Staff discounts: What do the UK’s biggest retailers offer?

Letting staff save money on the products they purchase from their workplace is one of the most popular ways for employers to give back. Although employee discounts might seem quite old hat, given the package of benefits retailers offer now, the businesses Retail Week spoke to said it remains an incredibly popular perk with high usage rates. 

Workers at Kingfisher-owned B&Q, which offers staff 20% off both B&Q and Screwfix among its benefits package, saved close to £10m by using their discount in the last year on anything from compost to a new kitchen. 

“The discount we offer gets used quite significantly,” says B&Q talent and culture director Vishal Thanki. “When looking at our B&Q colleagues, the savings they made in the last 12 months reached £9.4m.

“If colleagues retire with us they get their discount card for life, so if we include them and the third parties that work really closely with us – like our distribution centres who also get the discount card – then that figure goes up to £12.6m in savings. So that’s roughly £60m spend that happens through the discount cards.” 

The same sentiment is echoed at The Very Group, which offers its staff 25% off fashion, beauty, furniture and garden ranges, and 15% off electricals. 

“Our colleagues are some of our most loyal customers,” says Very’s head of reward Dan Scroggie. 

“They shop with us all year round, but we naturally see a spike during our biggest sales events – such as Black Friday, when we benefit from the sale price and our discount. And we’ve got a multi-category offer, so we’re usually one of the first places our colleagues look for the items they want and need.”

Although discounts are well used, with slim margins it is unlikely that retailers make much in the way of profit from staff sales. However, there is likely to be a halo effect in staff happiness and engagement, which may trickle through to customers if employees are more informed about the products on offer and have tried them themselves. 

Staff discounts don’t change very often; none of the retailers in this list have adapted their discounts in any major way – apart from expanding the discount across multiple brands, such as Sainsbury’s with Argos and Habitat – for several years.

And there certainly hasn’t been much in the way of competition between retailers to out-reward staff, as with hourly pay rates in recent years, but that’s not to say the offers do not vary. 

The highest level of discount on offer by some margin is at Asos, which offers its staff 40% off full-price items (Nike also offers 40%, but this is not company-wide and varies by region). 

Aldi is the only retailer on the list not to offer staff any discount. Retail Week understands the discounter prioritises having the highest rate of pay in the grocery sector over offering workers a discount on their shopping. It is also the only supermarket to pay staff for time spent on breaks. 

Aldi’s hourly pay of £12.95 is considerably higher than the rates offered by the rest of the grocers. However, with the New Living Wage coming into effect from April 2024, we are likely to see its rivals announce pay bumps in the coming weeks, which may close the gap. 

Of all the retailers that sell groceries, the deepest staff discounts belong to M&S and Waitrose. Most supermarkets offer between 10% and 15%, although both Tesco and Sainsbury’s boost their offer to 15% around payday. 

According to employee engagement specialist WorkL, it is unlikely that a good staff discount would help attract new talent to a retailer. Pay, flexible working and company reputation all take precedence for new recruits. 

Instead, discounts act as a driver for higher retention so retailers that offer similar competitive salary packages could sway potential employees to their side by offering better bonuses or benefits such as discounts.

The “flight risk” for retail workers can be mitigated by the fringe benefits they have come to appreciate, but the attractiveness of these will vary from person to person, and from retailer to retailer. For example, if an employee works for a furniture retailer that offers a discount, but does not want to buy furniture with any frequency, this is unlikely to hold much appeal. 

Founder of WorkL Lord Mark Price says: “While benefits have their place as a way of attracting employees and boosting morale, the most important factors to keeping employees happy and engaged at work are having a good relationship with your line manager and being well led.

“Being fairly paid is a cornerstone for recruitment and retention. Information sharing within a company is also integral to an employee being happy and engaged – failing to share information makes employees feel an unimportant part of the business and this links to employees feeling empowered to make decisions at work and being part of the decision-making process.”

Package deal

According to WorkL’s Happy at Work surveys, retail continues to be one of the unhappier industries, although scores have improved since last year.

“The improved areas within the sector are, encouragingly, reward and recognition and wellbeing, so employers are taking steps to improve benefits for employees, as well as taking care of their happiness,” says Price.

“Investing in understanding how happy and engaged retail workers are will ensure that employers have the knowledge and action plan to improve the happiness of their workforces.”

Of course, staff discounts are important for many retail workers, but they are only part of the story when it comes to feeling valued.

“Staff discount is one perk, but it’s not everything,” says B&Q’s Thanki. “The 20% helps our colleagues have a great home, which is what we’re all about, but when we approach it from a much broader sense we want to look after our colleagues completely.

“Other benefits we have include access to mental health advice and support from the Retail Trust. We’ve also got a colleague fund, for those who need a bit more help, and we have an app called Hapi. The app is amazing – it’s at a cost to us as a business but it gives our colleagues access to a whole range of discounts across lots of different retailers. 

“It’s a two-way road. What we’re trying to do is build a full package; regardless of what age you are or when you joined us, we do everything we can to look after you – and not just during your shift.”