For supermarkets, data is big business. Every time a consumer shops in store, online or uses their loyalty card, the supermarket gathers valuable information.

From the consumers’ point of view, this means that supermarkets are creating a detailed profile of them and finding out what they buy, how much they spend and how loyal they are. This level of information is only set to increase – every time a consumer shops, the data builds up.

Retailers can tell a lot about their customers from their shopping habits and the supermarkets have long understood that this sort of knowledge is power.

Tesco launched its Clubcard in 1995, with recent figures showing it has attracted around 16 million members to date. Sainsbury’s Reward Card was launched in June 1996 and the programme ran until September 2002, when Sainsbury’s became one of the founding partners in the Nectar loyalty programme.

These loyalty schemes are significant businesses in their own right and have an impact on a large proportion of sales and profitability. They are also proving vital in an environment in which supermarkets are increasingly competing for individual shopping trips.

In many ways, this databank is also beneficial for the shopper who receives offers and coupons targeted to their own preferences. The question consumers need to consider is how they can use supermarket’s data gathering and loyalty strategy to their own advantage? If a retailer believes a consumer is buying groceries elsewhere, they may receive a better offer to encourage them to return to the store.

One strategy would be to open a couple of extra loyalty cards and alternate between them, to confuse the store’s data crunchers into thinking their loyalty is shifting away. Another scenario might be if the supermarket sees the customer spending money on nice food but no wine, they may deduce that the customer is buying it from another retailer and therefore push wine offers in their direction. Likewise, if the customer buys dog treats but no other dog food, it’s likely they will receive an offer accordingly.

So for the best offers, it pays to shop around. From our recent research, it seems that ‘shop switching’ is increasing – a massive 94% of consumers said they would by-pass their regular supermarket in favour of another if better discounts were offered elsewhere.

With consumers increasingly seeking to make their budget go further, who can blame them?