News for point collectors: Because Rewe is getting out of Payback, competitor Edeka will probably introduce the bonus program in its own supermarkets. According to research by the trade journal “Lebensmittelzeitung”, Payback and Edeka have already agreed on a cooperation. However, the companies have not yet confirmed this.
It recently became known that the long-standing Payback partner Rewe will end the cooperation at the end of 2024. The Edeka supermarkets could then jump into the resulting gap. That would in turn mean the end of the existing bonus partner Deutschland-Card at Edeka.
The Rewe supermarkets have been Payback partners since 2014, and the Rewe subsidiary Penny has been using the points system since 2018. The contract was recently extended by another two years until the end of 2024 – at the same time the Rewe Group announced that from then on “others and/or to “go your own way”. It is expected that Rewe wants to set up its own customer loyalty program.
For the payback system, which has belonged to the US credit card giant American Express since 2010, Rewe is currently the largest and most important partner in Germany. According to the Lebensmittelzeitung, Rewe and Penny alone are said to have issued 17 million of the 31 million Payback cards in Germany. Payback could compensate for this loss through the cooperation with the Edeka Group, which also owns the Netto Marken-Discount and Marktkauf. The bottom line is that the Edeka Group even has more shops and higher sales than Rewe.
However, it is not certain how many Edeka stores will ultimately use the payback system. Since Edeka is organized as a cooperative association, the company cannot force its independent retailers to use the system in their own stores, writes the Lebensmittelzeitung. Even with the current bonus partner Deutschland-Card, not all Edeka merchants would participate. Some felt the benefits were too small and the costs too high.
