Ramz

Now that the LCBO and airmiles are parting ways, do you think the LCBO and aeroplan will team up?

HerpaYvr

Not sure if the LCBO needs a loyalty partner?

During the Pandemic the LCBO is doing very well. The lines outside the stores many times exceed those of grocery stores.
I am used to seeing the small grocery carts in these smaller stores, but in some locations, they have the larger size grocery carts, lol

Can't speak for everyone in Ontario and I am not passing judgement, but the LCBO appears to be doing fine. LCBO is an essential service and their products are compliments to just about everything people do in Ontario.

ciana

Saw an article that suggested they would be starting their own loyalty program, similar to one in Quebec

IluvSQ

Without competition, I never saw the need for a loyalty program.

Bohemian1

Pretty similar here in BC.

BUT if I could encourage Legacy Liquor Store to sign up with Aeroplan, my rum purchases would help subsidize my travel. Would be very meta if it was travel to the eventual Secret Cove Do.

Symmetre

The loyalty aspect wasn't really focused on the LCBO per-se, but was something they could re-package and sell to their vendors through various shelf-level promotions ... no different than what happens in grocery promos. The bonus offers in particular appear to have been quite popular with many of the LCBO vendors, who did multiple promotions each year ... that wouldn't have kept happening if no one was making money at it.

That being the case, I would not be at all surprised to see LCBO launch another venture to replace Air Miles. It's not about ensuring loyalty to a monopoly, it's about capturing a greater share of their vendor's total marketing spend.

MillennialMiles

That was my assumption as well. The way loyalty programs are heading, everyone wants their own to have access to the data of the purchasing habits of their customers. LCBO is investing heavily into new tech initiatives from what I read in one of their reports.

FlY2XS

Funny, because when we were discussing Starbucks and Aeroplan, I kept thinking of AirMiles and LCBO as an equivalent.

canadiancow

I can find many places on every block that sell coffee in Ontario. Not very many that sell rum.

FlY2XS

Touche! But what I wanted to reference was the idea that people happily accumulate numbers of rewards points in their weekly purchases.
Folks saying that the Aeroplan SB alliance is "Meh" are ignoring the overwhelming majority of subscribers to any loyalty program who you won't see on a board like this, and accumulate rewards over decades, not years.

Symmetre

The cost of heavy data management has decreased considerably over the past decade, which is why you now see comparatively smaller businesses now running their own programs. It is no longer cost-prohibitive.

That said, it still has to generate revenue and that's still the challenge to brand-specific programs, especially when one considers the considerable cash reserves that need to be held against loyalty liabilities. It's one thing to sit on a pile of money in this climate, with record-low interest rates. But when rates are higher, opportunity costs become a serious challenge to loyalty program revenues. Air Miles made a lot of sense when it was launched, but that was at a time when data management required serious investment and interest rates were significantly higher than they are now, making it far more difficult for companies to justify holding huge cash reserves that could be out earning money otherwise.

If and when overnight bank rates rise into the mid single-digit range, I would expect some of these brand-specific programs to disappear, and coalition programs like Air Miles to become more attractive to merchants simply because they would be relieved of the obligation to maintain that substantial cash reserve.

Spot-on. In the grand scheme of things, the subset that are FT readers represent a tiny portion of a much larger overall market ... we sometimes need to keep sight of that.

canadiancow

Oh I forgot this was a thread.

4 points per dollar. There might be a special launch promo though.

24left

There's a Loyalty Summit interview video from last August with Mark Nasr, Scott O'Leary and Derek Whitworth. During one amusing scene, the interviewer mentioned Aeroplan's partnership with the LCBO. As I recall, Mark looked at Scott and there were some . The video is almost an hour long, so someone else can scroll through to find the scene.

CanadianConnection33

Is there an announcement I've missed?! Or is this a hope?

canadiancow

I have sources who are not willing to go public, but I'm extremely confident.