IGA Enhances Online Platform for Members
IGA has launched IGALink 2.0, the newest version of its digital marketing platform that provides unique full-featured grocery websites and mobile websites to each of over 900 IGA USA retailers, which together operate more than 1,100 stores.
IGALink 2.0 includes two new features, a print-at-home coupon solution and a new digital ad option. Rolling out sequentially, the first of these new features, the print-at-home coupon solution sourced from leading coupon provider Coupons.com, will be live on IGA retailer’s IGALink websites beginning June 20, 2012, with the digital ad option following shortly after.
“IGALink is a technological breakthrough for retailer websites in the grocery industry,” said Robert Hemphill, president of Webstop, the Palm Harbor, Fla.-based website developer selected by IGA to be its partner in this initiative. “With IGALink, IGA retailers enjoy web features and capabilities that are on par with the most highly regarded, high-traffic retailer websites on the Internet today. It’s a foundation that can easily ramp up with IGA members’ digital marketing creativity, and with periodic additions to the program, like the coupon galleribile, Webstopes and digital ad options that come with 2.0.”
With the IGALink print-at-home coupon solution, all IGALink websites will have a dedicated coupon gallery at no additional cost. Sourced by Coupons.com, shoppers will have access to hundreds of dollars of savings each week. Shoppers will register at a store’s website to access the coupons, helping to build the retailer’s shopper database. If a retailer has a coupon program in place or does not accept coupons at this time, the coupon gallery can be suspended from their website.
“The new IGALink makes it extremely easy for IGA retailers to offer coupon galleries on their own websites,” said Steven Boal, CEO of Coupons.com Incorporated. “The galleries allow every IGA independent retailer to give consumers the savings they are clamoring for, and at the same time, move product off the shelf. It’s a win-win for store owners and consumers.”
In addition to the digital, interactive weekly ad option, IGA retailers will also have the option to post a digital PDF of their ad at no additional cost from IGA. The weekly ad digital PDF was designed as a first step option for retailers new to digital marketing, and can be easily upgraded to the fully interactive digital circular.
Easily managed and maintained by the retailer via their IGALink desktop, the digital ad PDF can be posted right on to the retailer’s website but will not be interactive with the rest of the website features.
“With the exciting new offerings and options in the IGALink program, all IGA retailers have access to industry-leading digital marketing tools that deliver the content that shoppers want and the experience they have come to expect from their Hometown Proud IGA retailer,” said IGA’s Jim Walz, VP, marketing, branding and business development. “We deliver IGA retailers print-at-home coupons and new ad options through the next generations of IGALink, and we look forward to working with Webstop to continue the evolution of this progressive digital program.”
IGALink individual retailer websites, launched to all IGA USA retailers in 2011, are customizable, making it possible for each IGA independent retailer to personalize the digital experience for shoppers in their local community. The websites are accessible directly through individual site URLs, or through a store locator on www.iga.com, the consumer-focused website that is shoppers’ source for information about IGA.
Through the IGALink program, every IGA USA retailer receives:
- An IGA-branded website with a content management system that allows IGA retailers to easily customize content for their stores and the communities they serve
- A fully optimized mobile website
- Online registration tools for building a shopper database
- An interactive customer shopping list feature
- More than 6,000 searchable recipes that link to shopping lists
- Website analytics for measurable marketing results
- Access to unlimited email newsletter capability
- Access to a fully digital version of their weekly circular, interactive with shopping lists and recipes (for a monthly fee)
- Print-at-Home coupon gallery on each IGALink website, at no additional cost
- Capability to post a digital version of the ad, at no additional cost from IGA
Independent Grocers Alliance is the world’s largest voluntary supermarket network with aggregated worldwide retailer sales of more than $31 billion per year. The Alliance includes nearly 5,000 Hometown Proud Supermarkets worldwide, supported by 36 distribution centers and more than 50 major manufacturers, vendors and suppliers encompassing everything from grocery to equipment items. IGA has operations in 46 of the United States and more than 30 countries, commonwealths and territories.