Today, more consumers cross-shop for their groceries than ever before. In a recent Upside survey of grocery shoppers, 81% said they compare prices across stores. While that might sound like bad news to grocers, there’s a positive flip side: More customers than ever are open to changing their behavior and visiting your store more often if their unique value points are met.

You know you have to appeal to the budget-conscious — especially those who still perceive your prices as high. Promotions and markdowns work, but how do you sustain both growth and margin over time?

Personalized promotions can bring new customers through your doors and complement your broader strategies to keep customers coming back, without the long-term costs that come with mass-discounting. 

The opportunity to move beyond static discounts

In all retail transactions, all consumers have friction — a thing, perception, or circumstance standing in the way of a purchase at a given store. How much friction — and how to overcome it — is always unique. 

By offering the right value, retailers can overcome this friction and incentivize transactions. The purpose of a discount, of course, is to help provide the incentive — but there are trade-offs. 

Static discounts treat all shoppers the same, regardless of what motivates them individually. That’s why they often give away too much (discounting for shoppers who would’ve paid full price) or not enough (failing to overcome friction for hesitant shoppers).

That’s the bottom line. Static discounts don’t adapt to real-time market conditions or the unique behaviors of your customers.

A personalized offer, meanwhile, is unique to each individual, based on real behavior and spending history.

Personalized promotions: Where profit meets precision

Personalized promotions are designed to overcome specific barriers that deter shoppers from consistently choosing your store. By addressing these points of friction at an individual level, personalized offers can more precisely incentivize behavior change.

Instead of offering a static discount to everyone, a personalized promotion might offer 5% cash back to a regular customer who just needs a nudge, and 15% to a competitor’s shopper who needs a stronger reason to switch.

Like static offers, personalized promotions can increase basket size and win more foot traffic. The key difference is that personalization protects your margin — no more over-discounting or cannibalizing sales you already expected.

How Upside fits in

Upside makes personalization effortless, delivering results without the operational lift. Our digital marketplace connects brick-and-mortar retailers with consumers using personalized promotions. These offers drive consumers into stores for net-new, incremental transactions by:‍

• Finding consumers where they are — on their phones and on the go. 
• Connecting them with nearby retailers via the Upside app and our network of partner apps.
• Generating personalized cash back offers that incentivize behavior change for each shopper.

Heritage Grocers Group, whose banners include Cardenas in Southern California, are longtime partners because personalized offers help them attract secondary and tertiary customers profitably.  

“We've been able to capture new visits, customers that perhaps didn't have us on their radar,” said Adam Salgado, Heritage’s chief marketing officer. “Because of the great offers that they're getting in a personalized manner, we are now part of their consideration set.”

The numbers show our partnership is working, too — the brand is seeing a 75% ROI on its Upside investment. And of the customers we’ve driven to Heritage stores, 86% of them have stuck with the grocer long-term.

Personalization: A profitable way to win

Get in touch with our team of grocery experts to see how Smart & Final can experience similar growth with Upside.