Many popular loyalty schemes offer lower prices for members. But millions of shoppers can't sign up because of minimum age requirements, they don't have UK residency or an address, or they don't have an email address or access to an app.
Now Which? is calling for action after revealing the extent of restrictions to these schemes and how they vary between retailers.
Who is excluded from loyalty schemes?
We looked at the UK's biggest supermarkets offering two-tier loyalty prices, as well as health and beauty retailers Boots and Superdrug.
Our research found that you must be 18 or over to join loyalty schemes at Lidl, Sainsbury, Tesco and Waitrose; at Co-op and Morrisons you need to be 16. You can sign up even younger at the Co-op and Sainsbury's if you’re added to a parent or guardian’s account. Meanwhile, at Boots and Superdrug you only need to be 13.
There are also big differences in address requirements and whether or not digital access is needed.
Find out more:How do loyalty scheme joining requirements compare?
Here's a full breakdown of who can join the different supermarkets' schemes:
Supermarkets
undefinedHere are the details for two major health and beauty stores:
Health and beauty stores
undefinedAll offer two-tier loyalty pricing, except Asda and Iceland.
Why exclusions matter
On individual products, the savings are sometimes much bigger.
Those unable to sign up for loyalty membership would find themselves paying more on a range of everyday products, from frozen veg and bread to cheese and milk.
We also found savings available only to loyalty members on essentials such as deodorant, feminine hygiene products, ibuprofen gel, toddler milk, first aid products and condoms.
For example:
Bodyform Cour V Ultra Normal Sanitary Towels x30 at Sainsbury'sHeinz cheesy tomato pasta baby food jar (120g) at TescoHovis tasty medium sliced wholemeal bread 400g at Sainsbury'sNurofen children cold and flu strawberry (100ml)at TescoValley Spire British extra mature grated cheddar (300g) at Lidl(All prices taken from retailers' websites on 21/10/24.)
This means that young carers, teenagers buying lunch and people without internet access are among those excluded from lower prices at some stores.
For example, a 17-year-old single parent living independently would be unable to get a discount on baby food at Sainsbury’s.
A homeless person would have to pay more for a meal deal at Tesco than a city banker on their lunch break.
And what about a couple shopping in Lidl who can't get the lowest prices because they don't have a smartphone or tablet to download the app?
Which? is concerned that certain groups of people are excluded from accessing lower loyalty prices at major supermarkets and health and beauty retailers on the basis of their age, lack of address or level of digital access.
We believe the lower prices offered by loyalty schemes should be available to those who are ineligible to sign up through no fault of their own – and we're calling on retailers to find a solution to this issue.
Find out more:What do the stores say?
We asked the major supermarkets offering two-tier loyalty pricing, plus Boots and Superdrug, about their restrictions.
Boots and Superdrug say they’re committed to value for all customers. Boots says many deals are available to non-members and customers need a UK address to get relevant communications. Superdrug says its residency requirements are in line with where it delivers.
Lidl says it offers non-member promotions and that its age restriction is industry standard and in line with legal requirements relating to its app, including where adult consent is needed.
Sainsbury’s says it wants to make it easy for customers to join Nectar and they don’t need email or a phone number.
Tesco says customers hadn’t raised concerns over age eligibility criteria and didn’t need an email to sign up.
Waitrose says its age and address requirements are in line with some other retailers and reflect store locations.
Morrisons declined to comment.
What you need to know about loyalty schemes
Supermarket loyalty schemes are big business. Some offer two-tier loyalty pricing where there is a lower price for members and a higher price for everyone else.
Others offer points, different types of rewards or personalised discounts.
Loyalty schemes collect customer purchasing data – what they buy and where, and how much they spend. The insights gathered from this data are often then sold on to other businesses.
Find out more:Potentially dodgy loyalty pricing tactics exposed
Many shoppers like the big savings offered by loyalty pricing, but others are suspicious that non-member prices are sometimes hiked to make discounts look better than they really are.
While this is a common belief, it's very difficult to prove – so our latest investigation into loyalty prices analysed the pricing history of almost 12,000 products on loyalty promotion at Boots, Co-op, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Superdrug and Tesco to get to the bottom of what's going on.
Our investigation revealed instances where the price for non-members was raised just before the loyalty promotion was launched, times when the product didn't go back to the non-member price when the loyalty promotion ended, and loyalty 'discounts' that simply never stopped. We also found some non-member prices that were much higher than competitors’ prices for those same products.
The tactics vary between different retailers, and some are doing better than others – but our research raised questions about each one of the loyalty pricing schemes we looked at.
Which? believes the introduction of widespread loyalty pricing means the guidance on pricing promotions – which doesn't mention loyalty pricing at all – is no longer fit for purpose.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) has said it will review the effectiveness of its Guidance for Traders on Pricing Practices in light of Which?'s findings.
The Competition and Markets Authority is also looking into supermarkets' pricing practices and is due to report later this autumn.
Find out more:source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/millions-of-people-excluded-from-lower-prices-at-big-stores-ac8cm2n8mls5-ac8CM2N8mLs5