Australians join more loyalty schemes but use fewer

The Point of Loyalty has released its latest study on customer loyalty programmes in Australia, finding that while consumers remain widely enrolled, they are actively engaging with fewer schemes.

The report found that 93% of Australian consumers belong to at least one loyalty programme, the highest penetration level recorded since 2016. Yet when asked to name their memberships without prompts, members cited an average of 3.8 programmes, down from 5.0 when the measure was first tracked in 2015.

That gap widened when consumers were shown a list of 131 programmes, lifting the prompted average to 10.1 memberships. The figures suggest many Australians still hold multiple programme affiliations while focusing their attention on a narrower group they consider worthwhile.

Attention narrows

The study argues that value has become the strongest driver of the loyalty experience, ahead of simplicity and personalisation. The findings come as brands face rising customer acquisition costs, pressure on household spending and widespread discounting that can weaken margins without securing repeat engagement.

Younger consumers appear to be the most selective. Gen Z recorded the lowest active rate in the study at 40%, down from 48% a year earlier, indicating a sharper pullback in how often younger members use the schemes they have joined.

A central theme in the research is the gap between the customer data brands collect and the relevance of the offers they send. While 63% of members said their programmes have enough data to know them well, only 40% said the offers they receive feel personalised and relevant.

Adam Posner, Chief Executive, The Point of Loyalty, said the figures expose a broader weakness in how brands use customer information across loyalty systems, marketing tools and automated decision-making.

Jonathan Reeve, Regional Sales Director, ANZ, Eagle Eye, said the disparity reflects an execution problem rather than a data problem.

"Adam's numbers say it perfectly: 63% of members know the brand has the data, but only 40% ever feel it. That gap isn't a data problem - it's an execution problem," Reeve said.

"There are a few reasons for this, but a common issue we see is that most systems were not designed for true 1:1 personalisation. That's why we built EagleAI: a genuinely individual offer set for every customer, every week, automatically," he said.

Execution gap

Fatimah Samee, Senior Partner Sales Manager, Braze, said brands often fail to act on the customer information they already hold. She identified disconnected data systems, delays in accessing data at the right moment and a lack of integrated tools to put insights into action as the main barriers.

"The paradox of being 'data rich but relevance poor' stems not from a scarcity of customer insights, but from an inability to operationalise them," Samee said.

Her assessment points to a familiar problem across retail and consumer-facing sectors. Companies may collect information through in-store transactions, eCommerce sites, mobile apps and customer service channels, but those records often remain split across separate systems, leaving marketers without a clear, unified customer profile.

The issue is not only technical. The report suggests customers are becoming less tolerant of generic or poorly timed offers at a point when many households are watching discretionary spending more closely and expecting visible returns from programme membership.

Trust question

The research also examined attitudes to AI-driven shopping and redemption tools. More than half of members, 52%, said they were concerned about AI agents shopping and redeeming rewards on their behalf, while 23% said they were comfortable with the idea.

That finding adds a trust dimension to the debate around loyalty strategy. If brands want to automate more of the customer relationship, they may first need to address concerns about control, accuracy and whether customers believe those systems will act in their interests.

Terry Mefsut, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Composed Digital, said poor execution carries reputational risk as well as missed commercial opportunity.

"An incorrect personalisation experience is actually worse than no personalisation at all. If you get it wrong, you erode trust and do real brand damage," he said. "Brands need to get the data foundations right before they can unlock the benefits."

The broader picture from the study is that loyalty remains a mass-market behaviour in Australia, but one that is becoming more selective and harder to sustain. Consumers are still signing up, yet the programmes that hold their attention are increasingly those that can show clear value and use customer data in ways that feel timely and relevant.

Among the headline figures, the contrast between 93% programme membership and an unprompted recall average of 3.8 schemes may be the clearest sign of how the market is changing.