Shoppers are wasting billions of pounds every year by failing to use their hard-earned loyalty points, according to new research.
Millions of shoppers are members of the big supermarket loyalty schemes such as Tesco Clubcard, Sainsbury’s Nectar, Morrisons More Card, ASDA Rewards, LIDL Plus, Co-op Membership, Boots Advantage Card, MyWaitrose and M&S Sparks card, but many forget to spend the rewards they've collected before they expire.
More than a quarter of loyalty points collected by UK shoppers go unspent, with an estimated £3 billion a year in lost savings quietly handed back to retailers, at a time when the cost of living remains the number one concern for households across the country.
This is not spare change. In a recent YouGov survey, 54 per cent of Britons said the cost of living was their biggest public worry.
Yet despite this pressure, millions of shoppers are effectively throwing money away by letting rewards lapse, says the new research, completed by customer loyalty tech provider Antavo.
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Promotions clearly matter, with 68.6% of consumers saying deals influence how they shop and 41.7% using promotions almost every time they buy groceries or essentials.
Nearly half of shoppers say it takes too long to earn rewards worth using, while more than four in ten are frustrated by points expiring before they can cash them in.
Others say the rewards simply are not appealing enough to justify the effort. The result is a growing mountain of unused points that look like savings but behave more like a hidden tax on busy consumers.
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