For most retailers, business growth is definitely the intended goal. Loyalty programs help businesses attract new customers, retain existing customers, change buying behaviour, reward loyal behaviour, and increase profitability.

Retail competition has been fierce all around the world. As such retailers are constantly searching for ways to separate themselves from their competitors.

Increasing market share while creating a stickier relationship with their customers, is a win-win for both the business and its patrons. For this very reason, retailers are looking to attract new prospects, keep loyal customers purchasing, and offer incentives to grow future revenues.

As a result, 9 out of 10 retailers and business owners in every part of the globe, are planning to invest in new customer loyalty technology and strategies to improve their customers’ experience this year.

That’s a top finding from Antavo’s “Global Customer Loyalty Report 2024,” which polled over 600 senior business managers and decision makers. The report was created with insight from VML, EPAM and Frog/Capgemeni, according to a press release. Antavo is a loyalty cloud provider.

89% of companies plan to revamp existing loyalty programs in the next three years and just about half, 44%, reported not being happy with the current performance of their existing loyalty program. Two-thirds are aiming to re-platform the loyalty technology as part of their business investment plans.

Additional findings include:

• 81% of business owners confirmed that loyalty programs helped them navigate rising inflation costs and other economic concerns in 2023.
• 60% of loyalty program owners have made significant changes to their programs in the last two years.
• 90% of businesses with a loyalty program report a positive return on investment — the average ROI is 4.8 greater than their investment.

With the strong return on investment for business owners, loyalty programs bring more value to both the customers and the retailers. Loyalty program differ from rewards program.

The main difference between the two, is that rewards programs give a benefit for past behaviour while loyalty programs use past customer data to offer incentives for future purchases.