TORONTO — Next year, Lob­law Cos. plans to roll out a unified customer loyalty program that joins together the Shoppers Optimum and PC Plus plans of its Shoppers Drug Mart (SDM) and supermarket chains.

Called PC Optimum, the combined loyalty program will allow members to earn and redeem loyalty points across Loblaw’s network of nearly 2,500 grocery and drug stores and its e-commerce sites via a single card or app. The company said PC Optimum is slated to launch on February 1.

Loblaw noted that the union of two of Canada’s leading retail loyalty programs will not just extend its reach — approaching 20 million members overall — but also bring more convenience and benefits to customers. SDM’s Shoppers Optimum has 11 million members, while Loblaw’s grocery store PC Plus program totals 8 million ­members.

PC Optimum will include elements of Shoppers Optimum and PC Plus, including weekly personalized offers, the ability to redeem points for almost anything in the company’s stores, and exclusive points-earning and points-redemption events.

Benefits of the combined loyalty program include the following:

• Faster redemption: Under PC Optimum, members can start redeeming at 10,000, compared with 20,000 points currently under PC Plus.
• More points: PC Optimum users will get 50% more points — 15 points versus the current 10 points — for almost every dollar spent at SDM.
• Simpler points formula: PC Optimum will have a single redemption table: 10,000 points equals $10 of value.
• President’s Choice Financial Mastercard cardholders will earn up to 30 PC Optimum points for each dollar they spend across Loblaw’s retail network.

“Retail is increasingly about customer relationships, and loyalty will be central to the future of personalized value and experiences,” said Loblaw executive chairman and chief executive officer Galen Weston. “Keeping customers at the heart of our thinking, we created the single PC Optimum loyalty program to give Canadians the value they have come to trust, with the ability to earn more points and redeem them in more stores than ever before.”