In the latest move by loyalty firms seeking to cross the online/offline
barrier, FreeRide.com, Cybergold, and Gold Points.com have all made
agreements with grocery store marketer Catalina Marketing.
Catalina Marketing has points of presence at 13,000 grocery stories across
the nation, issuing coupons to consumers at the check-out counter in
response to what they have purchased. The company last week forged an
alliance with another loyalty marketer — MyPoints.com — in which the two
companies took equity stakes in one another and agreed to co-market one
another’s services.
The agreement with FreeRide.com calls for Catalina Marketing to leverage
its technology, so that as many as 160 million shoppers can automatically
earn FreeRide points for grocery purchases in more than 13,000 supermarkets.
The deal with Cybergold involves Catalina’s SuperMarkets Online division.
It calls for the two companies to create a co-branded Web page to allow
Cybergold members to save money on their weekly groceries. Consumers will
receive an instant reward for visiting and printing the special page.
The agreement with Gold Points, which is a division of the Carlson Companies, also involves
SuperMarkets Online. The deal gives online shoppers the option to receive
special rewards when they shop for groceries using the ValuPage program. For Gold Points, this
represents a move online. The program started offline, where Carlson sought
to encourage loyalty in its hotel and restaurant chains. Last month, the
company announced the fusion of its offline rewards program with its
e-commerce venture that will launch in the summer.
