With Christmas just around the corner, spending across Aussie households is set to skyrocket in the coming weeks.
In anticipation of this busy period, supermarket giant Woolworths has expanded its rewards program in a bid to help ease Christmas costs. Shoppers who previously could only redeem points at supermarkets or BWS outlets can now redeem points at Big W stores, too.
Woolworths Director of Loyalty Ingrid Maes said the move aims to relieve the burden on those struggling to meet their Christmas budgets.
“We’re really pleased to add BIG W as a redemption partner on Woolworths Rewards, particularly as Christmas shopping starts to ramp up,” Maes said.
“Budgets are often stretched at this time of year and we wanted to give our rewards members greater choice and flexibility in redeeming their points across the Woolworths Group. It means members can use their hard-earned points to buy a gift for a loved one at BIG W, some festive wine at BWS, or continue putting it towards the big Christmas grocery shop at Woolworths.”
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With the addition of Big W, members can now redeem points at more than 2,500 stores across the Woolworths group.
The rewards system gives customers one point per dollar spent at the supermarket giant or its affiliated stores including Caltex service stations, BWS liquor stores and now Big W.
The supermarket chain has also expanded its Save for Christmas option, where customers could opt to save their points throughout the year and redeem them during the Christmas period.
Latest figures show Woolworths Rewards customers have banked more than $17 million in points using this feature in 2018.
Earlier this year, Woolworths expanded its rewards partnership with Caltex, offering members the opportunity to save 4 cents per litre and earn rewards points at more sites
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Australians are expected to spend big this Christmas, with most people planning to spend $1,325 on average. A survey by finder.com.au found that collectively, the nation will fork out $25 billion, with the majority of that cost going towards presents for friends and family.
A lot of that cost is expected to be charged to credit cards with the comparison site warning people not to stretch themselves too thin.
“Christmas is a notoriously expensive time of year but just because it’s the silly season doesn’t mean you should throw all financial sense out the window,” Kate Browne, Personal Finance Expert at finder.com.au said.
“Don’t get caught financing the spending flurry with a credit card unless you plan to pay it off in full before charges apply.”
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