Today, shoppers can find cheaper alternatives in a tap, swipe or search. Brands can bombard audiences with offers across every touchpoint, AI recommendations are growing more influential and barriers to switching seem lower than ever. According to Attentive, 88% of shoppers bought from a ‘new-to-them’ brand in 2026; how do brands create loyalty and differentiate their programmes in this landscape?
Propeller’s panel at Ecommerce Expo/Technology for Marketing, How Brands Earn Loyalty and Trust in an Age of Infinite Choice, explored the challenge. Branwell Johnson, Group Director of Content at Propeller Group, chaired the session at Excel London. He was joined by:
- Kate Hammond, Loyalty and CRM Consultant, Sunbeam Marketing and Noble Panacea
- Melody Courtois, Senior CRM and Loyalty Manager, LEON
- Hugo Harding, VP Ecommerce and CRM, Big Bus Tours
Membership is not the same as loyalty
Loyalty involves more than offering your audience a discount. As consumers use more tools to explore alternatives, brands must prioritise authenticity and customer understanding to find the perks that truly drive repeat purchase and lifetime value. Kate Hammond pointed out that “not even membership can be seen as loyalty. With fewer barriers and more incentives to join a rewards programme or download an app, an influx of signups doesn’t mean anything if those customers aren’t repeating with you as a business.”
Tackling whether programmes create more loyalty, or simply reward behaviour that would have happened anyway, Melody Courtois stressed the importance of A/B testing with trials in which you offer a new discount or scheme to one set of customers, and not to the others, help you see whether that strategy is driving buyer behaviour.
Hugo Harding said that the infrequency of tourism purchases means his focus was prioritising customer spend during a trip. “We’re using a new CRM platform to better understand triggers and build up customer profiles so we can focus on in-trip experience and reward loyalty at any given time.”
The panel agreed that loyalty metrics have evolved in recent years. While metrics like repeat rates, average order value (AOV) and lifetime value (LTV) remain important, access to predictive data increasingly helps brands to anticipate customer needs and activity, rather than react to it.
Match the programme to purchasing habits
Looking at how marketers might decide between points-based models, tiers, paid memberships, subscriptions or hybrid strategies, Kate advised designing programmes around purchasing habits, using average order value and purchase frequency across customer groups to set loyalty tiers.
Paid memberships should be approached a little differently, however and Melody said brands must be sure that they’re established enough, with a clear enough offering, before paid programme launch - overpromising and underdelivering is a surefire way to lose audience trust. Kate added that clarity is key: “For instance, BeautyPie leads with clear membership benefits like discounted prices as a headline - then builds on that with extra benefits like early product access and samples.”
With fewer opportunities for frequent repeat purchases, Hugo explained that tourism brands can build relationships by acting as a concierge and city guide, using their location expertise to present the right sights to the customer at the right time.
Give customers a reason to choose you again
Loyalty scheme differentiation is the challenge as brands have access to the same tools and tech. Kate explained: “Widespread access to AI and personalisation tools means the playing field has levelled. Today, loyalty differentiation comes from product, service and human input - people won’t repeat without great products and service.”
Melody added that money-can’t-buy experiences are crucial. LEON’s focus on community, and its customer survey activities, have led it to offer engaged customers unique opportunities like podcast tickets, product launches, dinner parties and more.
Delivering these experiences also depends on the systems behind them. How much of loyalty is a marketing challenge, and how much depends on product, data and technology?
Hugo sees the balance as 50/50 for now, but noted that the latter half is becoming increasingly impactful: “AI now represents the fifth biggest referral channel for Big Bus Tours, up from 16th last year. So, it’s important that we play up to that.”
For Melody, AI helps execute ideas, but human creativity remains essential to developing them. Meanwhile, Kate emphasised the importance of data: “If you don't have an accurate, reliable dataset then CRM and loyalty teams can't do their job properly. Whatever you can do to improve your tech architecture and sources of truth will make every marketing campaign easier and more effective.”
The predictive capabilities of AI tech will play an increasing role in serving the right rewards to person at the right time, rather than relying on historical data.
Build loyalty beyond the first offer
The panel’s closing thoughts focused on the future. With some consumers becoming more selective with their loyalty programme signups, and others continuing to join several at once, Melody underlined the importance of customer insights: “People will have deeper connections with brands they really identify with or feel rewarded by.”
Kate ended on the theme of personalised differentiation: “We need to focus on retaining outside of an initial coupon or offer. Whether your loyalty programme can fit into someone’s daily routine like coffee, or is an occasional purchase like high-end skincare, brands must treat quantitative and qualitative research with the same importance. Speaking to customers allows us to give them exactly what they want.”
Across the discussion, the practical priorities were clear: match benefits to purchasing habits, test whether programmes change behaviour and deliver on the promises that earned customers’ trust. Winning that first purchase is only the beginning.
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