At Safeway, shoppers can now personalize coupons

Safeway in the United States is bolstering its club cards rewards program in an effort to offer discounts tailored to consumers.

Just for U is an online and mobile application that will allow customers to access personalized coupons based on their shopping histories, while creating individualized shopping lists that can be printed or displayed on a mobile device. New deals will be offered daily to club card members.

Safeway has long been tracking customer preferences and offering special pricing to club card members, using what's called "market basket analysis." Just for U allows the store to take this individualization one step further, offering discounts on customers' most popular brands and purchases. Customers can also do an online search to see if the things they buy frequently are on sale.

"There are no immediate plans to launch the Just for U program in Canada," said Betty Kellsey, public affairs manager for Canada Safeway. "But we are closely monitoring and reviewing the program."

The American grocery chain is not the first to tailor marketing to the consumer. Earlier this year, U.S. retailer Target came was criticize for  intruding on customer privacy when it sent baby and maternity coupons to a woman it had identified as pregnant through its data analytics.