Sainsbury's launches personalised Nectar Prices for online shoppers

Sainsbury’s shoppers can now get personalised prices on its website through the Your Nectar Prices scheme.

The initiative was previously only available in Sainsbury’s stores for customers using the SmartShop app.

Read on to find out how Your Nectar Prices works.

Your Nectar Prices offers up to 10 additional discounts per week

Sainsbury's already offers Nectar prices - lower prices which are only available to Nectar members - on more than 5,000 products, according to industry publication The Grocer.

But members will also now be offered cheaper prices on up to 10 additional items per week, with savings of up to 30%.

These personalised offers are based on the products a member regularly buys, as well as what Nectar thinks they'll like based on their shopping habits.

The offers are valid for seven days, and can be used more than once.

• Find out more: Sainsbury's supermarket review

How to get Your Nectar Prices online

To start getting Your Nectar Prices online, you need to link your Nectar account to your Sainsbury’s groceries online account or app.

Once you've added any products on offer to your online basket, the lower prices will automatically be applied at the checkout. The savings you’ll get will depend on your shopping habits and what you choose to buy.

If you shop in a Sainsbury’s store using its self-scanning Smartshop system, you will get further personalised discounts on some products too.

Sainsbury’s says that its customers have already saved more than £30 million this year by using Your Nectar Prices in store via SmartShop.

• Find out more: how to spend less at the supermarket

How does Sainsbury’s Nectar loyalty scheme work?

Signing up to Sainsbury’s Nectar scheme gets you access to lower prices on selected products as well as the opportunity to earn points when you shop at Sainsbury's and other selected partners.

Nectar points are worth 0.5p, which means 500 Nectar points are worth £2.50. They can be spent at Sainsbury's or with almost 300 other companies including Vue Cinemas.

You get at least one point per £1 you spend (depending on where you shop), as well as personalised bonus point offers.

• Find out more: loyalty cards compared

Supermarket loyalty prices might not be as good as they seem

While loyalty schemes such as Sainsbury's Nectar and Tesco Clubcard do give you access to lower prices, Which? research conducted in June has led us to believe that these supermarkets are using potentially dodgy tactics on some of their loyalty offers. This can give the impression that the savings are more substantial than they really are.

When we analysed 141 Clubcard and Nectar card prices at Tesco and Sainsbury’s and tracked their pricing history back six months, we found that around a third (29%) of the member-only promotions were at their so-called ‘regular’ price for less than 50% of the six-month period.

Age and address-based restrictions around who can sign up to loyalty schemes also mean that some vulnerable shoppers - including teenage parents and homeless people - won't be able to access the lower, discounted prices.

When we put our findings to the supermarkets, Sainsbury’s said many products had increased in price over the previous six months due to inflation, and that its own inflation rate had been behind many of its competitors. Tesco said all its Clubcard Price promotions followed strict rules to ensure they represented genuine value and savings. It said these rules had been endorsed by Trading Standards.

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