Whether it is your local coffee shop, favourite supermarket, airline of choice or business hotel chain, the principles of loyalty programmes have been unchanged for decades. It is a basic bribe; some form of points are accrued based on the frequency of visited value of spend, and the points can then be redeemed for something of perceived value, such as a discount or complimentary item. The more “loyal” the shopper, the higher the value of potential exchange.
Recently, alongside this, the costs of online delivery have led many large retailers to create a second programme designed again to increase shopper frequency and lock in “loyalty;” delivery subscription programmes, where shoppers pay to lower or reduce online delivery fees.
This is now huge business. Amazon alone has more than 200 million Prime subscribers globally, delivering revenue in excess of €40 billion, according to Statista.
In recent years, retailers have been racing to add more value into their subscription programmes, and nowhere is this more pronounced that in the US through the fierce battle between Amazon Prime and Walmart+. These programmes now include fuel savings, TV and music streaming services, rapid delivery options, and even now a 25% discount every day at Burger King for Walmart+ subscribers.
This innovation has sat in relative contrast to traditional loyalty programmes, and trials of Web 3.0 programmes, like Starbucks Odessey and Nike Swoosh, proved a wrong turn as customers failed to adopt the Metaverse in retail.
Yet all signs are now pointing to a new wave of development in loyalty programmes globally, and Shoptalk believe a major global retail trend in 2025 will be the redefinition of loyalty mechanics, and the blurring of programmes with subscription schemes.
The reason is the increased value of first-party data for retailers and brands, especially to unlock the personalisation potential of AI.
Next-generation search and website UX, with the promise of personalisation at scale and even automated shopping assistants, are all only possible if the data on each individual shopper is rich and robust. And to incentivise shoppers to share such data, and to identify themselves at the start of the shopping trip, retailers will provide more value in exchange.
This value could be in the form of new services, such as Walmart’s Returns from Home programme where unwanted items are collected directly from Walmart+ holders’ households. Or new insights, such as Coop Denmark’s CO2 tracker on its Lobyco-powered loyalty App, the most downloaded App in Denmark. Or new shopper engagement, such as the gamification that Instacart has built into the latest iteration of its Caper Cart.
Another trend in 2025 will be the growth of solutions, like the Caper Cart (now live with Aldi Hofer in Austria), where shoppers are required to identify themselves at the start of a shopping mission in a physical store, rather than waiting until the checkout to share their loyalty cards, and identity. The potential of in-store retail media can only start to be unlocked if shoppers are identified throughout the shop.
All these topics will be explored in depth by a market-leading line-up of retailers and consumer brands at Shoptalk Europe 2025, in Barcelona 2nd to 4th June.
Ben Miller, VP, Original Content & Strategy, Shoptalk Europe
