Walgreens’ Balance Rewards Loyalty Program Eclipses 100 Million Members

During Walgreens’ recent second-quarter financial earnings call, company President and CEO Gregory D. Wasson noted that the highly successful Balance Rewards customer loyalty program launched in September 2012 has eclipsed a significant milestone: 100 million members.

“This quarter we successfully reached a milestone for enrollment in our balance rewards program topping 100 million enrollees with almost 80 million active members,” Wasson said during the financial results conference call on March 25. “We now have the largest retail loyalty program in the industry.”

The Balance Rewards customer loyalty program will be the focal point of a Loyalty360 webinar on April 24, and include featured speakers Mindy Heintskill, Senior Director of Loyalty, Walgreens; Kelly Smolinski, Sr. Director Customer Systems IT, Walgreens; and Kathryn Zajac, Vice President of Client Services, Epsilon.

Wasson said that the company leverages customer insights from Balance Rewards “to evolve our value proposition and simplify promotions to help both our stores and our customers. On our Well Experience rollout, we’re pleased with our progress to-date. We continue to refine our store format to integrate healthcare, provide an elevated beauty experience and also deliver exceptional seasonal and consumable convenience to meet customers’ needs.”

What’s more, Wasson said Walgreens continues to bring together “our world-class digital capabilities to complement our convenient store locations and leverage our omni-channel contacts to delight customers. Today, 9 million customers touch the Walgreens brand every day at our stores, over the web or through mobile channels making Walgreens a true omni-channel provider.”

Second-quarter sales for Walgreens rose 5.1%, to $19.6 billion, up from $18.6 billion for the same period last year.

During an interview with Loyalty360 last year, Adam Holyk, Group Vice-President, Customer Loyalty and Insights at Walgreens, paid tribute to the company’s store associates across the country for the significant role they play in the success of the Balance Rewards program.

“A good portion of the credit is tied back to our 240,000 team members in stores and their ability to embrace the program and communicate the value and engage the customers,” Holyk told Loyalty 360 last year.

What’s more, Holyk said that the company’s loyalty journey has been paved with success due to clear executive support.

“We have a broader focus on customers from an experience and engagement point of view,” he said. “For Walgreens, the success of the program goes beyond a transactional program. It is part of the overall corporate focus and business strategy, and connects with the brand’s purpose to help people get healthy, stay healthy, and live well.”

Holyk said one of the main keys to success is listening to the customer and using insights gleaned from the program. He added that Walgreens delivers relevant content and product information based on what its customers are purchasing.

“We made a deliberate choice when we introduced the program to offer customers an opportunity to earn and redeem points,” Holyk said. “That gets us to the journey to offer rewards to our best customers. Customers in the program are definitely taking advantage of the savings. But over time as they understand the value of points, we’re seeing changes around collecting more points, and changes on how they redeem those points as well.”

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