It's hard to believe that it's already been a year since REWE discontinued the printed flyer. Today, our customers use modern and more environmentally friendly channels to find out about the week's bargains.
"Since the discontinuation of the printed paper flyer in summer 2023, we have continued to record positive, stable business development with revenues above the previous year," says Peter Maly, REWE Group Management Board member responsible for the full-range REWE Group, summarising the positive results of the "Switch" project.
Customer frequency is also developing positively. In the first five months of the current year, revenue in REWE stores increased by 4.2 per cent compared to the previous year and thus more strongly than the market as a whole. In the same period, the number of customers in the supermarkets rose by around 3.5 per cent.
Advertising on other channels
To prevent a drop in sales, REWE has increased advertising on other channels. We asked REWE retailers how well this is working.
"Switch worked for us without a dip in demand and without a major wave of complaints from customers," says Katja Fiedler, owner of two REWE stores in Suhl, summarising her experiences. Demand for promotional items remains strong, and customer frequency has also remained stable. "It was good and right that we advertised the REWE app in advance. That way, people know where to find the offers before they go shopping." Once in the store, shelf wobblers point the way to the bargains of the week. However, the integration of the Payback card into the REWE app poses challenges, especially for older people, admits the REWE saleswoman. This is where Katja Fiedler and her team try to help directly and personally.
Two store openings within six months: not so long ago, this would have been unthinkable without flyers. For REWE customers in Hesse, the paper leaflet was part of their weekend reading for decades. But when Alexandra Richber opened and reopened her two stores in Alsfeld and Neustadt, the advertising medium had already been discontinued.
"We were one of the first to no longer have an opening flyer," recalls the shopkeeper. "The problem in Alsfeld was that we closed with a printed flyer and then opened without one. During the 14-week closure, customers changed their minds and it was difficult to switch them to the right postcode, i.e. our postcode, in the app and via WhatsApp when we reopened. That's when I decided to go the whole hog." The solution was a multi-channel strategy: in addition to television adverts, the entrepreneur had postcards printed and distributed to households. The highlight: anyone who brought the card with them when shopping received a five euro discount. At the POS, the employees then used the customer contact to draw attention to digital media such as the REWE app and the company's own WhatsApp channel and explain how to use them.
Things went more smoothly at the other location. Alexandra Richber: "In Neustadt, we were only closed for ten days during the move. This allowed us to better prepare customers for the reopening. This time, we distributed the postcards at the spring market and via the weekend newspapers, which worked well."
Both German and English comments appear here.
Very good and correct!
REWE shoppers miss flyers: www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/handel-konsumgueter/rewe-werbeprospekt-eingestellt-kunden-suchen-nun-bei-aldi/100045846.html
Aldi is also currently conducting tests in this direction.