Chiranun Poopat, vice-president for buying, merchandising and marketing, said the member-card programme had been introduced at 600 of the chain's suppliers.
Tops, a wholly owned subsidiary of Central Retail Corp, will become the first supermarket chain in Asia to utilise this loyalty-card technology. The 'Spot rewards card' is part of Tops' customer-relationship management strategy to convert shoppers into loyal customers.
Tops Supermarket and U-Marketing International, a British agency specialising in customer-loyalty campaigns, jointly developed the programme. Robert Mebruer, CEO of U-Marketing, said more than 1.2 million cards would be issued this year.
"Individual shoppers will raise their spending by 20 per cent on average.
"We would like to convert 80 per cent of Tops' existing customers into card-holders in the next three months," Chiranun added.
'Touchpoint' machines will be installed at all Tops outlets to allow shoppers to communicate directly with the programme. Tops hoped to increase sales by six per cent this year. The supermarket chain had sales of 12 billion baht (US$296 million) last year.
Tops goes electronic with CRM
Tops Supermarket has launched a nation-wide electronic loyalty campaign that offers shoppers personalised benefits - including discounts, financing and personal shopping lists - while at the same time creating a vast database about the shopping patterns of its customers.