Dunnes Stores
Building Ireland’s leading loyalty app
From paper vouchers to Ireland’s #1 loyalty app
Dunnes Stores is Ireland’s largest grocery retailer, with 15,000 employees and 134 stores. Its offering spans groceries, fashion and homewares, making it one of the country’s biggest retail brands.
Its VALUEclub loyalty scheme rewards customers through points and shopping vouchers, helping build stronger relationships with shoppers across its stores. As customer expectations shifted towards mobile, Dunnes wanted to bring VALUEclub into the digital experience. The existing proposition relied on paper vouchers, with ‘Shop and Save’ vouchers printed on till roll receipts and Reward vouchers posted to customers three times a year. The opportunity was to make loyalty more convenient, reduce printing and postage costs, and attract a younger audience.
Apadmi worked with Dunnes Stores to define how mobile could transform VALUEclub, exploring how a native app could work alongside the existing loyalty website before refining the brief around a complete digital revamp of the scheme.
Making mobile work for Dunnes
Dunnes Stores’ high standards for quality and customer service had to carry through into the new app. Security, speed, accuracy and reliability were essential.
Apadmi brought together strategy, design, delivery, development and QA teams, working closely with Dunnes’ senior team, IT team and CRM partner to deliver the product.
Every voucher, digitised
Shop & Save and Reward vouchers were moved into the app, alongside quick access to points, key preferences and store information. The result was a simpler experience, with no till roll or post required.
Tap & go
Biometric login, including face and fingerprint ID, made it quicker and easier for customers to access their vouchers at the till.
Behind the experience was a middleware layer integrating with Dunnes’ IT systems, hosted on Microsoft Azure. The solution also included native iOS and Android apps, alongside a web app offering some of the same features online.
A new marketing channel
Key marketing messages and promotions were also brought into the app, giving Dunnes’ marketing team a new channel to reach customers directly.
Operational cost savings
The app also delivered operational cost savings by removing the need to print and post vouchers to customers’ homes.
A launch designed to drive adoption
Apadmi’s App Store Optimisation and Support team managed the launch, starting with a Beta release for colleagues, friends and family before the main public launch followed soon after.
Dunnes’ internal marketing team also received launch support to ensure consistent messaging across key channels. New users were incentivised with a €10 off a €30 shop voucher.
Results
The app was the most downloaded in Ireland for its first month post-launch and was selected by Apple as one of the ‘Top Apps in Ireland ‘, supported by positive sentiment from 50K+ reviews.
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#1
downloaded app in Ireland
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4.8*
App Store rating
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50K+
reviews
From loyalty card to full grocery destination
What launched as a digital home for VALUEclub vouchers has grown into a much broader shopping platform, and the app is now the primary digital front door for one of Ireland’s biggest retailers.
Customers can now order grocery home delivery in as little as an hour across Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway through Dunnes Stores Express. They can store and use digital gift cards alongside their vouchers and VALUEclub card, and browse fashion and homeware ranges without leaving the app.
“Just the beginning”
Dunnes Stores has maintained its position as Ireland’s leading grocer, with a 23.7% share of the Irish grocery market, ahead of Tesco Ireland and SuperValu.
“The response from customers has been fantastic and daily app downloads continue to surpass even our most optimistic expectations. People clearly love having a digital version of their VALUEclub points and shopping vouchers on their phone. This is just the beginning of our journey to leverage this technology to make shopping better for our customers.“
– Brian Kitson, Head of Loyalty and CRM, Dunnes Stores
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