Moscow, 29 June 2022 – X5 Group (“X5” or the “Company”, LSE and MOEX ticker: FIVE), a leading Russian food retailer, has launched a new processing system for its loyalty programme based on home-grown technologies. The transition of X5’s loyalty programme to a new system is set to become the largest loyalty programme transition in Russian retail to date.
The system is operating in pilot mode across 1,500 of Pyaterochka proximity stores in Moscow and the Moscow region. The pilot in the Moscow region has already been completed and will extend to Pyaterochka stores across all regions of operation. X5’s Perekrestok supermarkets will join the testing stage in July.
The transition to a new processing system requires zero effort from customers to continue benefiting from the X5 loyalty programme, as all existing Helping Cards will remain active. Customers who visit stores that are already connected to the new processing system will be able to earn and redeem points using their plastic Helping Cards. The functionality of the loyalty cards has not been affected, with customers earning points and receiving discounts for purchases made with their loyalty cards as before. Customers who made a purchase during the transition to the new processing system already have their points on their loyalty card.
The new processing system was launched by X5’s in-house technology team on a platform developed by the Russian company Loymax. The platform offers new opportunities to enhance the customer experience, including by introducing unified standards for customer authorisation that remove overlapping data and a proprietary crisis-monitoring system with prompt notifications. The new processing system relies on X5’s infrastructure, which ensures seamless operation of the loyalty programme and effective protection of customer data. The platform will enable X5 to further improve the system and introduce new functionalities, regardless of market constraints.
In total, X5’s new processing system will serve more 60 million customers across 19,000 stores and 86,000 checkouts. The Russian retail industry has never before seen such a large-scale loyalty programme transition. X5 will fully migrate to the new processing system as early as this summer, including the in-app use of loyalty cards, and will kick off the development of the loyalty programme’s functionality. In Autumn 2022, X5 plans to restore the function that enables customers to choose their favourite product categories and partner offers, in addition to offering new features and expanding opportunities for X5 customers.