Walmart boss Cheeseright: 'Low price is our best loyalty scheme'

Cheesewright, who is president and chief executive of Walmart in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told Retail Week that “low price is our best loyalty scheme” and that Asda has “oodles of data” on customer shopping habits.

In a session at the World Retail Congress on brand loyalty, Cheesewright said that consumers would like one loyalty card which covers a number of retailers ensuring they receive the best deals across the high street.

He said: “Customers would not choose to have 10 different loyalty schemes given the choice. Customers want it to apply wherever they go. It will be interesting what aggregators can do to aid this.”

He added: “If we introduce a loyalty card we can still only see how customers are shopping at Asda and that doesn’t tell us anything extra about what else they’re buying.”

Cheesewright said Walmart’s $300m acquisition of social media company Kosmix last year is enabling it to glean customer data.

Boots UK marketing director Elizabeth Fagan, also speaking at the event, said bringing together different loyalty cards and data is not a strong strategy.

She said: “I disagree that customers want all loyalty cards to be the same. It has a greater emotional role than that.”

Turkish fashion retailer Koton’s chairman Yilmaz Yilmaz concluded: “There are more and more loyalty programmes but consumers are becoming less loyal.”