I love saving money.
But I’ll admit. Sometimes my lack of organization gets in the way.
When I shop, I always pay attention to the sales. That’s always my #1 tip for saving money. Shop the sales. Then when I can, I opt for the deals that offer a bonus reward on top of a sale price, so I can earn some money back for my next shopping trip.
As I leave the store (usually with at least one kid), my mind switches to the goal of just getting everyone to the car and buckled in. I hastily stuff my receipt and whatever rewards or coupons that may have printed out into my bag and switch gears.
And then I’m back home and into our other routines and, sometimes, I just forget about the receipts (and the more valuable stuff that comes with it). I’ll come across the receipt as I’m cleaning out my bag several days later. And undoubtedly the rewards have since expired. Usually the day before I find them again. It can get frustrating.
So I was thrilled when Walgreens announced that they were launching Balance Rewards, a digital loyalty/rewards program. No more finding expired rewards in the bottom of my bag! Instead you can keep track of your reward balance right on your smartphone via their mobile app.
When I went into my local Walgreens, the new program was incredibly well advertised throughout the store. There were literally signs about it everywhere you looked. On endcaps. Hanging from the ceiling. Adhered to the floor. There were even balloons announcing it, too.
Signing up for the program is quick and easy. I was able to sign up right in store via my phone. The entire process took about 3 minutes. Even with a wandering toddler along.
Oh, and no need to carry your actual loyalty card either. That’s now a scannable feature right on your phone. Just pull up your card in line and the cashier can scan it right there. And you won’t have to keep giving out your phone number to the 3 strangers in line behind you, either.
There were also signs on the shelves, under each individual product that earned rewards that week. That will be especially helpful as I’m shopping in store, so I can match up sale items that are also offering rewards points. That’ll help me maximize my savings.
The mobile app has several features that I know I’ll use often, including a digital weekly ad, mobile coupons, rewards program, online shopping capabilities and more.
One of my favorite features of the mobile app is having a digital copy of the current weekly ad right at my fingertips. Too often the paper copy gets lost, recycled or made into a collage before I can make the weekly shopping list. Now I’ll be able to keep very current with the sale prices and I can quickly recycle the paper copy without wondering what sales I’m missing.
Shopping via the mobile app was easier than I expected, too. For the most part, the shopping feature was easy to navigate, which I appreciated. There were several options for browsing and sorting (sort by sale items, by prices, by category, etc.) so I was able to start and complete my order pretty quickly.
One thing I did notice was that if I was browsing in a section, there was no easy way (that I could find, anyway) to exit the shopping function quickly and get back to the app’s home screen. This added feature would be especially convenient, say if I want to quickly check on which mobile coupons were available before I put an item in my cart. Right now, I had to press the “back” button several times in order to get back to the app’s home screen. This was most noticeable when I was browsing in the deeper levels of a section and was several pages into my search.
Everything else about the mobile app shopping experience was very clear and set up well. The sale prices were clearly marked. I liked that you could see the regular price and then the sale price in red. I also appreciate that it ships quickly (I placed my order a little after midnight on Saturday night – Sunday a.m.) and already received a notice that my order has shipped, less than 24 hours later. That’s quick, especially on a weekend. And certainly, free shipping on every order over $25 makes me very likely to continue ordering via mobile app. That’s an easy threshold to meet and makes it worth not having to drag the kids out to another store.
Check out this Google + album for the rest of my shopping experience. Learn more about the Balance Rewards program on Twitter and Facebook.
Best of all, I like that I’m able to keep track of my progress in rewards – and most importantly, never lose a paper reward again! At Walgreens, anyway. 
——-
Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Walgreens #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions are my own.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Organization is my downfall, too. This program looks like a really good way to help that problem…and save money, too!
I love the new Walgreens program. I love that it also uses your phone number, so I just *might* even be able to get my hubby to use it.
This app makes shopping from just about anywhere so easy!