewards, just like competitor Aldi Nord is doing with its new bonus system "Aldi Points" in Belgium.
The question is which discounter will now implement the cross-border introduction of this bonus system more quickly.
And, of course, whether the regular customers, who once appreciated the simplicity of the discount promise, will follow the path as hoped. Because the initiative could just as well have the opposite effect: If customers ask themselves, for example, why they should now be forced to shop with an app so as not to be disadvantaged in the price of promotional goods.
Punitive measure for not scanning?
If Aldi, Lidl & Co. establish that the non-scanning of the respective app is punishable by punitive measures (in this case: paying the regular, higher price for a product), this could have a lasting impact on the price perception of the retail chains, to what extent is not yet clear.
There is certainly the possibility that the discounters will get to know and understand some of their customers much better thanks to the apps; but in case of doubt, they lose someone else if they get the feeling that they can just as easily buy classic brands elsewhere at the regular price.
The app jostling in the German food and drugstore article is one big balancing act. Let's see who is best able to keep their balance without falling.
Credits to Supermarktblog
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