Loyalty Programs in 2025: The trends you always wanted to know without daring to ask

In 2025, more brands than ever will compete to gain attention, engagement and loyalty from consumers: 66% of them plan a loyalty program revamp in the next three years, and the biggest part yet of marketing budgets is being dedicated to customer loyalty and CRM (Antavo 2025), which enables additional revenue generation.

With the average US consumer being a member of 19 loyalty programs and taking active part in only half of them, differentiation is key to provide value for customers and remain relevant on the market. What are the key trends to consider in Loyalty for 2025?

Inspired by luxury brands, loyalty programs offering experience-based rewards foster a stronger sense of brand community by allowing access to limited content and events. Leveraging exclusivityboosts perceived value for customers through a privileged status. Gifting experiences also strengthens the emotional bond with customers, creating lasting memories linked to the brand and fostering a sense of belonging.

Strategic partnerships, where two or more brands collaborate on creating never-seen-before benefits and experiences, offer both brands access to a larger customer base, enabling them to reach otherwise untouched customers from the partner’s base. Cross-brand rewards also enable a broader range of benefits for both brands, without the need for in-house development. And customers are eager: partner rewards are part of their top 5 wishes (Antavo 2025).

As a mutually beneficial effort, these partnerships must resonate with both brand identities and customer persona, in order to strengthen and not compromise brand image with an ill-aligned pairing. By encouraging data collaboration between both brands, such partnerships also guarantee more accurate targeting – which eventually benefits both brands and consumers.

Data collaboration is everywhere: brands can also partner with a retailer, which gives them access to deeper consumer data. Taking it one step further, brands can build their own cleanroom to combine both sources of data: owned and retailer, with 3P.

 

 

84% of US consumers consider gamification to be a key feature of loyalty programs. Engaging customers with playful tactics has two main benefits, as it encourages:

• Further and more frequent brand interactions outside of buying channels and moments, transforming the relationship beyond purely transactional.
• Further customer data collection thanks to enticing mechanics: 55.1% of consumers have reported being more open to sharing their data through games (Antavo 2025)

Taking the next step: More than simple quizzes, challenges and badges, gamification can be taken further with more elaborate games, leaning on personalized journeys and missions.

More and more brands across industries propose paid loyalty programs to build a more engaged community of loyal customers by trading a financial compensation for access to benefits, thus increasing perceived value. Paid programs can offer access to specific services and products, or simply give access to monetary benefits, which remains the #1 motivation for consumers to join a loyalty program (Antavo 2025): permanent discounts, free shipping, cashback…

A good example of a paid loyalty program that combines services and monetary benefits is Amazon Prime, which offers its subscribers both free shipping and access to the Prime Video streaming platform.

Brands can opt for either a one-time fee or a renewed monthly or yearly subscription, which additionally provides them with a regular complementary revenue stream, therefore boosting the program’s ROI. Engaging loyal customers with this stronger bond also increases purchase frequency and reinforces brand affinity and exclusivity, while generally giving access to better-quality data.

 

 

Loyalty programs have gone a long way since physical punch cards: from Gen X to Gen Z, mobile apps are now the preferred way to interact with brands. Far from a simple “join, earn and burn” mechanic, loyalty programs are now a key component of customer relationship and brand identity, with around 80% of US consumers being more likely to recommend brands and continue purchasing from them based on the quality of their loyalty program.

And with Boomers historically showing more brand loyalty and Gen Z being more open to AI adoption, loyalty trends are set to shift in the years to come, as younger generations of consumers take over the market.

Whichever mechanic a brand chooses, some key success factors continue to prevail. A loyalty program needs to be:

• Simple: The program must be easily understood by its users, in order to avoid too much friction and increase their likelihood of taking part. Less is more: 64% of consumers are willing to pay more for simpler shopping experiences (Siegel + Gale, 2022).
• Omnichannel: To best fit each consumer journey in an increasingly interconnected ecosystem, brands must provide a seamless experience, with consistent experiences and incentives across all touchpoints – online, in-store, mobile app, social media…