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Retail Notes: Coupon programs go online
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Published: February 1, 2009
Supermarket chains may have found an answer for thrifty customers who forget and leave their coupons at home.
More of them are offering paperless coupons.
For example, Lowes Foods in Winston-Salem has started offering a Web-based program called e-Offers that allows customers to download discount offers to their Lowes Foods loyalty cards.
To use the program, customers go online at www.lowesfoods.com/instasave and sign up for the program with their Lowes Foods Rewards Card. They can then choose discount offers before they go shopping. The discount offers are automatically subtracted when customers make purchases using their loyalty cards.
InstaSave offers cannot be used in conjunction with paper coupons and they have expiration dates.
Lisa Selip, the director of marketing for Lowes Foods, said that e-Offers is a reward program that saves customers money.
The e-Offers program is handled by InstaSave Inc. in Charlotte. The company provides marketing services for consumers, retailers and manufacturers.
"For those people who clip coupons, it's an additional way to save," said Warren Withrow, the president and chief executive of InstaSave, "but it's really targeted to those people who want to save but don't particularly have the time, or never get around to it, or forget their coupons."
Other supermarket chains offer paperless coupons linked to store loyalty cards. Last year, for example, Kroger started Shortcuts through AOL and News America Marketing's Interactive division started a program in conjunction with Giant Eagle.
Withrow expects paperless coupons to catch on throughout the country in some form or another within 18 months.
Kenneth Herbst, an assistant professor of marketing at the Babcock School of Management at Wake Forest University, said that the ability to download coupons easily and quickly brings value to customers.
"From Lowes' perspective, it could increase customer loyalty because it provides a reason and incentive for shoppers to visit Lowes' Web site," he said.
Retail on the north side
Verizon Wireless has opened a store at 5914 University Parkway in a new retail building near the Shell station, just across the street from Summit Square Shopping Center.
The store offers wireless cellular phones as well as wireless data services to connect to the Internet.
Also, an Express Oil Change & Service Center opened just down the street at 125 W. Hanes Mill Road beside the BB&T bank. Services include oil changes, brake inspections, transmission services and tire rotation and balance.
Openings and closings
The Shops at Friendly Center mall in Greensboro is home to the first Anthropologie, an apparel and home-furnishings retailer, in the Triad. The store opened Jan. 30.
Backyard Burgers has closed at 1435 River Ridge Drive in Clemmons.
Grooming for men
The Boardroom Salon for Men has opened in Sherwood Plaza Shopping Center at Robinhood and Peace Haven roads.
Ben Hackley, and his wife, Ginger, are the franchise owners.
In addition to hair services, The Boardroom provides traditional hot lather shaves, massages, hand and foot grooming, and other spa treatments. The Boardroom Salon Co. LLC was founded in Dallas in 2004 and has five salons. The one at Sherwood Plaza is the first on the East Coast.
■ Fran Daniel can be reached at 727-7366 or at fdaniel@wsjournal.com.
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