As companies fight for limited consumer attention, modern loyalty programs need to lead with their best foot forward.
Consumers belong to fewer programs today than they did last year — and their engagement is limited to only a handful of rewards schemes.
In 2026, 54% of consumers say they belong to between one and five loyalty programs, and 12% say they belong to 11 or more, according to upcoming research from EY.
That number is down from 2025, when 42% of consumers belonged to one to five programs and 23% were part of 11 or more, according to Patricia Camden, managing director of EY Studio+ Customer Experience and loyalty leader for EY Americas.
Other experts are seeing similar numbers. The average U.S. consumer claims to belong to 14 or 15 programs but only actively uses five or six, according to Bobby Stephens, principal in Deloitte Digital’s retail and consumer products practice.
As economic pressure mounts and customer loyalty wanes, it’s becoming harder than ever to earn a spot in a consumer’s limited loyalty program portfolio. Businesses that want to become a keeper need to deliver on simplicity, speed and benefits that matter.
“Not only does it need to be easy to use, it needs to drive some value,” Stephens told CX Dive. “There needs to be some intrinsic brand value to it as well that keeps them coming back.”
Choice can’t come at the expense of simplicity
Customers say they want control over their loyalty experience, but companies need to avoid overwhelming them with options.
The number of consumers who say they want control has increased, from 73% in 2025 to 76% in 2026, according to Camden. The share of consumers who want curation is rising even faster, from 51% last year to 58% this year.
“It's ‘give me more stuff, but make it so I don't have to work so hard to get my stuff,’” Camden told CX Dive. “And I totally get that. There's nothing worse than when you have to work really, really hard just to understand what you've earned.”
The best practice for a loyalty program is to offer customers no more than two or three options for their rewards.
EY once helped a company redesign a loyalty program with dozens of benefits for the customer to select, according to Camden. Engagement and rewards usage was on the decline, but the program’s fortunes reversed once the company started highlighting only a small subset of those options — one or two very relevant choices along with up to two other options that might interest the customer.
“The amount of customers that went ahead and used their rewards went up dramatically after some pretty simple changes,” Camden said.
The right rewards to focus on will depend on the industry, and in some cases they can differ greatly even within the same company, according to Stephens. For instance, a convenience store retailer can benefit from letting customers choose between discounts on in-store food or fuel at the pump.
“What we generally see is customers gravitate towards one option, even though they say that they would like flexibility,” Stephens said. “They generally vote with their wallet, and that's what will save them the most money or time.”
There’s nothing wrong with transactional rewards
Loyalty programs are an exercise in relationship-building, but that relationship is based on value.
It takes time to sign up for a loyalty program, and customers want to know they will receive some sort of value in exchange for their information, according to Stephens. That value can take multiple forms — most commonly in terms of money, such as through discounts, or convenience, like access to better shipping options.
Customers “really want programs that feel very useful, not abstract,” Camden said. The strategy for meeting this need can be simple — about 70% of consumers say they value coupons and discounts.
Brands need to carefully balance how they meter out transactional rewards, according to Stephens. If the benefits are too stingy, customers will feel it isn’t worth their time to use the program. If they are too favorable, it can hurt the bottom line.
“It needs to be valuable to the customer, but it can't be so overly valuable that it's not sustainable,” Stephens said. “Because then you have to change course, which will alienate those same customers that joined you in the first place.”
Experiential rewards have their place, too, and they work hand-in-hand with transactional benefits, according to Camden. Transactional rewards turn visits into a habit, while experiential options create meaning and give shoppers a reason to care about the brand.
Most companies will focus on the transactional side, but experiential benefits are key for luxury brands, according to Stephens. When a customer spends a lot of money on something high in both financial and emotional value, that’s when they want to feel special.
“You want a company that's going to take care of you and treat you just like they did when you bought that thing when you come in to get it cleaned or serviced or what have you,” Stephens said.
The days of aspirational rewards are over
Regardless of how a company proves the value of its loyalty program, those benefits need to arrive sooner rather than later.
“Historically, loyalty programs always sort of relied on this idea that if I earn enough, if I spend enough, if I buy enough, I'm eventually going to get something,” Camden said. “But just like everything else — like attention spans — we have much less patience for that stuff today.”
Consumers are feeling the macroeconomic pressure, which means they’re looking at how and why they are spending money, according to Camden. At the same time, about 70% of consumers say the perceived value of loyalty points has dropped.
As a result, the idea of spending and waiting for a reward is losing its luster, according to Camden. The loyalty programs that are winning customers are the ones that prove their value immediately, then continue doing so for the customer’s lifetime.
Customers’ appetite for complex programs with long-term rewards is at a low point. Loyalty programs that offer immediate, easily understood value stand to grow even as customers become more selective about where they shop.
“The ones that earn that slot, time in and time out, where we know that there's going to be large consumer value, are ones that do make that value immediate,” Camden said. “They reduce the amount of effort the consumer has to go through to get to that value.”
