Store Discounts for the customer - Essay Example

Store Discounts For The Table of Contents CVS Extra Care Loyalty Program 3 Kroger Retail Strategy 4 Seven-Eleven Japan’s Nanaco Program 5 Wal-Mart’s Reason for Not Having a Customers Loyalty Program 6 References 7 CVS Extra Care Loyalty Program CVS Caremark offers health care related services to the clients. It specializes in the clinical and health management programs in the retail clinics. It further has in-depth knowledge of its consumers that it acquires from the customers who tend to visit its stores everyday (CVS Caremark, n.d.).

The CVS/ Pharmacy ExtraCare Reward program has been created for rewarding the loyal customers of CVS Caremark by providing those discounts as well as important informational mails. The customers of CVS Caremark can get ExtraCare customer rewards and even Extra Bucks with every purchase made by them in the form of in-store purchase or making online purchase. However, the reward earned by the customers can only be spend at the CVS/pharmacy location or when making online purchases. A person is capable of earning 2% in return for the purchases made either on-line or at store.

A person purchasing two prescriptions can earn one extra buck (CVS, 2011). The company also offers GreenBagTag related program which is one of the novel characteristics of the CVS/pharmacy Extra Care Reward related program. In this program the cardholders are capable of earning incentives if they do not choose to take a ‘single-use plastic bag’ for shopping. They further receive other money-saving advantages that are related with the participation in ExtraCare program (CVS Caremark, 2010).

The company is benefited from the program since such kind of loyalty programs lead to larger transactions, higher profits and frequent purchasing made by the customers. It also provides an insight into customers’ preferences about their needs and wants. It has been found that by such initiatives the CVS cardholders tend to make purchase 11 times per annum and the top cardholder tends to visit the store approximately 27 times in a year. Therefore, the program can be considered as being quite beneficial.

Kroger Retail Strategy In the US, Kroger can be identified to be a major retail-based grocery chain having around 320000 associates (Kroger, 2011). The company’s seven different customer groups are budget shoppers, convenience shoppers, family-focused shoppers, quality shoppers, grab-and-go shoppers, traditional shoppers and watching-the-waist-line shoppers. It can be mentioned that in addition to providing rewards to the top customers and providing loyalty rewards to the customers it is quite essential for the company to identify the potential customers and design the products that can satisfy the demands of the customers.

The strategies need to be created that matches the strength of the company. The company has considered the needs of the customers and thus designed its strategy accordingly. Strategies need to be developed for each and every customer segment that it has identified to increase the profitability and to preserve the competitive advantage of the firm. Seven-Eleven Japan’s Nanaco Program The Seven-Eleven Nanaco program was started in the year 2007. Nanaco is an electronic payment service that is made available at around 1500 convenience stores of Seven-Eleven in Japan.

It can be mentioned that the Nanaco service can be accessed in two forms. It can be accessed either as an integrated-circuit card or in a mobile phone having e-money function. Customers are able to make use of the money that has been transferred over the card or phones to pay for the items that they purchase from the seven-eleven stores. If the person spends 100 Yen, then the users of Nanaco e-money gain one point which is equal to one Yen. This money can be made for purchasing the goods with the help of e-money (The Japan Times, 2007).

The main target of the program is the shoppers who make frequent purchases. The company is trying to introduce numerous strategies for increasing the number of the users of the financial services. With the help of the Nanaco program, the company is able to generate additional revenues since the Nanaco program is managed by the credit card division. ATMs and the group store assist the customers in recharging the Nanaco cards or the mobile phones that assist in generating the traffic and the financial fees.

Wal-Mart’s Reason for Not Having a Customers Loyalty Program Unlike other retail stores, Wal-Mart chooses not to introduce a loyalty program. However, the company focuses upon the development of the localized and customer focused approach for merchandising and marketing its stores. By making use of this approach, the company seems to have been benefited a lot. By targeting the high-level consumer segment research, the company is able to gain the shoppers insights. Furthermore, the company is able to tailor its products according to the local needs devoid of sacrificing its everyday low prices which is the company’s source of loyalty (OsmanGok Yasar University, n.d.).

The company considers everyday low price strategy as a loyalty program since it is capable of creating the loyal customers (Webster, 2007). References CVS Caremark, (No Date). Our Businesses. Our Culture. Retrieved Online on July 20, 2011 from http://info.cvscaremark.com/our-company/our-businesses CVS, (2011). ExtraCare. ExtraCare Overview. Retrieved Online on July 20, 2011 from https://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/user/extracare/extracare.jsp CVS Caremark, (2010). Press Release. CVS/pharmacy Rewards Shoppers For Passing on Plastic Bags.

Retrieved Online on July 20, 2011 from http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=99533&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1346160&highlight= Kroger, (2011). About Us. About The Kroger Co. Retrieved Online on July 20, 2011 from http://www.kroger.com/company_information/careers/Pages/about_us.aspx OsmanGok Yasar University, (No Date). Comprehensive Case. Part Three. Retrieved Online on July 20, 2011 from http://osmangok.yasar.edu.tr/ITF%20202%20-%20INTERNATIONAL%20RETAIL%20MANAGEMENT/Case%20Study%20Application%202.

pdf The Japan Times, (2007). Seven & I Rolls Out Nanaco E-Money. Kyodo News. Retrieved Online on July 20, 2011 from http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20070424a2.html Webster, K. L., (2007). Loyalty. Market Platforms. Retrieved Online on July 20, 2011 from http://www.marketplatforms.com/mpd/Uploads/Loyalty%202%200.pdf .