Behind Metro’s plan to make Moi the ‘most personalized loyalty program in Canada’
After an enormously successful rollout in Quebec last year, Metro launched its Moi Rewards program in Ontario on Thursday (Oct. 24).
“We launched it with the intent and the ambition of becoming the most personalized loyalty program in Canada,” Alain Tadros, Metro’s vice-president and chief marketing officer of digital strategy told Canadian Grocer this week. “It doesn’t need to be the richest, doesn’t need to be the biggest. What it needs to be is the most relevant, most personalized to our Canadian customers.”
Metro says the Ontario launch is an evolution of the refreshed Moi program that rolled out in Quebec in May 2023, a program ranked by 2024 Leger Wow Survey as the most widely used loyalty program in that province with 79% of Metro customers actively engaging with it. In Ontario, Moi is now available at Metro, Jean Coutu and Food Basics locations.
When asked why it was the right time to launch in Ontario, Tadros said, “We’ve taken the success of our Quebec program and we’re bringing the same foundations to Ontario.” He added that the launch also marks the first-ever loyalty program for Food Basics, the grocer’s discount banner. “Food Basics is already recognized as offering the most competitive prices in the Ontario market, so we’re layering loyalty on top of that and what we think it’s going to deliver is a more generous, more personalized program.” (An ad campaign accompanying the launch zeroes in on that idea of personalization, with Metro shoppers enjoying "celebrity" treatment. Watch the new spot below.)
Tadros said Moi offers customers multiple ways to earn points—base points, promotional points, accelerator events (where points can be doubled or tripled)—and they can unlock personalized offers each week. And through its loyalty partnership with Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), customers can link an Avion Rewards card to “double dip” earning one point for every $2 spent using the credit card on top of Moi Rewards points already earned.
“We believe loyalty can be a deflationary force for consumers and it's more meaningful in today’s environment than ever before,” said Niranjan Vivekanandan, senior vice-president and head, loyalty & merchant solutions at RBC. “Given the high frequency of grocery shopping and the fact that consumers are looking for more ways to save on these essential products, we’re so pleased to offer another way for our members and cardholders to gain value every time they shop.”
READ: Canadians value grocery rewards over other loyalty programs, survey finds
A standout feature of the new Moi program, said Tadros, is that customers can start redeeming at just 500 points (equivalent to $4). “It’s the lowest redemption threshold in the grocery market,” he said, pointing to competitors’ programs that require at least $10 worth of points to start redeeming. The program also allows customers to redeem in $1 increments rather than predetermined tiers. “Customers can redeem quicker, they’re not having to wait months and months to accumulate,” he said. “Being able to redeem quicker makes it a more engaging program where [customers] can see savings on their everyday grocery bills and pharmacy bills.”
Tadros adds that the Moi is not a program that lives on its own, it’s integrated into all the company’s commercial priorities—the apps and websites of its banners. Important, he said, because customers visit these places to look at flyers, clip coupons, get recipe ideas, and plan their grocery shop. “The idea is for us to integrate [Moi] within those banner strategies so it can be in addition to what the banners are currently doing.”
