Shoppers Optimum and PC Plus to become one loyalty program
It has been 3 years since Canada’s two biggest food and drug store chains have fallen in line together under one banner. Many speculated that this is day would come after Loblaws acquired Shoppers Drug Mart, and now it has. Shoppers Optimum and PC Plus will officially become one combined rewards program, PC Optimum.
"We're bringing the very best of Shoppers Optimum and PC Plus together," said Uwe Stueckmann, senior vice president of marketing.
PC Optimum is "the future of loyalty programs for Loblaw companies," he said, "harnessing both the power of PC Plus and Shoppers Optimum across the unified network of our stores coast to coast."
Back in August, Presidents Choice announced that they would be parting ways with PC Financial and CIBC and hinted that something was on the horizon. Safe to say that merging Shoppers Optimum and PC Plus was probably it. CIBC went on to launch a no-fee banking brand, Simplii, on November 1st.
The new program goes into place February 1st, 2019, so customers are able to earn and redeem their points as usual until then. Once the changeover has been made, any points attached to customer accounts will be transferred over for equal value. So if you have 22,000 Optimum points, you will still have 22,000 PC Optimum points.
Loblaws is hoping that the new system will streamline the experience for both PC and Shoppers customers, as 10,000 will equal $10 in savings. Customers can continue to redeem points and redeem a cap of $500 at a time, a change from the previous Shoppers Optimum system, which allowed only $170 to be redeemed per transaction. In order to make up for the higher level of points per redemption level, the program accumulates points 50% quick than before. Shoppers will now earn 15 points per dollar, as opposed to the original 10 points.
With the announcement, they ensured that promotions such as 20x the points, and spend your points events will still be in place after the program launch. The Shoppers Optimum program is one of the best reward programs in Canada, and hopefully these changes will give it yet another leg up.