5 Reasons Your Customers Aren’t Staying Loyal | Criteo

5 Reasons Your Customers Aren’t Staying Loyal

Customer loyalty programs can be the difference between a long-lasting relationship and a single purchase. According to Oracle’s report Retail 2018: The Loyalty Divide...

Updated on February 24, 2026

Marketers rejoice! All your efforts to building customer loyalty really do have a benefit. Customer loyalty programs can be the difference between a long-lasting relationship and a single purchase.

Customer loyalty programs may even be stronger now than ever before. According to Oracle’s report Retail 2018: The Loyalty Divide, 40% of shoppers between ages 18-34 say they’re more loyal to brands now, than they were five years ago.

But the “divide”, according to Oracle, is that there’s a gap between how retailers and consumers view loyalty programs. While 58% of retailers thought their loyalty programs were relevant to shoppers, just 32% of shoppers felt the same way.

There’s plenty to benefit from a loyalty program that shoppers find relevant. In The Loyalty Report 2018, a global loyalty report by Bond Insights in partnership with Visa, 70% of study participants across sectors said they were more likely to recommend brands with good loyalty programs, 77% said loyalty programs made them more likely to continue doing business with a brand, and 63% said they were likely to “modify brand spend to maximize loyalty benefits.”

So you’ve got a loyalty program but you’re not seeing those results. Here are 5 reasons your loyalty program might be falling short, and what to do about it.

1. Your enrollment process is too difficult

If your loyalty program requires shoppers to provide too much information just to sign up, people may skip it completely. Try to keep it to two or three forms max – something like a participant’s name, email address, and birthdate to send out special birthday-related promotions.

2. It costs money to join.

Loyalty programs are meant to reward shoppers for spending money with your brand or store, so asking them to fork over extra dollars to be a part of something they feel should be free might not be the best way to invite loyalty.

3. The benefits of your loyalty program aren’t clear.

Just as it’s important to make clear why you would want a shopper to pay to be a part of a loyalty program, it’s imperative to make the benefits of your loyalty program – free to join or not – crystal clear.

4. It takes too long to earn and redeem points.

In this day and age of instant gratification, loyalty programs can’t wait too long to deliver benefits.

5. Your loyalty program offers aren’t great.

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