Does Coles Tailor Flybuys Offers?

subywagon on 11/04/2016 - 00:45
Last edited 11/04/2016 - 11:21 by 1 other user

I'm wondering if Coles tailors their flybys offers in accordance with how much and how often you shop with them? For a couple of years now we've been shopping primarily at Coles (Woolworths is the only other supermarket in our area) and the offers have been getting more and more stingy. Especially the spend this many $ to get this many points offers. The offers started from I think spend $50, and gradually increased to now requiring us to spend $150 a week etc to earn a certain amount of bonus points.

So I've decided to shop at Woolworths and see if Coles miss us and try to entice us back.

What are your thoughts?

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Comments

  • [Deactivated] on 11/04/2016 - 00:54
    +5

    I'm wondering if Coles tailors their flybys offers in accordance with how much and how often you shop with them?

    That's the entire point of programs like Woolworths Rewards and FlyBuys. They collect your shopping data, including what you buy, when you buy it, where you buy it and how much you spend, then come up with intricate ways of getting you to spend more.

    If you receive a bonus offer for $20 spend, and you successfully claim this, the next offer will be for a $50 spend. Claim this offer, and the next offer will be for $100. The process continues until you simply ignore the offers and either 1) normally do your shopping whilst scanning your card, or 2) shop without scanning your card.

    This will indicate that you are not claiming the offers on purpose, at which point the system will send you an offer which will be triggered at just above your present spend amount. Thus, the cycle begins again.

  • [Deactivated] on 11/04/2016 - 10:01
    +1

    yep

    I never shop there and my mum does all the time, we'd compare the email deals every so often, and hers always ask her to spend around 3 times as much to get the reward.

  • retiredfeline on 11/04/2016 - 10:05
    +1

    Of course. They also log the purchases you made and recommend those, or similar products, on the following offers. They have HTML trackers in their email (the images are dynamic links) so they know if you have read the email. I know this because I use a mail reader that doesn't download images, so later on they resend the same promo email thinking maybe I missed the first one.

  • Diji1 on 11/04/2016 - 12:28
    +1

    My thoughts are that Colesies successfully manipulated you into spending more money at their store than you otherwise would have and now you're going to see if Woolies will do the same thing.

  • subywagon on 11/04/2016 - 12:39

    Yeah I know they track your purchases and tailor their offers accordingly, I basically wanted to know if I stop going for a while will they send me better offers. I didn't care too much as I'd just stock up on dog food, but now that it's around $150 the manipulation has pissed me off too much. Down here in Tassie, Woolies uses a different system and card to the mainland, where you only really get points (redeemable instore when they send vouchers periodically) and there's no deals. Occasionally there's like double point days but it's pretty random

    • retiredfeline on 11/04/2016 - 14:17

      Here's what I do. I train their system instead of letting it train me. I decide on a minimum acceptable offer for me to take, it has to be something in return for $30 spend, say $5 off or at least 500 points ($2.50). And I would buy specials or long life steady price items on that spend. Any higher requirement I just ignore the offer and live off my hoard or buy from Aldi.

  • goosegog on 11/04/2016 - 14:32
    +1

    Oh yes they definitely do. For years through an injury I ordered on line & was just treated as a reordering customer - no special deals ( unless I checked on line first ).
    Now I go to the store & suddenly all these specials are coming through to order on line.
    In addition, after shopping in store we keep receiving emails asking to complete a survey on the in store experience for the benefit of " 50 " flybuys points.
    Out of these 2 majors I believe Woollies has more fairness & integrity.
    Can't wait for Aldi to open here in Perth - which will send Coles, Woollies & IGA into an absolute frenzy of trying to keep customers. Too little too late me thinks, loyal customers from the past will flee the sinking ships because of their utter complacency of charging premium prices for little customer satisfaction.

  • ilikeradiohead on 11/04/2016 - 17:41

    Yep. I signed up for Flybuys with my email, but then forgot I'd already signed up (I could use the same email twice for some reason). I often get 2 emails from the "spend $X/week for four weeks, get $Y off your shop at coles". The last one I had was save $50 off your shop. Spend $40/week for the card that never gets used, spend $60/week on the card that gets used all the time. I struggle to spend either of those amounts so won't be using it, but it is quite insulting.

  • [Deactivated] on 12/04/2016 - 22:14

    Coles will eventually lower your targets if you don't swipe your card there for 1-2 months.

    In order to get the best types of offers, have a flybuys card for each adult member of the family. Use a different email address for each account. If you are an irregular shopper the weekly and 4 weekly offers go up slower. Keep track of your cards and emails carefully and make sure you swipe the right card for the right transaction. If you have a target of $50, don't spend any more than that amount. If you actually need $60 worth of stuff that week, do 2 transactions - 1 for $50 where you swipe your card and 1 for $10 where you don't swipe your card. This also reduces the speed that the targets are increased.

  • goosegog on 13/04/2016 - 11:59
    +1

    Just heard that Coles are now being blasted for overcharging for both on line & click/ collect orders. Woollies don't . About time Coles had a reality shock & that customers can fight back.

    • [Deactivated] on 13/04/2016 - 14:42

      Sounds interesting. Do you have a link to the news aritcle? Coles charge more for some of their online goods compared to their instore price but I haven't heard of them miscalculating the final basket total of online orders.

      • ilikeradiohead on 13/04/2016 - 18:13

        Here is an SMH article about coles
        Doesn't say that they overcharge though, just that you pay more than in store (which, IMHO is stupid, as half the time I use it for price comparison).

        • [Deactivated] on 13/04/2016 - 18:44

          Thanks for the link. The article mainly points out that the Coles policy is to charge more for most online goods and that Woolworths used to charge more but changed their policy early last year. Coles is allowed to charge what they want for goods online provided the correct prices go through at the final checkout. I think it's a bad idea that they charge more for some goods online but I don't consider it to be overcharging. My definition of overcharging is when a retailer advertises a product for a specific price and then charges more than the advertised price in the final transaction.

          There were some other intesting aspects of the article and I enjoyed reading the comments. Thank you.

  • Peck on 15/04/2016 - 09:51

    I was rarely swipe my cards at Woolies because I was only making small purchases <$30. And the offers were rolling in !! There seemed to be a very strong nexus.

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