Dutch supermarket loyalty cards save you money, but raise privacy concerns

More and more supermarkets in the Netherlands are tying their promotional offers to customer loyalty programmes. While research conducted by NRC found that having a customer loyalty card could save customers a significant amount on their grocery shopping, they raised concerns about what the shift means for data privacy. 

Dutch supermarket loyalty cards save customers money

Based on the results of a survey of over 1.000 participants, NRC concluded that holding a customer loyalty card could save a household up to 600 euros per year on their grocery shopping. 

According to NRC, the savings are this big primarily for larger households that shop almost exclusively at one supermarket. Most consumers in the study reported that they saved money with their customer cards, but far less than 600 euros per year. 

Promotions increasingly only available via loyalty schemes, raising data privacy concerns

Supermarkets in the Netherlands used to offer discounts or promotions to all customers, but are increasingly requiring shoppers to have a loyalty card or app to access them. Currently, Aldi, Plus and Dirk are the only Dutch retailers to offer discounts to all customers, while all other supermarkets tie their promotions to a card or an app on mobile phones. 

This trend is concerning some, as the pay-off for these discounts becomes customers sharing data about their spending and shopping habits. Data privacy advocates are arguing that supermarkets are not being transparent enough about how they are using this data. 

Personalised offers becoming more common

For example, many supermarkets now offer so-called “personalised offers” to individual customers via their apps. These tend to be products the person has bought before, and can have an influencing effect on the person’s shopping habits. On top of this, the pricing of these offers can be confusing, making it harder for consumers to compare offers from different retailers and understand how real the “discount” actually is. 

“You have to realize that your data is being collected, and you don’t know how it will be used in the future," Nick Bouwhuis told NL Times. Bouwhuis is the creator of the website Randombonuskaart.nl, which generates random customer cards for privacy-conscious shoppers, allowing them to access discounts without handing over their data.

In April, it was announced that the Federation of German Consumer Organisations is suing the discount retailer Lidl, claiming that the supermarket does not sufficiently inform customers about how it uses their data in its Lidl Plus app. The outcome of the case could have implications for similar loyalty schemes in other European countries.