SCARBOROUGH, Maine — Hannaford Bros., Weis Markets, Lowes Foods, Price Chopper and Supervalu are leveraging the SavingStar.com network to build awareness of their store brands.
Hannaford featured its “My Essentials” line with a coupon for $2 off a 5-pound bag of sugar. My Essentials is a corporate brand that Delhaize America rolled out to its banners. It includes 500 items priced comparably to private labels at Wal-Mart.
Hannaford liked that SavingStar is a national paperless coupon service that lets users link coupons to their store loyalty cards, said Mark Bradeen, Hannaford’s manager of promotions and online loyalty.
“Providing value without hassle is core to our brand,” Bradeen told SN. “We see SavingStar as an easy way for customers to select offers online and then receive the cash value in their account.”
Hannaford customers have responded favorably to the SavingStar program due to the convenience of not having to clip coupons, Bradeen said. It has helped Hannaford grow the number of registered users on Hannaford.com, and increased the scans of the myHannaford card at checkout.
Though the majority of SavingStar coupons are for national brands, private-label coupons have grown substantially since SavingStar launched in April 2011. The first store-brand offer went up in July for Price Chopper ice cream. In the past three months, there have also been coupons from Weis, Lowes and other retailers.
Supervalu was scheduled to launch its first SavingStar coupons last week for discounts on its Wild Harvest, Culinary Circle and Essential Everyday brands, with offers including 50 cents off any Wild Harvest item; $1 off three Culinary Circle products; and $1 off Essential Everyday.
SavingStar, Waltham, Mass., currently has 1.5 million users, along with 110 grocery accounts.
Michael Libenson, SavingStar’s cofounder and president, attributes the growth to the program’s ease-of-use. “Users can register all of their store cards at one time, and go to any participating store to use them,” he said. IPhone and Android apps are also available.
There are currently 23 SavingStar offers for a total of $22 in savings.
A popular option is SavingStar’s “One or Many” deal, which rewards shoppers when they buy a certain number of products within a certain time period. Products can be purchased in one trip or several at any participating store.
The current offer is $5 back with the purchase of $20 worth of Kellogg Special K products.
Food Lion joined to enhance the shopping experience, said spokeswoman Tenisha Waldo.
“Customers are increasingly looking for fresh, innovative ways to save money on groceries via savings websites and smartphone applications,” she said. “We believe our participation in the SavingStar.com network offers an opportunity to extend our brand to SavingStar’s growing database of subscribers, and our participation also allows our shoppers to reap rewards through our MVP program.”