What Do Loyal Customers Want In 2025?

Zsuzsa Kecsmar is the Chief Strategy Officer of Antavo AI Loyalty Cloud, a top loyalty technology vendor.

“Hey, is this thing on?” That’s just one of many questions that both a pop princess and a loyalty manager could ask. Being unsure whether your customers can hear you—or whether or not you’re communicating on the right channel in the first place—is decidedly not a good look.

If you wish to convince your board members and C-level decision makers that loyalty programs are working and your strategy was put into place based on real market data, you need to know what customers want.

To help you in this, I’ll answer three of the most important questions about customer preferences in 2025. Namely:

• Why do shoppers sign up for a loyalty program?

• What do they want more of in 2025?

• Where and how do they prefer to be reached?

What Motivates Customers To Join A Loyalty Program

By instinct, most would say: coupons and rewards. And they aren’t completely wrong. For my company’s Global Customer Loyalty Report 2025, we’ve conducted a survey—with 10,000 customers globally—to find out more about the key to their hearts (and signups).

Unsurprisingly, rewards, discounts and cashback came out on top, with 69.8% saying that, yes, they do pay a lot of attention to transactional benefits. But, gaining an impressive share of the votes, personalized offers (36.3%), free shipping (36.1%) and members-only products (25.6%) are not far behind.

What does this mean? Providing tangible (monetary) benefits will always be a key ingredient in loyalty programs—but it’s not the only one. From fashion to retail to hospitality, consumers regard them as the bare minimum, and you need to add something else if you wish to stand out. As I like to say, people come for the meat, but stay for the gravy. Not to mention that relying solely on transactional benefits makes loyalty programs feel bland and, quite frankly, interchangeable.

Personalized offers, comfort-related perks and members-only offerings are a great way to strengthen your brand’s bond with customers and to highlight your company’s presence. Treat your customers like your number one priority, while emphasizing the reasons they love shopping/staying with you—this is absolutely key.

Incorporating The Features Customers Want Most

If customers could make a wish for their loyalty program in 2025, we found their top three picks would be no point expiration (4 out of 10 people), a more diverse way of earning points (again, 4 out of 10 people) and more flexibility during the redemption process (3 out of 10 people).

As you can see, the ultimate keywords for loyalty programs in 2025 should be flexibility and diversification.

Naturally, you don’t need to take these findings literally. For example, point expiration is a necessary evil in loyalty programs that balances liability for you. Rather, see it as a sign that customers want to make the absolute most of their loyalty program memberships. It’s definitely a tightrope between giving too much leeway vs. not enough.

How should all this be reflected in your program going forward? First of all, check whether any of the above have shown up as points of friction with your own customers. Try to come up with a mutually beneficial (customer-data-backed) solution that:

• Eases shoppers’ concerns regarding expiration dates, such as optional or tier-based extensions.

• Provides alternative (non-transactional) ways to earn points: Go industry-specific, highlight company values, supply educational materials or involve social media.

• Stays mindful of strengthening partner connections and personalized offers (which also ranked high on the customers’ wishlist).

The Rise Of Digital

Is it time to go fully digital with your loyalty program? It’s not an easy question to answer, especially considering the difference in generational preferences. But overall, mobile apps rule the world of loyalty programs, with 6 out of 10 customers in our survey indicating that those are their favorite mode of communication. Digital loyalty cards and emails/text messages are still on the podium with their respective 3 out of 10 ratio, while plastic cards—somewhat surprisingly—pulled in similarly strong results (29.3%).

Before making a decision, be sure to consider your demographic data. While physical cards might be ruled out by Millennials and Gen-Z, they still have a place in Boomers’ wallets (4 out of 10 Boomers prefer them above other alternatives). This naturally indicates that, if Boomers make up a large portion of the customer base, getting rid of their preferred method of communication could be a big mistake.

What needs to be done here is:

• Identify the demographic preferences that are relevant to your brand specifically.

• Create a cool campaign around your loyalty app—while also adding value in physical cards—to help bridge the gap between different generations of your audience.

Paying Attention To The Fine Print

While flexibility and diversification are both essential, make sure not to get lost in trying to do too much at the same time. Maybe point expiration is not a key factor for your specific target demographic, or maybe you already offer multiple reward redemption options.

Take a look at what you already offer, how far you can realistically stretch your budget (if needed), and what pain points your customers are voicing. Then enable yourself to create an actionable and realistic loyalty strategy for the new year.

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