Supermarkets have been accused of excluding elderly shoppers from loyalty scheme discounts, which often require email address or smartphone access.
Across the UK’s leading grocery retailers, Sainsbury’s Nectar card can only be joined with an email address, while Asda Rewards requires smartphone access and offers no option for a physical card.
While Morrisons allows shoppers to sign up to its My Morrisons scheme with a home address and Tesco customers can sign-up in-store with a phone number, campaign groups have claimed that many schemes remain too difficult and confusing for the elderly.
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Age UK charity director, Caroline Abrahams told The Telegraph: “In an increasingly online world, those who do not use digital technology can feel they are being left behind.
“At Age UK we regularly hear from older people who are told that they should be doing things online and who find that because they do not use the internet, they often miss out on the best prices, loyalty discounts and rewards.”
Abrahams added that “retailers need to remember that not everybody is online.”
Earlier this month, Sainsbury’s introduced a new loyalty initiative, Nectar Prices to compete with Tesco’s Clubcard scheme, with customers now receiving discounts on over 300 items.
Asda quickly followed suit in updating its loyalty offering by reintroduced its £5 ‘First Scan Bonus’ for first time users of its loyalty programme.
