The next big thing: personalized pricing

Thanks to the Internet, social media and big data, mass marketing of the 20th century has given way to one-on-one marketing in the 21st century.

Next up, one-on-one pricing.  Even grocery stores are now perfecting the concept.

Through their loyalty programs, Safeway and Kroger in the United States and Metro in Canada are customizing their offers to specific shoppers based on their purchase behavious. One person gets one price, someone else gets another.

“Maybe over time, shelf prices become less relevant to a subset of shoppers,” says Mike Minasi, Safeway’s president of marketing.

Individual offers are playing an increasingly important role in grocery sales like Metro, which sends out personalized deals through its Metro & Moi loyalty program in Quebec.

At Safeway, some 45% of sales now come from customers who receive offers on computers or smartphones linked to Safeway’s Just for U loyalty program. That’s up from nearly zero per cent two years ago.

Read the full story here.