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Lidl has just announced a huge change to its loyalty app - now offering 1 point per £1 spent. On Monday, May 4, Lidl discarded its Coupon Plus system, where customers could previously earn rewards for reaching monthly spending thresholds.

The supermarket's new Points system will reward shoppers with 1 point per £1 spent, with features like double and triple points on selected products.

Customers can also make the most of Lidl's 'Rewards of the Week' - an offer through which Lidl shoppers can buy selected products for fewer points than usual for a limited time. The supermarket has also given all app users 100 points for free and is offering double points on any fruit bought until May 22.

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However, some shoppers aren't too pleased with the new system. Previously, customers could get 10% off a shop with a 'Coupon Plus' reward for spending £250 in a month. This would mean £5 off on a £50 shop.

With the new Lidl loyalty app, points are earned at a rate of one for every £1 spent. A coupon for £5 off a shop costs 500 points, so to get the same saving, customers must now spend £500, which is twice as much.

The old Coupon Plus system also offered customers a variety of free products at monthly spending thresholds, such as a free bakery item at £10 spending and a free fresh vegetable product at £50.

Points can be swapped for almost 200 different items in the app's 'coupon marketplace'. Customers can scroll through a whopping 12 food and drink categories.

Shoppers can save points for up to two years - a positive change compared to Coupon Plus rewards, which expired within days.

But some features remain unchanged, with the supermarket's popular personalised coupons still redeemable as discounts on selected products, which vary week by week.

The Lidl app switch is reportedly based on customer feedback, with the supermarket telling users: "You asked, we listened."

"This is a way of bringing more possibilities and more control for customers over how they experience rewards and what they spend those rewards on," Lidl chief customer officer, Louise Weise, said to The Grocer.

"That might look very different for different people. Some will save up for an important time of year and some will treat themselves on their next shop. Because one thing we know about our customers is they're all different, and they all want slightly different things."