Dive Brief:

• Schnuck Markets has signed on with GetUpside to offer personalized cash-back promotions to shoppers at all of the grocer's stores in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana through the technology provider's mobile app, the companies announced on Wednesday in a joint press release.
• Schnucks is the first grocer working with GetUpside to electronically transmit transaction information to the company instead of requiring participating customers to send photos of their receipts.
• The arrangement comes at a time when retailers are increasingly using customization techniques to build ties with consumers.

Dive Insight:

With the holiday shopping season in full swing, Schnucks is looking to make cashback promotions easier and individualized for shoppers as the grocer furthers its digital investment in the customer experience.

Customers who sign up with GetUpside earn rebates when they buy selected products from participating retailers. Rebates can amount to as much as 20% for shoppers at Schnucks stores, according to the press release. Schnucks shoppers who use GetUpside can virtually "check-in" with the service on a mobile device, which will cause the grocer's transaction-management system to automatically send information about their purchases to GetUpside and trigger rebates. 

By contrast, shoppers at other grocers that drive promotions through GetUpside have to manually send in receipt information to validate their transactions.

In addition to Schnucks, GetUpside works with a number of grocers, including Cardenas Markets, Vicente Foods, Gelson’s Markets and Piggly Wiggly. The company also has partnerships with restaurants and gas stations. GetUpside's partnership with Schnucks reflects an effort by the Washington, D.C-based technology startup to streamline the redemption process for shoppers who sign up for its app-based promotion system.

Personalization, especially with digital deals and pricing, is gaining importance among grocers as they look to lock in customer loyalty and continue the online shopping boost induced by the pandemic. For example, Southeastern Grocers is looking to significantly increase the number of digital coupons and other personalized offered this year. As Giant Food ramps up its rewards program to drive personalized pricing, it's also considering adding the capability to offer location-based promotion, the grocer's head of loyalty and digital recently told Grocery Dive. 

GetUpside plans to roll out the check-in feature to food retailers other than Schnucks in the future, but has not determined when it will do so, said Alexcia Chambers, GetUpside's head of communications.

GetUpside strives to help retailers boost sales by using data about shopper behavior to recommend promotions for items a given customer likely would not have purchased without an incentive, Chambers said. The company's goal is to drive "profitable incremental business" by demonstrating to retailers that sales achieved with promotions would not otherwise have occurred, Chambers said.

"Our product is built to [prevent] profit cannibalization," said Chambers. "We never take credit for business we did not drive."