The Daily Mail is dropping Nectar points from next week

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• apbj says:

  4 Sep4 September 04:43

  If Sainsbury’s was more sensibly-run, it would focus more on price-based loyalty (like Tesco Clubcard) and let customers convert the residual earnings to Avios if they wish.

  The weekly offers are a chore, and of my local Sainsbury’s can be bothered to run the silly ‘smart store’ gadgets that are needed for Nectar prices so it’s a borderline scam at the moment.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    4 Sep4 September 10:17

    You can use your smartphone to check out using the SmartShop app you don’t need any handheld scanner.

    • Andrew. says:

      4 Sep4 September 10:29

      Prefer to use the instore gadgets really, sits nicely in the holder and I don’t need to keep unlocking my phone.

      Not sure why people are complaining too much really. The Heinz half-price Nectar event at the weekend was great. My elderly parents did their winter soup & beans stock-up. My brother got two triple pack large ketchups for under a fiver each along with cupboard stock-ups saving around £20-£25 on Tesco prices. I also did my ambient pantry stock-up saving about £15-£20.

• Andrew J says:

  4 Sep4 September 05:39

  Therefore the end of the ability spend Nectar points at M&S.

  • Rob says:

    4 Sep4 September 08:26

    Seems to have already gone, couldn’t see it online hence no mention.

    • Andrew J says:

      4 Sep4 September 08:37

      Yes just noticed that too. Very quiet removal.

• BJ says:

  4 Sep4 September 06:18

  Fantastic news, now I van unsubscrible from their mailings.

• Scott says:

  4 Sep4 September 06:26

  I get points from them most days (although not from buying the paper).
  They’re an easy 30-60 a week, and whilst not much in the grand scheme of things, they do add up.

  Shopping at Sainsbury still provides the bulk of my points and probably get more there by buying a tin of peas.

• Jasdev says:

  4 Sep4 September 06:29

  “Dropping” or “dropping”, Rob? 😉

  • Stian says:

    4 Sep4 September 07:56

    I read it the way Rob intended it 😃
    But then again I usually wonder why an artist cancelled her latest album just before the intended release date 😁

• Stian says:

  4 Sep4 September 08:00

  I’m curious about why partners are walking away from Nectar. Is it poorly run, are they not really interested in retaining their partners? Does anyone know?

  • Rob says:

    4 Sep4 September 08:23

    It’s pretty obvious to me.

    You give your customers £1 of Nectar points as a reward. You are paying Nectar probably £1.10 after fees etc. The customer values the points at 90p because using them is a faff.

    You’d sell more by giving back that £1.10 directly, via a discount or other offer.

    Now, take Avios. Retailers pay 0.8p to 1p for an Avios. You, the customer, value them far higher. Giving Avios therefore makes a lot more sense than a cash discount because you value it more.

    • WillPS says:

      4 Sep4 September 09:09

      Pretty wild that you consider Nectar to be worth below face value ‘because using them is a faff’ but Avios over 1p. Try getting a penny of value out of an Avios in any scenario where a normal, non-HfP reading, user gets £2.50 worth of them.

      Now consider how frictionless the process of parting with those £2.50 worth of Nectar points would be at Sainsburys or Argos. Scan card, say/select Nectar redemption, done. No regrets about potentially earning more because every redemption is the same (unless you drink a lot of Caffe Nero).

      Not saying either is better (they’re convertable for starters!), but they are both very different and I don’t think Avios wins on being ‘faff free’.

      • Ryan says:

        4 Sep4 September 09:19

        I would say that traditional (non HFP) redemption of Nectar is one of the easiest loyalty schemes to redeem. Most users will bank them up and pay for one off items with it, super easy…. vs Taxes, fees, upgrades, availability etc

        • Aston100 says:

          4 Sep4 September 09:33

          I agree with Ryan.

        • WillPS says:

          4 Sep4 September 09:58

          100%. It is as easy as can be to redeem. One of the things I like about Nectar is knowing that there’s no risk/opportunity cost using ’em whenever for whatever.

      • Andy Davies says:

        4 Sep4 September 10:19

        Nectar is one of the easiest loyalty points to use with a wide range of options for spending

        The claim that Avios is faff free seems wild given the hidden extra costs involved with redeeming them for flights

        • Rob says:

          4 Sep4 September 11:34

          If I offered you £10 of cash or £10 of Nectar points which would you take? The cash, unless you are totally mad, because you can use it anywhere for anything.

          (* unless you drink a lot of Caffe Nero coffee or convert into Avios)

        • Ryan says:

          4 Sep4 September 11:43

          If you offered the general public £10 nectar or £10 Avios, I know which one would be more popular… with the general public that is

        • His Holyness says:

          4 Sep4 September 14:20

          Nectar have reach beyond London because Avios are not worth the same outside of London. When UK Domestic-Zone 1 Europe starts at a stupendous 19,000 plus £70 or, if you want to enjoy the luxury lounges with the steamed potatoes, fish cakes finished with a few Bourbon biscuits you’re talking 34,000 plus £100. Those are OFF-PEAK by the way.

          Balances capable of paying for CW and F, and 241 vouchers are out of reach to most of the public and can often be beaten by revenue fares, especially if you absurdly have to book at 330 days out! Fares wise, Corona balloon has not burst but it has a leak and it’s coming down to Earth.

          Just give me the Nectar.

        • Chrisasaurus says:

          4 Sep4 September 20:27

          Rob – same though experiment with £10 cash vs 1000 avios you think anyone is taking the avios?

        • cin4 says:

          5 Sep5 September 11:21

          Exactly.

    • rob keane says:

      4 Sep4 September 09:31

      if the maths is so simple, why didn’t they do that calculation before deciding to join ?

      • Rob says:

        4 Sep4 September 11:35

        The ‘sell’ would be that Nectar points would make readers ‘stickier’ and may even attract the odd person over from the Express. I suspect that the Mail has realised that neither of these things came to pass.

  • JDB says:

    4 Sep4 September 09:38

    Nectar was already a failing scheme before the Avios link up which has, unsurprisingly, brought no benefit to either party. The external partners can see that it brings absolutely nothing to them other than cost and admin.

    • WillPS says:

      4 Sep4 September 09:56

      Not at all sure about that. It’s bought me, a non-flyer, in to the Avios ecosystem; especially after last November’s Avios -> Nectar devaluation BA must be making something from me now?

    • Doommonger says:

      4 Sep4 September 11:51

      I take it you will not be joining Sainsburys/Nectar great fruit and vegetable challenge?

      • David says:

        4 Sep4 September 18:53

        😆

• JDB says:

  4 Sep4 September 10:20

  @WillPS – I’m afraid you haven’t moved the needle on your own! Yes, of course some people (re)engaged with Sainsbury’s as a result of the Avios/Nectar tie-up, just not very many. Avios wanted more from Tesco than the latter was willing to provide so they parted ways. Avios and Sainsbury’s trumpeted this whole new partnership that would bring lots of new customers and help grow their respective businesses but it simply hasn’t materialised; it’s been very disappointing. The limited external engagement with Nectar is very telling.

  • Aston100 says:

    4 Sep4 September 10:24

    Where are you getting this info from?

    • Rob says:

      4 Sep4 September 11:32

      The reason the conversion rate INTO Nectar was changed is that (as I understand it) the contract has an ’emergency break’ clause which allows for the terms to be changed if the flow of money in either direction is greater than anticipated. The fact that the ’emergency break’ was implemented implies that far more people were going INTO Nectar than were going FROM Nectar.

      That said, Sainsburys has spent a lot on promoting Avios instore so from that point of view it has done its job.

      The issue with Tesco is that Avios felt a bit lost given the huge number of other Clubcard partners.

      • The Savage Squirrel says:

        4 Sep4 September 13:35

        Very surprised that this wasn’t entirely predictable. Outside the HfP bubble there would be millions of people sitting on a few 1000 Avios one or two holidays or flights they had no idea to do with. Suddenly they pay for their weekly shop for the next 3 weeks – of course that looks great; was always going to happen.

        It was also launched when international travel was restricted and very far from hassle-free due to ongoing Covid restrictions, which will have accelerated that process a lot.

        • Andy Davies says:

          5 Sep5 September 10:31

          Even with the HfP bubble there are those of us with 0000’s of Avios who’d prefer to convert them into real money via Nectar rather than use them to fly with BA

  • BBbetter says:

    4 Sep4 September 11:26

    Looks like Avios has done pretty well out of this. First, get good money from Sainsburys for cutting Tesco out. Make the conversion simple and get nectar fans to cash them out to avios. Finally devalue the conversion forcing Nectar to pay even more.
    Sainsburys thinks its competing with Tesco. But their prices are now eye wateringly expensive compared to Aldi / Lidl.

    • WillPS says:

      4 Sep4 September 11:35

      Not sure what you’re buying but I can’t see more than a few pence worth of difference nowadays, Aldi and Lidl have put their prices up most in the post-Covid period and Sainsburys/Tesco the least.

      As always if you’re easily tempted in to buying brands then you’ll be much better off shopping in Aldi/Lidl where there are far less to tempt you with.

  • WillPS says:

    4 Sep4 September 11:33

    Have you been to a branch of Sainsburys in the last 2 years? There’s nearly always a prominent bit of POS advertising the partnership.

    • david says:

      4 Sep4 September 13:54

      point of sale advertising or piece of s*it advertising?

      • His Holyness says:

        4 Sep4 September 14:23

        Person of Size

      • Aston100 says:

        4 Sep4 September 18:56

        Both

• JeffMcB says:

  4 Sep4 September 11:46

  No-one should be reading any Daily Mail publication (or supporting any of their businesses) anyway, hate-filled rag that it is.

  • Rob says:

    4 Sep4 September 13:56

    Except you almost certainly are supporting one of their businesses – in the same way that people who say they hate Qatar Airways still fly BA (25% owned by Qatar Airways) and stay in hotels owned by Qatar Airways / QIA.

    Looked at any UK property website recently? Daily Mail almost certainly owns part or all of it (except onthemarket). Looked at buying a car from Cazoo? Read New Scientist? Read Metro, or the i newspapers? You’re putting money into the Mail’s pockets each time. Go to any trade shows as part of your job? Fair change Daily Mail owns it, unless Reed does.

    • Rivo says:

      4 Sep4 September 14:15

      RELX please Rob. But you make a good point. Its tough to be virtuous. A little like when people tried to boycott Nestles.

    • cin4 says:

      5 Sep5 September 11:17

      Many of us most certainly are careful not to support any of their businesses (and it’s not really hard to do so).

  • jj says:

    4 Sep4 September 15:13

    Didn’t take long for a comment like yours to be posted. Some people really can’t handle different opinions from their own.

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