Wickes is scrapping its ‘MyCard’ loyalty scheme to plough £10m into lowering prices, as the DIY chains step up the battle for trade customers.
Rival B&Q recently revealed plans to ramp up its loyalty marketing to the building trade through its TradePoint programme, and is talking to a number of agencies about the CRM and DM account.
B&Q has also adopted a so-called ‘every day low price’ policy on big ticket items to create a more transparent pricing policy.
Wickes has slashed more than 1,000 prices this month and will launch two further “major price reductions” this year, according to brand marketing director Tony Holdway. By the end of the year, the company will have cut prices on 5,000 lines.
“People want low prices all day every day so this plays to our customers’ needs,” said Holdway. “These are serious reductions. We’ve chosen the products that are most going to help our customers. They will be core products for DIYers.”
Holdway said Wickes would still mount promotions during the peak period but that it is “definitely moving towards” a permanently low price strategy. The firm will run advertising to support the initiative as well as flag the new prices clearly in stores under the Red Pencil Prices banner.
The loyalty scheme will shut at the end of June but the 1 million members of MyCard will be able to redeem points over the next 12 months.
“In an ideal world we’d do both but we made a business decision to push the investment into price,” said Holdway. He said the new pricing was primarily aimed at trade customers but that consumers would benefit too. In the present climate he said trade customers are trying to keep work quotes as low as possible. “This is the biggest thing we can do to help,” he said.
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