Collecting points: Payback grows – Edeka brings two million new customers

Payback will significantly expand its dominant position as the largest German bonus program this year. With the joining of the Edeka Group on January 1, the Munich company increased the number of its active customers by two million, from 31 to 33 million. This was said by Managing Director Bernhard Brugger of the German Press Agency. Half of the population over the age of 16 collect payback points. The savings banks will be added as another partner this year. “We are actually in the strongest year in the entire company history,” said Brugger.

Discount points for 583 million euros

Payback was founded in March 2000 and celebrates the 25th company anniversary these days. The daughter of the US credit card provider American Express cooperates with 700 partner companies, in which customers can collect and redeem discount points. “In 2024, our customers collected points worth 583 million euros, and Payback has run a dot sales of 39 billion euros,” said Brugger. “We are expecting an increase for this year.” The company does not call sales and profits.

For Payback, the partnership with Edeka and Netto is a “game changer”, both together in Germany are considerably larger than the previous Payback partners Rewe and Penny. “So far we have assumed that a natural saturation limit should be reached at 35 million Payback customers, today I would move this number even further,” said the Payback boss.

According to Bruggers, the still outstanding accession of the savings banks is to become another milestone for the company. On the one hand, customers can automatically collect PAYBACK points in the future if they pay for participating partners with the Sparkasse card – in the first half of 2024, according to savings banks, over 47 million tickets were in circulation. “The second element is the integration of local trade, we want to integrate the S -advantage world of the savings banks into the ecosystem” – the “advantage world” is the Sparkasse’s own bonus program, which is to be linked to Payback.

Changed shopping behavior in the crisis

According to the manager, the persistent economic crisis can be seen in the customer’s shopping behavior: “We see very clearly that customers pay more attention to coupons and discounts,” said Brugger. “95 percent of all the points collected are also redeemed, which is very high in a bonus program.” In the food trade, there is sometimes a shift to something cheaper products and in -house brands. “However, money is still spent on wages: travel, tickets and concerts, just as noble wines.”

Payback “observes actual purchase of purchase on all topics that go more into the need for needs than to cover the needs,” said Brugger. He cited furniture and fashion as examples. “There is more saving in certain leisure activities, food delivery services and restaurant visits.”