Infographic: The future of loyalty as of 2025

The British company Antavo published its 2024 global report on customer loyalty : a rich and relevant content that we summarized and analyzed for you.

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FROM TRANSACTIONAL TO EMOTIONAL: A SHIFT IN LOYALTY PROGRAMS

Loyalty programs are being revamped and 90% of the companies who still have not revamped it plan to do it before 2027.

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What does it mean? Revamping the strategy of a loyalty program means modifying or adding new features to it. More specifically, the shift that is being observed is that from a transactional approach to an emotional one. Indeed, for now most loyalty programs (65%) are transaction-based, whereas more than half (+50%) of future loyalty programs will be based on emotional and experimental rewards.

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How can we explain this shift ? Being mainly all transactional, brands do not create a point of distinction with their competitors when it comes to engaging customers. Very often, they encourage one another to compete for promotions… without much success. As a result, they are just one among many and can have a hard time making their clients loyal on the long term. By putting emotions and experiences at the heart of loyalty programs, brands create a deeper connection with their customers. The latter feel valued as they are given unprecedent and personalized rewards - a strategy with every chance of increasing retention.

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Figures speak for themselves. 56% of companies find that their loyalty program lacks impact. Whereas, 64% of the companies who revamped their loyalty program underline a significant rise of their ROI.

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COMPANIES INVEST IN LOYALTY AND OBTAIN A HUGE ROI

Studies led by Antavo show that companies are increasing (and planning to increase even more) their investment in customer loyalty. For now, this investment represents around a quarter (27%) of the total marketing budget and it will predictably rise to a third of it (33%) within the next 3 years. Why?

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On the one hand, the focus of most companies is shifting from customer acquisition to customer retention. 2 out of 3 companies plan to specifically invest in retention thanks to better loyalty programs instead of acquisition (knowing that loyalty programs can help in both retaining existing customers and attracting new ones 😉).

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On the other hand, and most importantly, 90% of brands with a loyalty program based on emotions and experiences reported a very positive ROI. Indeed, a loyalty program generates almost 5x more than what is costs ! 🤩

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Even during economic hard times, loyalty programs hold great power and usefulness: 81% of loyalty program owners said it helped in recent years.

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THE KEYS TO SUCCEED IN THIS TRANSFORMATION: MICRO-TARGETING & DIVERSIFIED REWARDS

1️⃣ Micro-targeting focuses on a small segment of customers that share similar preferences, values and interests. Strictly transactional or socio-demographic indicators do not provide sufficiently relevant data to meet customer expectations in terms of personalization and attention. Micro-targeting does highly increase the brand relevance as it allows decision making based on engagement data (reviews, interaction on socials, in-store visits…) beyond transactions, and for a relatively low cost.

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2️⃣ Diversified rewards are key to keep the member’s journey fresh, boost satisfaction, empower the customer by offering choices and flexibility. Thus the goal behind this strategy is to create a dynamic and loyal relation between the brand and each customer. Also, diversified rewards (cash-back, freebies, partner gifts, experiences, trials, donating to a charity, pool points, digital collectibles…) augment customers’ LTV as those who use their rewards spend 3x more than those who don’t.

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CHANGING YOUR PROGRAM: THE ONLY WAY OUT?

The shift from a purely transactional approach to one that focuses much more on emotions and experiences represents, as we’ve seen, a turning point in customer loyalty. Now the question is: how can you tackle this major challenge? Two options are for you to consider.

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The first option is to overhaul your loyalty program. However, to undertake such a project, one must have the necessary financial resources.

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The second option is way less expensive, quicker and simpler: modernize your current loyalty program with a top-performing solution like Cohort. Designed for CRM & Loyalty teams, Cohort is a Smart Loyalty platform that augments your existing loyalty tools with modern engagement and loyalty experiences. In a few clicks, with no IT required, Cohort empowers CRM & Loyalty managers to reward customer engagement beyond transactions:

👉 Fast and secured integration with your IT ecosystem, CRM, CDP…

👉 Intuitive interface with full customization options,

👉 Campaign creation and deployment in under 20 minutes.

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Find out more on how to improve your loyalty program with the latest trends, best strategies and forecasts summed up! ⬇️