A guide to B2C loyalty programs for consumer brands
Why B2C loyalty matters more than ever
In today’s ecommerce landscape, customer retention is the new acquisition. Ad costs are rising, competition is fierce and consumer expectations are higher than ever. Getting someone to make a first purchase is easy; getting them to come back is what builds a brand.
The most successful B2C loyalty programs invest in creating lasting customer relationships by providing an automated and highly personalised experience across their marketing, commerce and customer service channels.
Engaging with consumers as individuals, based on behaviours and preferences, allows brands to offer loyalty programs that go far beyond points and perks – they create emotional connections, turn shoppers into fans and transform one-time buyers into brand advocates.
In this post, we’ll explore how B2C loyalty is evolving, some of the different models being used and how to build a loyalty program that drives real retention.
How loyalty is changing in B2C
According to Klaviyo’s Future of Consumer Marketing report, consumers are only loyal to between 1 to 5 brands.
Traditional “earn and burn” programs once dominated retail. Spend money, earn points, get discounts – simple. But consumer behaviour has changed and so has the meaning of loyalty.
Today’s loyalty programs are experiential as well as transactional. They blend convenience, community and emotional connection, making customers feel part of something bigger.
Loyalty used to focus on quick sales. Now it’s about building customer communities.
B2C vs B2B loyalty: same goal, different approach
Both B2C and B2B loyalty aim to build long-term trust – but they get there differently.
Here are some of the key differences between B2C and B2B loyalty:
- Focus: emotion, experience and convenience vs partnership and mutual value
- Goal: Repeat purchase and advocacy vs retention through value-added relationship
- Incentives: Rewards, access and community vs pricing and service benefits
- Audience: Individual consumers vs businesses with multiple stakeholders
- Communication: Omnichannel and digital-first vs account-based
- Cycle: Fast and emotion-led vs steady and strategic
B2C loyalty programs are characterised by a more personal touch, tailoring rewards and incentives based on individual customer preferences, behaviours and demographics. This approach allows brands to create a deeper emotional connection with their customers, strengthening brand loyalty. Whereas B2B loyalty is built on reliability and partnership, B2C loyalty thrives on emotion and engagement.
But the goal is the same: keep customers coming back for reasons that feel meaningful.
So why should your brand invest in a B2C loyalty program?
Offering a loyalty scheme that aligns with your customers’ preferences and behaviours will help you build trust and deepen relationships.
B2C ecommerce brands that are getting it right benefit from:
- Higher customer retention and attracting new customers – offer value to existing customers that makes them stay while acquiring new customers through points and discounts for sign-ups, profile completion and referral
- Higher revenue – through repeat orders, upselling and cross-selling opportunities
- Increased customer lifetime value – thanks to loyal customers spending more and returning more often
- Increased advocacy and referrals – engaged customers become your best marketers. (Research shows that word-of-mouth and referrals are the primary factors for 20-50% of all purchase decisions.)
- Better customer insights – loyalty data highlights purchase patterns, helping you to segment customers, refine offers and tailor promotions. (With 74% of consumers expecting more brands to provide personalised experiences this is crucial.)
- A direct line of communication with customers – enabling you to share product launches, promotions and announcements with an already engaged customer base
Loyalty isn’t just a marketing tactic – it’s a growth engine.
Proven approaches to B2C loyalty
B2C loyalty programs can be key in engaging and retaining your customers. The best schemes get customers so invested in your community and the rewards that they find it too hard to purchase elsewhere.
Brands often combine a range of typical approaches to create a B2C loyalty program that works for their customers.
Points and perks
Points-based loyalty programs are one of the most common types of loyalty schemes, with customers collecting points for purchases. These points can later be exchanged for rewards. Members are encouraged to collect more points to earn more desirable rewards.
This approach works well when the rewards not only align with customer desires but are also possible to achieve within a reasonable timeframe to allow for regular additional gratification.
The brand Paul Smith has created a Collectors Club that on the surface appears to be a simple iteration on the traditional free coffee stamp card. Instead, they’ve added layers to the experience, allowing customers to curate their own stamp collection (one stamp is earned for every £10 spent) in a way that reflects the creativity synonymous with the brand itself.
Members can redeem stamps for discounts, exclusive access and premium services and the available benefits increase as customers spend more with the brand. Connecting with other club members is encouraged and special edition stamps and hidden ‘easter eggs’ at member events draw customers in and deepen their emotional investment in the brand.
It’s a way of saying thank you and inviting you into our world, like a community.’ Paul Smith
This approach is an excellent illustration of combining elements of a traditional points-based loyalty program with both gamification and a tiered structure. Find out more about Paul Smith's Loyalty program on the Inside Commerce Podcast: "From Concept to Launch. Crafting Paul Smith's Premium Loyalty Experience"
Another brand focused on creating community through their points program is Liberty, with their Liberty Collective – “built by the people that make us; designers, brands, artists – and you.”
Tiered loyalty
Tiered loyalty programs work so well because they incentivise and reward behaviours by propelling customers up to higher levels.
Although bigger discounts are often found as you progress through tiers, this approach is increasingly about access over cost-savings – to perks, limited edition products and communities.
This type of loyalty program can also help with segmentation – each tier receives its own focus – and, if communicated well, it’s easy for customers to understand what they’re aspiring to with each step up.
Fenwick’s MyFenwick loyalty program is an example of a tiered reward system which also combines with points. Customers unlock exclusive rewards as they progress from green to silver and then gold.
As well as collecting points for purchases (with higher rewards for beauty spend, allowing the brand to focus on an area they clearly want to grow), members can earn extra points for signing up or following via additional marketing channels including the newsletter, social media and SMS. Bonus points are also available for creating a loyalty profile. These extras incentivise customers to make themselves more accessible via marketing channels and provide more information to Fenwick for them to segment their membership and create more personalised offers.
“As Gen Z consumers reshape retail expectations, increasingly viewing their data as currency for hyper-personalized experiences and frictionless shopping, brands and retailers face mounting pressure to deliver seamless engagement across all touchpoints.” PWC Consumer markets trends for 2025
Coalition loyalty programs
Brands don’t have to work in isolation. Multi-tenanted or coalition loyalty programs are a very effective model for multiple brands looking to combine to reward their common customers together.
The relationship between the Sainsbury’s Nectar and British Airways Avios programs is a good example. Customers earn points through consumer spending and can then choose to convert from one program to another depending on where they would like to redeem them. Nectar have even created an auto-conversion option to make the process as seamless as possible. (Nectar and Avios both have hundreds of brand partners through which customers can collect points but the ability to exchange these points between the two schemes is, we think, exclusive to Nectar and Avios.)
Paid-for memberships
For retailers with high order frequency, offering paid memberships can work well. For a monthly or annual fee, customers will receive certain benefits including exclusive pricing and, often, free delivery if certain thresholds are met.
It’s worth noting that there is a balance to be struck with this approach. The fee has to be reflected in the value provided to customers while also being high enough to encourage customers to return time and again to guarantee their own ROI on the membership spend.
Amazon Prime is likely the best-known of these memberships. With free delivery, exclusive deals, access to television and music streaming as well as access to free eBooks, this is an example of a loyalty program that it is hard to leave once customers have signed up and enjoyed all the benefits. Rolling so many elements into the membership only increases the power of that hook.
Cause-based and values-driven loyalty
4 in 10 consumers feel that brand values matter more than they did a year ago.
Brands that are known for particular values will often align their loyalty incentives with their purpose. Whether that’s supporting charitable donations or offering impact-based rewards, this approach builds an immediate emotional connection for those consumers – especially Gen Z – who are loyal to values, not just value.
Patagonia’s brand is built on sustainability – they want their items to last forever and encourage repairs where possible. Far from limiting their revenue options, their proudly sustainable outlook encourages more people to make those higher-value purchases, confident in the quality and the ethos behind the business. Their focus on activism and donating all their profits to addressing the environmental crisis is another clear call to those who hold similar values. One that says “you belong with us”.
Community and gamification
Gamified loyalty turns engagement into a habit. Encouraging regular behaviours that result in the dopamine hits all consumers crave is a proven way to get customers coming back. The communal nature of many of the challenges also builds brand connection.
Strava’s monthly running challenges provide a degree of accountability, competition and community, encouraging users to be more active than they might otherwise be on their own. One of their key messages is: “Community powered motivation”.
And language learning app Duolingo creates a need for daily engagement from users to maintain their streaks and earn higher status. The app’s icon even changes to reflect the brand logo of the owl getting increasingly sicker if users haven’t engaged recently.
Whatever blend of approaches you adopt, it has to be designed around your business and your customers to create a loyalty ecosystem that feels both rewarding and strategic.
How to build a B2C loyalty program that lasts
Building a B2C loyalty program that keeps customers coming back relies on providing personalised experiences to foster the emotional connection that leads to solid brand relationships. At gpmd, we’ve seen first-hand that the most successful schemes aren’t just afterthoughts – they’re strategic programs integrated into your wider ecommerce strategy.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to B2C loyalty. The approach you choose as a brand will always depend on your product, target audience and wider business objectives.
That said, the best approaches combine tailoring experiences with offering strategic discounts and added value to reward customers for their ongoing support and secure brand-customer relationships.
Here’s how we recommend approaching it.
1. Start with strategy
Define what loyalty means for your business. Do you want to increase repeat purchases, encourage referrals or boost engagement with your brand? This will impact what you offer with your loyalty program.
2. Understand your audience
Use your data to segment your customers and identify trends within the groups. The most successful loyalty programs are customer driven and reflect what motivates people to buy from your brand.
Your customers with high average order values, customer lifetime values and order frequencies are already demonstrating a high commitment to your brand and are therefore more likely to respond well to tailored messages and rewards.
3. Choose your structure
The right loyalty approach for your brand will depend on your industry. Retail businesses with high purchase frequency may opt for a points-based program, whilst lower-frequency, higher value businesses such as airlines and hotels often favour tiered rewards.
Brands with longer purchase cycles like expensive household appliances may choose to focus on rewarding referrals instead of trying to increase customer purchase frequency.
The most important element in any approach? Offering clear rewards your customers will value.
4. Design the experience
Spend time designing the user journey and how the program will look to ensure that it will resonate with your target audience,
5. Keep it seamless
Friction kills loyalty. Integrate your program into checkout, customer accounts and marketing flows for a consistent experience. Make sure your program is intuitive, quick and hassle-free to join and to track progress and claim rewards.
6. Communicate clearly
Promote your loyalty program everywhere customers interact with you – across site banners, post-purchase emails and social channels. Keep the message simple and benefit-led. Continue to remind customers about your reward program with targeted marketing campaigns demonstrating how to redeem rewards. Also use these campaigns to showcase the benefits of joining for new customers.
7. Measure and evolve
Track repeat purchase rate, reward redemption and customer lifetime value. Are customers engaging? Is your loyalty program delivering on the goals you set in step one? Use insights to refine and optimise over time.
The future of B2C loyalty: trends to watch
1. Personalisation powered by AI
We’ve looked at how important personalised experiences are to consumers. With AI-driven loyalty platforms, brands can more easily predict what each customer values – from reward type to timing – and keep engagement high and churn low.
2. Referral and social loyalty
Referral programs turn loyal customers into growth channels. Reward both referrer and friend, and you’ll amplify loyalty through advocacy.
3. Omnichannel loyalty
Today’s shoppers expect loyalty to travel with them – from mobile to in-store. Brands need to unify experiences across every touchpoint and capture valuable retention data in one place.
Conclusion: loyalty that feels human
The most effective B2C loyalty programs don’t just reward purchases – they reward relationships.
They make customers feel recognised, appreciated and connected. In a market where every brand is fighting for attention, connection is your strongest retention strategy.
The brands that win aren’t the ones with the biggest discounts. They’re the ones customers want to belong to.
At GPMD, as an official UK Shopify Plus partner, we help businesses take full advantage of Shopify’s B2C capabilities.
Our team combines strategy, design and Shopify Plus development to deliver platforms that support growth and deepen customer engagement. Whether you’re looking to launch a B2C channel, optimise your existing setup or weave loyalty into your ecommerce experience, we’ll help you move faster, sell smarter and serve better.
Explore our full range of B2C services or get in touch to find out how we can help you build a loyalty program that keeps customers coming back.
