Sugro has launched an AI-driven loyalty programme that puts supplier money through its member wholesalers rather than around them, and verifies in-store execution with photo evidence instead of retailer claims.

The buying group unveiled the scheme at its annual conference. Its developer, B2B customer engagement specialist ProConnect, built the platform to let suppliers construct campaigns around specific behaviours they want retailers to complete: trialling or stocking a product, displaying point-of-sale material, ranging the correct SKUs, or meeting agreed merchandising requirements.

The mechanics matter for channel economics. Rather than pushing one promotion to every customer, ProConnect mines purchase history to identify which offers and activities fit each retailer. A store that has never stocked a line can be nudged to trial it; a lapsed buyer can be prompted to re-engage; a retailer can be asked to complete an in-store action tied to a reward.

Gamification sits at the centre of the engagement loop. Retailers spin a digital wheel to reveal a personalised reward or incentive, a mechanic designed to raise participation rates beyond the passive coupon redemption typical of wholesale promotions.

The verification layer is the piece that changes what suppliers are buying. Retailers submit a photograph through WhatsApp as evidence that an agreed task is complete, and ProConnect's AI photo-verification technology confirms whether the reward can be released. That converts merchandising spend from a claim-based payout into a provable distribution event.

"Our previous e-loyalty scheme proved supplier-funded rewards work in our channel, but this is the next generation," said Yulia Petitt, Sugro's head of commercial and marketing. "ProConnect has used AI to target retailers with the right offer at the right time based on their purchase history and to verify what's actually on shelf, making for a more personalised experience that will deliver results."

The funding model keeps wholesale margins out of the equation. The programme is supplier-funded, so participating Sugro member wholesalers do not pay for rewards themselves. Supporting brands receive campaign reporting showing which stores were targeted, who took part, and whether subsequent purchasing behaviour changed — closing the loop between merchandising activity and reorder volume.

Rob Mannion, chief executive of ProConnect, framed the value proposition as a shift from spend without proof to provable distribution. "Suppliers will pay for something different – distribution they can prove," he said. "Our loyalty scheme puts supplier money through the wholesaler rather than around it, uses AI to target the right offer and the right store from real purchase history and verifies the shelf with a photo rather than a promise."

For Sugro, the scheme is a channel-power play. Direct-to-retail routes and brand-owned platforms increasingly threaten to bypass wholesalers in supplier trade-spend decisions; a platform that routes brand money through wholesale accounts and reports measurable behaviour change gives member wholesalers a defensible claim on that budget. The predecessor e-loyalty scheme already demonstrated that supplier-funded rewards gain traction in the channel, according to Petitt, and the AI targeting and verification layer is positioned as the upgrade that makes the spend accountable.

The programme's effectiveness will hinge on disclosed campaign volumes — how many suppliers commit budget, how many stores complete verified tasks, and whether the behaviour-change reporting shows sustained reordering rather than one-off reward collection. Those metrics will determine whether photo-verified, purchase-history-targeted loyalty becomes standard trade-spend infrastructure across the buying group's wholesale membership or remains a pilot-scale differentiator.