Bink partners with Iceland to bring loyal customers in from the cold

Iceland is a popular supermarket chain in the UK. With over 1,000 stores, they specialise in frozen food but sell all sorts of delicious goodies. They also trade as The Food Warehouse, offering a fantastic wholesale experience to the man on the street.  

When our story with Iceland began, they already had their Bonus Card savings scheme in place. This gives £1 back for every £20 a customer saves. They also do prize wins and offer lower prices to those using their Bonus Card in Iceland stores. 

Sounds great. So, what was the problem? 

Actually, Iceland had 3 problems they were looking to solve.  

Firstly, they wanted to figure out a smart and easy way to get new customers to sign up for their Bonus Card. They also needed to find a simple way to identify every single transaction a Bonus Card customer made. The challenge here was that there was no incentive (e.g. points) to encourage customers to dig their Bonus Card out of their wallet, every time they shopped. Finally, Iceland was looking to expand their digital presence. They wanted to be able to offer their customers a digital version of their card, which would give users easy access to their balance and transaction history.

Alright. How was Bink part of the solution? 

By featuring on both the Bink and the Barclays app, Iceland was able to create two new acquisition channels – channels which proved to be highly effective when it came to attracting new customers. Through these apps, customers could easily access their Bonus Card balance and any recent transactions. With this move, Iceland was also able to offer their customers a digital, scannable version of their Bonus Card – which was a bonus. 

When it came to finding a smart way to identify every customer with every transaction, Bink was also able to help. Our unique technology allows Iceland customers to link their payment card to their Bonus Card account. Once they are linked, every time they make a purchase in an Iceland store, Bink can identify them, even if they don’t show their Bonus Card – which is just smarter, and easier, for everyone.  

Was it successful? 

Yes, very. With absolutely no additional customer communications, a whopping 5,000 new customers signed up to join Iceland’s Bonus Card scheme, and thousands more chose to link their existing Bonus Card accounts to their payment cards. In addition, Iceland have achieved unbelievable opt-in to their marketing rates, at over 80% – all leading to more meaningful customer relationships.

In that same time period, Bink was able to repeatedly match back an average of over two, previously unidentified, transactions for every customer who had linked and shopped with their payment card. This is invaluable for Iceland, helping them to enrich their understanding of their customer. And for the customer? They got even more entries into prize draws.

So once again, everyone wins; Iceland, their customers, and Bink – with simple smart loyalty.