Customerland
Customerland is a podcast about …. Customers. How to get more of them. How to keep them. What makes them tick. We talk to the experts, the technologies and occasionally, actual people – you know, customers – to find out what they’re all about.So if you’re a CX pro, a loyalty marketer, a brand owner, an agency planner … if you’re a CRM & personalization geek, if you’re a customer service / CSAT / NPS nerd – you finally have a home.
Customerland
Beyond Price: The Untapped Value of Eco-Conscious Shoppers
Sustainability and health consciousness aren't just buzzwords – they're reshaping consumer loyalty in profound ways that retailers can no longer afford to ignore. My conversation with Joel Percy, Regional Director at Eagle Eye, dives deep into the striking findings from their Green Loyalty Survey that reveals just how powerfully these factors influence purchasing decisions.
The statistics are eye-opening: 74% of Gen Z and 70% of families consider sustainability extremely or very important in their shopping choices. Perhaps even more compelling is that 62% of all respondents are willing to pay premium prices for eco-friendly brands. Yet despite this clear consumer preference, nearly half of all loyalty programs lack sustainability-focused rewards – representing both a significant oversight and an untapped opportunity.
We explore the fascinating overlap between sustainability-minded and health-conscious consumers, with 71% of sustainability-focused shoppers also prioritizing health and wellness. This intersection suggests retailers should develop integrated approaches rather than treating these as separate initiatives. As Joel notes, the "shape of the solution" for both preferences follows similar patterns – providing information, personalization, and thoughtful incentives.
For retailers wondering how to capitalize on these insights, Joel outlines three key strategies: deliver utility through accessible information about products' sustainability and health attributes; implement personalization that addresses individual needs beyond basic preferences; and consider incentives that reward sustainable or healthy choices. The technology enabling these approaches has evolved dramatically, creating perfect timing for retailers to transform their loyalty programs.
What emerges most clearly from our discussion is that while price sensitivity remains important (especially for value-conscious Gen Z), consumer expectations now extend far beyond discounts. Modern shoppers seek genuine utility and alignment with their values – creating a powerful opportunity for retailers who can deliver on both fronts.
they're processing this like meeting my values kinds of information, but if they see a better deal, like out of the corner of their eye, they're gone like sure yeah, faster than any other generation. So you know it's very important, but wait a second.
Speaker 2:This is more important over here we're a long way from pricing not mattering in retail. You know there's a reason. That's where all the loyalty programs started.
Speaker 1:Joel Percy is regional director at Eagle Eye and his team and my team have been trying to get this conversation on the books for I mean well over a month Actually it's been closer to two months just kind of wrangling schedules. So I'm glad we're finally here. This is going to be a really interesting conversation because, as Joel and I were just saying before we hit the record button, the topics we're addressing kind of bubbled up almost out of nowhere and have become, they're always compelling and important, but now I think there's added weight behind all of it. So with that, joel, thanks for joining me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great to be here, Mike, looking forward to the conversation.
Speaker 1:So let's just set some context here for folks who may not know what Eagle Eye is and does. Maybe you tell us a little about the company and then also your role there.
Speaker 2:Great yeah. So Eagle Eye is a global software company that works with retailers, primarily on enabling personalized loyalty programs. So we work with a lot of the big grocery brands around the world Loblaw, tesco, carrefour, woolworths Australia, as well as other retailers outside grocery who are looking to deliver loyalty to their customers, and increasingly in a highly personalized one-to-one way. So that's Eagle Eye, and I work with a number of our big clients here in North America as a regional director, as you said.
Speaker 1:So I noticed on your bio that you're in Mississauga. That's right. Yeah, also detected the accent. It's a lovely part of the world. Very good Side question Are you guys experiencing any of the weather that we are down here?
Speaker 2:We have a good layer of snow on the ground right now. I can say I don't know how much, but my kids were out enjoying it on the weekend and it's still there, so it's definitely a good winter weather this week here in Toronto.
Speaker 1:Good, good, we're all figuring out how to shovel again right now. Nice, there's a lot of moaning out there on the sidewalks. But anyway, back to the business at hand. Eagle Eye produced something which was just personally very interesting to me but has become business interesting as well. The Green Loyalty Survey, which I'll just read the kind of description that you guys crafted uncovers how sustainability and health and wellness preferences shape consumer loyalty and purchasing decisions in grocery shopping across the US and Canada. So great headline.
Speaker 1:If you're concerned with sustainability at all, this is something to read and really dig into, even if sustainability isn't really either your business wheelhouse or one of your core passions. There's an awful lot here that indicates or just points to what's driving consumer loyalty right at this moment in time. So I think there are lots of really compelling reasons to pay attention to this at this moment in time. So I think there's there are lots of really compelling reasons to pay attention to this. I wanted to just spend a few minutes kind of cherry picking some of the highlights. Perfect, and maybe you can add context to all that. Stuff Sounds great, yeah, okay. So we'll start here Sustainability as a priority and loyalty driver. And the data says 74% of Gen Z just think about that. 74% of any cohort's massive and 70% of families with children consider sustainability extremely you can't see my air quotes, but I'm doing them or very important in the purchasing decisions. Yet nearly half of loyalty programs lack sustainability focused rewards. Huh, so big gap. Also big opportunity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think any retailer that you talk to is going to tell you that they're customer centric, and so, whether as a business, sustainability has been a priority for you or whether it's been on the back burner, the fact that, as you said, 74% of any cohort is huge. If three quarters of your customers care about something, then, almost by definition, you need to care about it. Yeah, you should be doing that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, be doing that. Yeah, can we, just, before we go further into into what that means, kind of just agree to put the lie to? Uh, whatever customer centricity is, because every single company, you're right, says that, and yet it's this wide spectrum of what do you really mean by it, you know? Is it just optics or you're really doing something about it? So, anyway, I'll jump off my soapbox right now and get back. Get back on topic here. Um, very good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so maybe the way I would see it is that it's what everybody's striving for, and we're all achieving it, to a greater or lesser.
Speaker 1:You're so much more diplomatic than I, than I am. Congratulations on that.
Speaker 2:Cause.
Speaker 1:I was thinking entirely different words there. Fair enough, we'll leave it at that. Yeah, let's leave it there, because I'm the one getting in trouble here. So you know the kind of secondary data point there is that 62% of all the respondents you surveyed are willing to pay a premium for eco-friendly brands. I mean, yeah, okay, 74% is a giant portion of any cohort and, as you said, it requires paying attention to. But I can't think of any more compelling stat than saying and they're willing to pay more for it. That's right. So please, please, please, address this. So I mean, you kind of we could end this conversation there and have made our really great point, I think 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. In fact, going back to our previous little detour there, you don't even need to be customer-centric anymore to care about it. If your customers are willing to pay more for it, then it becomes the business, a business priority, right? There's margin there, there's sales growth, there's, you know, additional items in the basket. It matters to people.
Speaker 1:As well, as you know, improvement and overall customer satisfaction and loyalty. Yeah, so all those and I think where I'm hoping this conversation heads is we can talk about what that might look like. You guys operate and execute along these lines all day long, so you're going to have a really good view as to what this looks like, kind of at street level. But let's continue, if I may, to cherry pick a few more of these things. But let's continue, if I may, to cherry pick a few more of these things. Great, okay, there are apparent health and wellness gaps, with 65% of shoppers willing to pay more for healthier products. Retailers are missing a valuable touchpoint, as 51% of respondents report a lack of health and wellness-related incentives in their loyalty programs. I mean, you know, is this just because maybe we got to go back to why that is? Is it because retailers just haven't been aware of these potential incentive avenues, or is there something else there?
Speaker 2:I mean, I think there's a couple things.
Speaker 2:It probably is true that this matters more to people than it did 10 years ago, and so it's becoming more on the radar for retailers. It's also true that big data and analytics and the technology to enable it is much further ahead than it was 10 years ago. I mean, you could do things 10 or 20 years ago. You could put stickers on the shelf to say this is good for the environment and this one's bad for the environment, and you could do it in a relatively simple way, but technology enables it to a much more useful degree these days. And then, I think, the other, going back to my rather crude good-bad sticker example, there also are business pressures on this. Grocery stores operate with relationships with hundreds of suppliers that make all kinds of different products, and that's always a little bit of a give-and-take relationship, and so it's not easy to go out and start. It's very easy to put stickers on things that say these are good for the environment or healthy. It's harder to do the opposite, because you're sort of hurting your business partners.
Speaker 2:And so there is a fair bit of headwind against a retailer that wants to give handed information across the board. You know the good, the bad and the ugly, I think. But the tide is changing a bit and as the customer climate gets more and more interested in this and maybe even, you'd say, in some places demanding this, retailers are going to need to figure out a way to meet the demand or they'll get left behind both by competitors who do Right.
Speaker 1:I mean a couple of things kind of come to mind as you're saying that. One is that there's all kinds of data out there right now about how Gen Z in particular is super conscious and to the point of demanding kind of you know, they want to see they would never say it in these terms, but they want to see supply chain transparency. They would never say it in these terms, but they want not quite as large and they're not quite as intense. That's right. But Gen Z seems to have a whole different way of that's not really fair a progressively more adamant way of thinking through their purchases.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean, I think that's true. And then I think, layered on top of that, their experience of engaging with the world. Forget grocery retailer, just. Their daily life is much more digital and much more personalized than previous generations, and so one of the images that comes to mind if you think about, let's say, health and nutrition it's been quite a long time, at least in Canada, and I don't know what it's like in the U? S in terms of the regulatory environment a fast food restaurant has to produce their nutritional information. That used to be a little booklet behind the counter that nobody ever asked for, but these days the expectation would be that it would be overlaid on my particular order. I'd be able to them in a much more engaging and personalized way and therefore the uptake is higher. So the demand is greater and the ability to deliver it is a lot greater, and I think those two things are converging.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's an interesting moment in time for this particular topic was talking to somebody recently yesterday, the day before about some of the technology that's now available to produce supply chain transparencies, those traceability solutions that have been around to some degree and maybe some of the hard goods in retail, but now they're figuring out how to deploy those same kinds of tools in grocery, where things are just so much more complicated. And I thought you know, okay, I get that, you know you've got freshness ideas to deal with that you really don't in hard goods and other things. But the person I was talking to pointed out that that's nothing. It really gets complicated when you're trying to track and source, say, a batch of avocados down to one avocado down to if it hits your basket. But but wait, what if instead the grocery store turns that into guacamole and then you've what do you have? I mean, what happens to your traceability at that point? That starts out like guacamole.
Speaker 1:You know it's yeah how do you do that and they're trying to figure all that out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and I think too, it is always possible to endlessly complicate things and I'm not suggesting that that's a simple problem, because it is a complex problem.
Speaker 2:But also, I think most consumers would sort of be okay if you were quite transparent and say you know what the number we use for avocados is an average and you know it's still more sustainable than product X for these reasons, and we might be off by a little bit here and there, but it's still a good as a guide, uh, to making more sustainable choices. I don't think anybody expects perfection, um, you know, but I think the often clarity wins over accuracy, and so I think the retailers that are going to I'm not suggesting anyone be dishonest, but accept that there's a little bit of variability and rounding in things and gives consumers a really, let's say, fun, engaging, digestible way to understand sustainability, are going to win, rather than the ones who say it's really complex, we're not doing anything until we've really got, you know, the last like mile of that avocado's journey, you know, documented thoroughly, you know you're gonna. I don't think that's what consumers expect and I don't think that's the path to winning here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, yeah, completely agree. I mean, you know there's a, there is a point. And even with gen z, where these are, these are ancillary components to an overall purchase decision. I mean a lot of factors yes, somebody's head at that moment um, some of them are known. Many of them happen at a subconscious level and tend to be like okay, you're meeting my values. That's not a really conscious thought process, it just has to be there. And yet one of the more interesting things I've seen the data on this with Gen Z in particular is that they're processing this like meeting my values kinds of information, but if they see a better deal out of the corner of their eye, they're gone Faster than any other generation. So it's very important. But wait a second, this is more important over here.
Speaker 2:We're a long way from pricing not mattering in retail. There's a reason that's where all the loyalty programs started is giving monetary value and discounts and points, and I think some of the conversations we're having, like this one today, are they enhance the experience, they add to it. They certainly don't replace the need for value, especially in today's economic climate. But honestly, you know always, I think that's just true in grocery.
Speaker 1:Not going away.
Speaker 1:Exactly, you mentioned and it's only fair that we touch on this some of the differences between the way Canada might treat these topics versus the way the US is and does.
Speaker 1:I mean, let's just acknowledge what is right now some fairly significant regulatory headwinds on the US side coming down the road, and I think people who are concerned with sustainability, who operate in that space, are all kind of going okay, you know what's our best course of action here. But it's interesting that you uh, you know the story you told about going to McDonald's and they had the booklet of what the ingredients were and where it came from and whatever the calorie and salt and you know sodium and sugar counts were kept behind the counter. And now it's a much more front and center thing, and I think that probably is the same on this side of things. The US has had a really a habit, I'll say, of getting creative with product labels and I think you know that's a that's a conversation that again takes us in dangerous territory. Think you know that's a that's a conversation that again takes us in dangerous territory. But, um, you know, saying all natural in this country doesn't really mean a whole lot anymore, and I'm interested in you know that it should.
Speaker 1:it should be one of those monikers. One of those labels are, uh, you know, a brand stamp that that has meaning, but if you really dig into what that really means technically legally here in the States, it's kind of like not a lot. You have to go deeper. So we play with labels because we can make increased sales, but those labels have some trust factors that are, you know, questionable, I'd say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think that's that's fair and I think, to be honest, that's going to be true anywhere. So once you find something that consumers care about and that drives behavior and it's shown to work and drive business results, then there's going to be a natural desire to sort of push right up to the line for businesses to maximize that. And certainly and maybe you are arguing over the line at times, but I think even that your example, the fact that the label all natural gets used in marketing, maybe sometimes inappropriately is just further proof that customers care about things being all natural. You wouldn't fudge it if it didn't matter to the end customer.
Speaker 1:Great point, great point. I just want to point out that the way you're addressing these topics that I'm bringing up here is a much kinder approach. Thank you for that. Well, you know, I'm representing up here is a much kinder approach. Thank you for that.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I'm representing Canada today, right?
Speaker 1:There's a lot on your shoulders. Well, you're doing a good job. I think your people should be proud. Let's move on to a few more cherry-p picked data points, if I may. At the intersection of sustainability and health preferences, 71% of sustainability focused consumers also value health and wellness. Retailers really need to think about integrating those rewards. I mean there's a lot of crossover between sustainability consciousness and health and wellness consciousness. I mean there's a lot of crossover between sustainability consciousness and health and wellness consciousness. I think you'd find, if you did any kind of real segment analysis, that you'd find huge overlap between those two preference sets. Agree, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's overlap in the customers who care about it. I think, I would argue, there's also a lot of overlap in the shape of the solution for retailers, like how do you cater to customers who care about sustainability and how do you cater to customers who care about health? I would argue are pretty parallel questions. For grocers, maybe you want to give them incentives for choosing specific products. Certainly you want to give them some kind of information at least so that they can make more informed decisions and healthier or more sustainable. It's sort of. The shape of the problem is the same. It might be two different data sets, but I think if you can do one, you can do the other and, as you said, it's probably the same people who care about both.
Speaker 1:Yeah, certainly, certainly very closely aligned. So I think it would be really healthy and interesting to shift the conversation a little bit away from the data points and talk about what retailers and grocers can be doing with this information. I mean, there are clearly gaps which represent some opportunities. So what does that look like? If you and your teams are talking with grocers or retailers, pointing out what the data says, what are you suggesting would be their action points to take advantage of these things, to leverage that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, great question. So I mean, first and foremost, I think every retailer I know, and particularly the loyalty teams, are trying to crack the question today of how they provide more utility to the customer, say in their app or in their loyalty program, rather than just more discounts, more points. It can always spend more money to get customers to behave a certain way or make product selections, but how do I do it in a way that doesn't just involve this race to the bottom on price? And so the answer is this concept of utility. I want to make my app and my digital properties useful to you. I want them to be something that you're going to visit regularly because you find them a helpful part of planning your shop and while you shop and after you shop. And both sustainability and health, I think, hit that right on the head. What I want as a consumer, if I care about these things, is information at my fingertips. So tell me more about the health properties of the products I'm buying. Tell me more about healthier alternatives to things that I have been buying. Tell me more about more sustainable versions of things I've been buying. Tell me about my carbon footprint. You know over time, and can I track it and can I watch it go down, and can you suggest ways to make it go down? All of that doesn't involve putting a penny in the customer's pocket, it's just viewed as useful and helpful.
Speaker 2:Then I think, in addition to that, like the next layer of that then we would see as personalization. So a lot of retailers are doing a great job at personalizing coupons and offers. It's rare to see much personalization outside of. You know, mike likes Coke and Joel likes Pepsi. Great, that is a powerful personalization tool.
Speaker 2:But someone in my family may have certain dietary needs, and so you know what I care about when I'm scanning a product. To get the nutritional information, I don't need to see the whole label, but I would like a red warning on. You know, this contains gluten or whatever it is that's important to me and my family. Um, so there's that level of of personalization on what matters to you, or even just what health metrics are you tracking or how does that look for you? And then I think the third element is you know you're giving the information, you're personalizing the information. There is then a question of do you want to give incentives to change behavior? Do I want to reward incentives to change behavior? Do I want to reward people with points or discounts or free products for making certain kinds of choices and and driving that engagement? So I think those are the kinds of things we're seeing and, as we said at the top, the data and technology is relatively recently there to start doing some of those kinds of things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, again you bring up another set of questions that'll take us into a hard left direction and ruin our morning schedules. Here is a group that's developed a. Actually, it's a fairly basic loyalty engine in terms of its mechanics, but it's brilliantly executed to and brands are using it to incentivize good behavior. You know, do something any one of these tasks that we would consider, uh, improving the sustainability of your life, with or without our products, and we'll reward you with some sort of some sort of thing. And, um, yeah, that's turning out to be a really neat thing. Um, I told these people that I would be super interested to check in in six months or a year, because the adoption rate has been phenomenal. It's just been outrageously good with that product, how brands that are using it are leveraging it for their business, because you know, at some point the feel good has to materialize into something bottom line oriented.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's one. The other was that this is another group of people in the loyalty space that have developed some pretty sophisticated loyalty mechanisms. One of them was basically and this is not a new thing, but just the way it's deployed dynamic pricing. So we know you so well, we've evaluated and understand your value to us going about your everyday work, every everyday purchasing. Um, we can adjust pricing real-time dynamically to benefit you. You know you don't need a piece of paper or a shelf label or something that says, hey, if you're this, you get that. Um, it just shows up in your app or at checkout saying you know you, you know you're a believer in us, we're a believer in you. Here's some money, yeah, which is really interesting. Take so? Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's certainly a lot, a lot more possible today than was a few years ago, dynamic pricing being a great example of that, a somewhat controversial one. A lot of retailers are interested but also cautious I think, rightly so about about that, but it shows you what's possible. Uh, and I think the retailers that win are going to be the ones that figure out how to use it, rather than and sort of ask the question just because we can, does it mean we should? You know there are lots of things you can do today. Uh, and and what are? What are the ones that are going to benefit the business and the customer? I think is sort of the key question for retail leaders right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's absolutely an interesting moment with what, as you said at the top of this conversation. You know, big data allowed us to think differently about things we couldn't even think about, we couldn't even really consider before. What did you do with all that data? How do you wrangle it? How do you understand what's possible with that data you've now accumulated? And now, a few short years later, we have the ability to do that, and I think you know I'm talking to people all day long who are doing some pretty spectacular things, like you guys in grocery and retail, who are doing some pretty spectacular things like you guys in grocery and retail. So I honestly have another 20 questions I could put out there, but I think that would destroy our schedules. Plus, I think it's probably just two geeky people talking and who cares about that? So, anyway, with all that, joel, I really appreciate this. I'm, as I said, glad that schedule's finally mashed up and we're able to pull this off, but thank you, yeah, absolutely.
