Whole Foods Loyalty Program Off to Promising Start

Whole Foods Loyalty ProgramWhole Foods has stepped into the world of customer loyalty, after not having had a loyalty program for 30 years.

“We are pleased with the results of our 12-store affinity test, which shows high activation and registration rates and above average basket sizes for participants,” Whole Foods co-CEO Walter Robb said during the company’s Feb. 11 first-quarter earnings conference call, according to Seeking Alpha. “We are continuing to incorporate customer feedback as we upgrade and add new features to this program, and recently added some new talent to lead our efforts in this area. We’re excited to expand the pilot to our Washington D.C. customers this spring, with hopes of having the program live in a majority of our stores for the 2015 holiday season.”

First-quarter sales grew 10%, to a record $4.7 billion.

“We launched our Values Matter national brand campaign, which you may have seen on TV and in prints, several times over the last few months,” Robb explained. “It was a real boost to team morale and we’re looking forward to the final brand tracking study results. The early read is very positive, indicating a 100% increase in awareness for our target audience with increases in both value perception and intent to shop versus our measured competitors. We are now providing fresh grocery delivery options to more homes in America than any other food retailer.”

Since announcing its 15-market partnership with Instacart in September, Whole Foods’ average weekly online delivery sales have already passed the $1 million mark.

“With online delivery sales as high as 5% of total sales in some of our stores, we’re very excited about the future potential as we expand our reach to more markets, provide richer content highlighting our quality standard and broaden our product offering,” Robb said. “We are exploring opportunities to extend this successful partnership, including expanding functionality to support our affinity program.”

The new Whole Foods app is now live with nearly 600,000 downloads to date.

“We recognize the changing technology and growing demand for customization that fundamentally altered retailing forever,” Robb said. “Customers now expect to connect with the brand whenever, wherever, and however they choose. And it’s part of our broader digital roadmap we are rapidly building out an extended customer experience beyond the four walls of our stores.”

At the same time, Robb said customers will always want the human connection, the sense of community, and the unparalleled shopping environment Whole Foods stores deliver.

“The demand for fresh healthy foods continues to surge and we are best positioned to benefit as the leading retailer of natural organic Whole Foods Loyalty Programfoods in America’s healthiest grocery store,” he said. “We are committed to continuing to improve and evolve. And with 400 Nat-stores and 116 signed leases, we have confidence that we will cross the 500-store mark in 2017 and triple our store-base over the longer-term.”

Co-CEO John Mackey said Whole Foods is extremely competitive.

“And when we are challenged, when competition rears its head, we respond,” he explained. “And that’s what we’re doing right now. We’re responding, we’re evolving, we’re getting better, and we’re getting better quicker than our competitors are. So, they’re chasing us still and maybe they’ve closed the gap a little bit, but we’re accelerating our innovation cycle. We’re going to rapidly innovate and improve. That’s what we’ve done for over 35 years and that’s what we’re going to do going forward.”

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