Boots loyalty card members can now collect points to spend in the store when they spend online at a range of third-party retailers.
The company has launched Treat Street where shoppers can collect at least a point for every pound spent online at more than 50 retailers, including eBay, Disneyland Paris, Comet, Currys and Asos.com.
To use the programme, customers register and log into the Treat Street website as a gateway to participating stores.
Points are accrued online and added to the Boots Advantage Card through instore Extra Offers Kiosks after 35 days. They can then be spent instore at Boots .
Our view: This is an interesting step from Boots. The big question though is what’s in it for the chemist chain. But effectively, it seems the Treat Street site must act as an affiliate marketing site, channelling custom towards partner sites. The incentive of points for customers also encourages instore spending in Boots.
It’s not unlike the third-party retailers now selling through eBay’s fashion store and Asos allowing customers to sell their own used clothes through its marketplace. Perhaps this will prove a model for different ways of leveraging extra revenue through an own-brand site.
