A new 800lb gorilla in Australian Loyalty gets into grocery

For many years Fly Buys in Australia was held up as a shining example of a coalition loyalty program. Along with Aeroplan in Canada and Nectar in the UK, Fly Buys was the top of the coalition program foodchain in Australia.

Now it seems Qantas Frequent Flyer is challenging that position. This month Qantas has tied up a deal with Woolworths' Everyday Rewards Program. Customers who spend more than $30 can earn a Qantas point for every dollar they spend in store over the initial $30. Shoppers at Woolworths who are not Qantas members today can get membership free through Woolworths Everyday Rewards (an $80 saving). Going forward the Qantas points for spend offer will also be available at other Woolworths group stores.

Richard Umbers of Woolworths told The Australian Financial Review that 300,000 new customers had joined Woolworths Everday Rewards program in the first month - a 10% growth of their registered customer base.

Coles have run a gift card promotion recently which garnered them 78,000 new Fly Buys customers to their base of some 8 million - a 1% growth.

Interestingly - the May Coles gift card promotion cleverly delivered an "on us" shopping reward. Customers earned Coles gift cards whcih of course turn into more transactions in Coles rather than Fly Buys points which turn into rewards transactions across the network of Fly Buys participants.

Australian Food News observed "the Woolworths-Qantas announcement does raise the interesting prospect of a winged EveryDay Rewards offer versus a flightless FlyBuys".