Sixth and final story in a series of retail grocery articles focused on what government and business should do to help consumers make wise food shopping decisions.
Like concert tickets, restaurant receipts and so many other parts of current commerce, smartphone-based digital convenience is rapidly replacing paper for grocery shopping.
You’ve probably noticed paper flyers are being replaced by online versions and smart phone apps. Coupons are being ditched for loyalty programs.
Non-digital discount marketing is likely to disappear completely in the next 10 to 20 years, according to Bruce Winder, a retail analyst and adviser in Toronto. Digital technology provides a much better consumer experience, where everything is interconnected and information is easier to find, he said.
Apps such as Flipp, which has become Canada’s leader in grocery shopping aids since it purchased its main Canadian riva,l reebee, in 2022, are supplanting paper flyers. Users provide their location information to Flipp and can see local retailers’ promoted prices. The app has search, alert and shopping list and other tools to aid consumers.
Other apps such as Groupon, Checkout 51, Honey, Save.ca, Smartcanucks, Flashfood and RedFlagDeals provide many similar features.
Barry Choi, a personal finance expert in Toronto, noted studies that show that apps can save consumers 10 to 14 per cent on groceries by helping them find the best deals in advance. Apps can also help reduce coupon/flyer counterfeiting, which has been a serious problem for paper-based marketing that increases fraud losses for merchants, he added.
The decline in paper-based marketing will make it more difficult for consumers who don’t own or use a smartphone to lower their shopping bills, Choi said.
But he added many grocers that do not distribute paper flyers do post them at the store’s entrance, to provide some convenience for the phone-less shoppers. And many phone-free consumers do have access to online flyers through home computers with internet connections.
Winder said the growth of the discount apps will likely increase price competition.
“If you’re a grocery or a store that’s overpriced…. I don’t think there’s anywhere for you to hide anymore. These apps and AI are going to tell everyone about it in real time. So I think it’s going to make retailers more competitive,” Winder said.
Shoppers are also drawn to loyalty programs such as PC Optimum from Loblaw, Empire’s Scene+ and Metro’s Moi Rewards. Consumers often shop at these stores to collect or cash in points, with less regard for individual prices.
These programs can track consumer purchases and use that data to optimize messaging, pricing and merchandise mix, in order to entice consumers into purchasing additional goods, said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, founder and president SLD, a Toronto-based strategic design agency.
A survey of more than 4,500 people by the Consumers Council of Canada in 2024 found consumers preferred “cashing in previously earned reward points to obtain a discount at the grocery store checkout” to using paper coupons or digital coupons on a smartphone.
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Consumers expressed strong support for unit pricing in an online survey of more than 4,500 Canadians by Consumers Council of Canada conducted through Environics Research.