The Loyalty Premium. A 2026 State of Consumer Loyalty Study
How American consumers build, break, and reward brand relationships across eight consumer sectors.
Loyalty economics have shifted. Consumers say one thing, do another, and reward brands on criteria that cut across category, price tier, and demographic. The Loyalty Premium is a synthesis study organizing what the best published research — from Bain, McKinsey, Accenture, Deloitte, JD Power, Bond, Forrester, Kantar, and more than a dozen other authoritative sources — actually says about loyalty today.
The framework applies six metrics and six drivers of loyalty consistently across eight consumer sectors. The 2026 edition is the first annual release.
KEY FINDINGS
Six findings define 2026.
Loyalty economics remain among the highest-leverage levers in marketing. The Bain/Reichheld finding - that a five-percentage-point improvement in customer retention can increase profits by 25 to 95 percent, depending on sector - has been validated repeatedly over 25 years and remains the single most-cited statistic in the field. Acquiring a new customer continues to cost five to 25 times more than retaining an existing one.²
The "loyalty program" and "loyalty" are diverging. Enrollment is at record highs. Engagement is falling. Fewer than half of enrolled members are active in any given program, and in oversaturated categories only 64 percent of members enrolled in six or more programs are still earning or redeeming rewards. The programs that work are no longer transactional - they are identity- and experience-driven.³
Sector dispersion is wider than commonly understood. The loyalty premium Sephora captures in beauty (approximately 80 percent of North American sales from program members) bears almost no resemblance to what consumer banks capture (73 percent of consumers engage with banks outside their primary institution, and only 44 percent of banking customers rate their primary bank a 9 or 10 out of 10). Treating loyalty as one problem is the most common strategic error in the category.?
The driver hierarchy has shifted. Across sectors, price discounting is a necessary but insufficient driver. Emotional connection now carries measurably more weight than functional benefits in predicting repeat behavior - customers emotionally connected to a brand deliver up to 306 percent higher lifetime value than merely satisfied ones.? Values alignment, community, and experience quality are rising as weighted drivers in every sector studied.
Advocacy is the undervalued multiplier. Accenture's 2025 banking research found that institutions in the top quintile of customer advocacy scores grow revenue 1.7 times faster than their peers. Similar patterns appear in retail, QSR, and beauty. Advocacy is not a byproduct of loyalty - it is a distinct, measurable outcome that produces disproportionate growth.?
First-party data has become the operational foundation of loyalty. With third-party cookies phasing out and consumer privacy expectations rising, identity graphs and first-party behavioral data are no longer optional inputs - they are prerequisites for the personalization consumers now expect. 75 percent of US shoppers say they are more likely to stay loyal to brands that understand them on a personal level.?
METHODOLOGY NOTE
The Loyalty Premium does not rely on primary survey research. Every statistic is sourced to its original publication. Where industry figures diverge, the most recent or most methodologically rigorous is cited. The full source list appears in the report.
The study is authored by the team at 5WPR, one of the largest independently owned public relations firms in the United States. Additional commentary from Ronn Torossian on the study's findings is available at 5wpr.net and at everything-pr.com.