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Pathmark’s Digital Coupons Download to Loyalty Cards

Supermarket chain Pathmark, an A&P subsidiary, is offering digital coupons to members of its loyalty program.

A&P’s Online Advantage participants can obtain digital coupons from the Pathmark e-commerce site for download to their loyalty cards. Discounts will then automatically be tabulated into their bill at checkout. The new initiative will save consumers struggling with the current economic recession both time and money, an A&P spokesperson said.

Digital coupons are becoming increasingly common, according to Retailer Daily. In the supermarket vertical, retailers Tom Thumb and Randalls, both banners operated by Safeway, joined the Cellfire mobile coupon network in May 2009. This allows members of the two chains’ loyalty club programs to have coupons automatically downloaded on their loyalty cards.

Using the Cellfire service, registered Tom Thumb and Randalls loyalty club members can obtain access to 21 online coupons from CPG companies including General Mills, Unilever and Kimberly-Clark with a mobile phone or PC. If a customer sees a coupon they like, they can select it to be downloaded to their loyalty card and then have the discount automatically applied at checkout. Cellfire is free to the consumer, but customers may have to pay applicable mobile data charges depending on their cell phone plan.

Outside the supermarket vertical, JCPenney has been piloting a new mobile coupon program in Houston that allows customers to download and carry coupons on their mobile phones. These can be scanned directly from the phone’s display screen at the register. New imaging scanners capable of reading these 2-D barcode coupons have been deployed at point-of-sale registers in 16 JCPenney stores in the Houston metro area. JCPenney is also partnering with the Cellfire mobile coupon network to provide this service, which the retailer says is the first directly scannable mobile retail coupon offering in the U.S.

Statistics released by Scarborough Research in August 2009 support these retailers’ interest in digital coupon programs. According to Scarborough, the most popular source [pdf] of coupons remains the Sunday paper, used by 51% of consumers. 8% of consumers use email, 7% use text to access coupons, and 21% obtain coupons via loyalty programs.