Key statistics
- 85% of US consumers are more likely to keep doing business with a brand that has a loyalty program, and 73% spend more because of it. Bond Brand Loyalty
- About 9 in 10 executives say customer loyalty has grown in recent years, but only 4 in 10 consumers say the same. PwC
- The average US consumer is enrolled in 8 loyalty programs but actively participates in only 5. Deloitte
- 27% of the loyalty points customers earned in 2025 were left unspent. Antavo
- Loyalty program members on Shopify Plus stores are worth 72% more than non-members and buy 47% more often (median across 10,766 programs). Smile.io
- Ulta Beauty's loyalty program has more than 46 million members, who generated about 95% of the retailer's total sales in fiscal 2025. Ulta Beauty
Loyalty has always been easier to claim than to measure. A customer who buys from you twice a year might be devoted to your brand, or might simply find you convenient until something cheaper comes along.
The latest research shows both sides. Loyalty programs are more popular than ever, and members do spend more. At the same time, shoppers try new brands constantly, ignore many of the programs they've joined and leave a large share of their rewards unused.
Below, we've gathered the most useful current statistics on customer loyalty and loyalty programs, with notes on what each number measures.
How loyal are consumers?
Businesses tend to think their customers are more loyal than they are. In PwC's 2025 survey of 5,511 US consumers and 406 executives, about nine in 10 executives said customer loyalty had grown in recent years. Only four in 10 consumers said the same.
Shoppers are also quick to experiment. In Attentive's January 2026 survey of 600 US shoppers, 88% had bought from a brand new to them in the past three months. Yet 77% said they regularly shop with five brands or fewer. People try lots of brands, but they settle on a small group.
88%
US shoppers who bought from a brand new to them in the past three months
77%
Shoppers who regularly buy from five brands or fewer
52%
US consumers who stopped buying from a brand after a bad product or service experience
Loyalty is also easy to lose. In the same PwC survey, 52% of consumers said they had stopped using or buying from a brand after a bad experience with its products or services.
Do loyalty programs increase customer loyalty?
Members say they do. In Bond's 2026 survey of 20,591 US loyalty program members, 85% said they're more likely to keep doing business with a brand that has a loyalty program, and 73% said they spend more because of it.
Deloitte's 2025 survey found a similar effect: 72% of loyalty members said programs make them more likely to spend with their preferred brand. Among ecommerce program members surveyed by LoyaltyLion, 90% said membership influences them to buy from the same brand again, up from 85% in 2024.
Platform data shows members spending more too. Across 10,766 loyalty programs on Shopify Plus stores, Smile.io found that members were worth 72% more than non-members and bought 47% more often. Customers who redeemed a reward were worth 3.1 times as much as those who didn't.
Those figures need some care. Customers who join a program are often more engaged to begin with, and Smile.io notes that members self-select. The gap shows that loyal customers and program members overlap heavily, not that the program created all of the extra spending.
How many loyalty programs do consumers belong to?
The answer depends on what's counted. Bond's 2025 report put the average at 17.4 loyalty programs per US consumer, counting every kind of program people hold. Deloitte's 2025 survey found consumers enrolled in an average of eight programs, and actively using five.
Within a single industry, most people pick one program. In Deloitte's survey, 51% of respondents engaged with only one program in a given industry. For ecommerce brands specifically, LoyaltyLion found shoppers belong to an average of 3.05 programs, up from 2.84 a year earlier, and log in to their favorite one 10 times a month.
That's the real competition for a loyalty program: being the one a customer actually uses in your category, rather than one of the many they've signed up for and forgotten.
What shoppers want from loyalty programs
Practical savings come first. When Attentive asked shoppers which loyalty perks they want, free or faster shipping topped the list:
Loyalty program perks US shoppers want, January 2026
Exclusivity matters as well. In the same survey, 41% said VIP-only discounts are the type of offer most likely to keep them shopping with a brand, ahead of rewards based on past purchases (30%). And 81% said seeing their progress toward a reward motivates them.
Bond's research points the same way. For the second year in a row, "access", such as early looks, last-chance offers and skipping the line, was the top driver of loyalty among US program members.
Why loyalty program members lose interest
Slow rewards are the biggest frustration. In Antavo's Global Customer Loyalty Report 2026, 49.1% of members said rewards take too long to earn, 41.1% said points expire before they can use them and 38.9% said the rewards aren't attractive.
That frustration shows up in unused rewards:
27%
Loyalty points earned in 2025 that were left unspent
40%
Loyalty members who admit they sometimes forget to redeem rewards
64%
Ecommerce loyalty members who'd stop using a program if rewards took too long to earn
Satisfaction is middling, and brands overestimate it. Only 48% of Americans told Bond they were "very satisfied" with their loyalty program. Antavo found that 82.6% of marketers believe their programs make customers feel valued, while only 56.2% of customers agree.
Loyalty programs by generation
Younger shoppers are the most engaged with loyalty programs. In LoyaltyLion's March 2026 survey, 70% of Gen Z members said they feel more emotionally connected to a brand when they're a loyalty member:
Ecommerce loyalty members who feel more emotionally connected to a brand as a member
Younger shoppers are also more open to personalization. In Deloitte's survey, 89% of Gen Z and 87% of millennials said they would share personal data for tailored offers, compared with 64% of baby boomers. Half of Gen Z (51%) said they'd spend more with a brand that personalizes their experience, against 19% of boomers.
Loyalty programs at scale
At the largest retailers, loyalty members account for most of the business:
95%
Share of Ulta Beauty's fiscal 2025 sales from its 46 million-plus loyalty members
59%
Share of spending at US company-operated Starbucks stores from Rewards members, Q3 fiscal 2026
203M
Estimated US Amazon Prime members, June 2026 quarter, counting individual users
Starbucks had 35.8 million active US Rewards members in the quarter, defined as members who used the program in the previous 90 days. That's up from 33.8 million two years earlier.
How many brands run a loyalty program?
Among online stores, a dedicated loyalty program is still the exception. Smile.io found that 79% of Shopify Plus storefronts don't run one. Adoption rises with size: 40% of stores with $50 million or more in revenue have a program.
Brands that do run programs are mostly happy with them. In Antavo's survey, 83.0% of loyalty program owners said they were satisfied, up from 69.2% a year earlier, and owners allocate 51.5% of their marketing budget to loyalty and CRM. Treat those figures as self-reported by the people running the programs.
Is it true that loyalty members generate 12% to 18% more revenue?
This figure comes from a 2016 Accenture survey of 106 US retail loyalty professionals. It reflects what those managers reported about their own programs, not an analysis of sales data, and it's now a decade old. The more recent platform data from Smile.io, along with company figures like Ulta's, is a better guide.
What these numbers mean for ecommerce brands
Make rewards feel reachable. The biggest complaint about loyalty programs is that rewards take too long to earn. Showing progress and offering an early, achievable reward keeps members engaged.
Lead with practical perks. Free shipping, points and member-only offers top shoppers' wish lists. Fancy tiers and exclusive content matter less to most people.
Fix the basics first. Half of consumers have walked away from a brand after a bad product or service experience. No program makes up for that. Our guide to ecommerce retention rates shows what usually brings customers back.
Measure members carefully. Compare members with similar non-members, such as customers with the same number of past orders, before crediting the program with all of the difference in spending.
If you're on Shopify, our guide to launching a Shopify loyalty program covers how to put these findings into practice.
Final thoughts
Customers aren't as loyal as brands like to think, and they're happy to try someone new. But most still settle on a handful of brands they come back to, and the right loyalty program can help make sure yours is one of them.
The programs that work are simple: rewards customers can reach, perks they actually value and a product experience worth returning to.
