Loyalty Programs Become Growth Engines In Hard Times.
Economic Strain Turns Loyalty into a Budget Priority with Proven ROI.
Loyalty as Economic Insurance
The Global Customer Loyalty Report 2025 (10,000 consumers, 2,600 professionals, 230 million loyalty interactions) captures a global market defined by inflation and looming recessionary pressure. Against this backdrop, loyalty programs have shifted from optional marketing initiatives to essential growth engines.
For consumers, loyalty offers stability and value. For businesses, the programs deliver record returns. Antavo’s analysis shows that 83% of program owners who measure ROI report positive results, with the average return rising to 5.2x in 2025 from 4.8x the year prior. This performance explains why budgets and teams devoted to loyalty are growing at unprecedented pace.
Loyalty as a Lifeline for Brands and Consumers
In economic downturns, loyalty programs serve dual purposes: financial relief for consumers and stabilized revenue for brands. Antavo’s data shows consumer sentiment toward loyalty programs is strongly positive, reflecting a desire for consistency in uncertain conditions.
On the supply side, satisfaction among program owners has risen 36.8% since 2022, with 69.2% now satisfied with their loyalty strategy. Dissatisfaction, where it exists, is most often linked to poor integration with customer experience, underscoring the operational adjustments required to unlock loyalty’s full resilience.
The report highlights that engagement and incremental sales are now equally weighted as reasons brands value loyalty, 62.1% cited deeper engagement, 61.1% incremental sales, and 56.5% positive ROI. Loyalty has become the rare lever that delivers both immediate and lasting value.
ROI Surges: Justifying Greater Investment
ROI has become loyalty’s strongest argument for budget growth. In 2025, 83% of programs report positive ROI, with an average of 5.2x, up from 4.8x in 2024. Even more telling: 34.8% report ROI in the 5–7x range, and 14.3% claim ROI above 8x.
This performance has fueled a historic budget reallocation. Loyalty and CRM now account for 31.4% of marketing budgets, the highest share in four years. The trend is consistent across regions: North America averages 5.3x ROI; Europe, 5.0x; Australia, 5.6x; South Africa, 5.5x. These outcomes are not anomalies but structural proof that loyalty spending pays.
The implication for executives is clear: in volatile markets where discretionary spend is under pressure, loyalty delivers the most predictable and repeatable growth returns.
Loyalty and Customer Experience Converge
Another structural trend identified in the report is the integration of loyalty and customer experience. In 71.4% of companies, loyalty and CX are managed within the same department, often under the CMO or CEO.
This integration addresses the #1 cause of dissatisfaction: poor CX alignment. In programs where loyalty is siloed, consumers experience friction and brands fail to translate engagement into incremental sales. Conversely, where loyalty and CX sit together, satisfaction rates and ROI outcomes climb.
Team size growth reflects this convergence. The average number of employees managing loyalty has jumped from 16.2 in 2023 to 21.8 in 2025, signaling that firms are not just investing more money but also more organizational capital in loyalty.
Loyalty Budgets as Strategic Levers
The report shows loyalty now ranks among the largest and fastest-growing areas of marketing spend. With nearly a third of budgets allocated, the programs are no longer treated as cost centers but as central drivers of revenue, engagement, and differentiation.
This reframing alters the CEO’s calculus. Loyalty has become a structural hedge against market volatility. Companies that fail to elevate loyalty risk missing its compounding impact: stronger consumer retention, incremental spend, and defensible engagement even as competitive conditions deteriorate.
Recommendations for CEOs
Reframe Loyalty as Growth Infrastructure: Treat loyalty not as marketing expense but as a structural growth driver with measurable ROI.
Integrate CX and Loyalty: Eliminate silos, place loyalty under marketing or CEO oversight to align strategy with customer experience.
Expand Budget Share Confidently: Antavo’s ROI benchmarks justify increasing loyalty spend above 30% of total marketing budgets.
Track Incremental Sales as a KPI: Balance engagement metrics with direct revenue impact to prove loyalty’s commercial case.
Staff for Scale: Grow team capacity, program complexity and integration demand larger, specialized loyalty units.
Bottom Line
Antavo’s Global Customer Loyalty Report 2025 demonstrates that loyalty programs are now critical growth infrastructure. With 5.2x ROI on average, budgets at record highs, and satisfaction rates climbing, loyalty has proven its resilience in times of volatility.
The defining factor is integration. Programs aligned with customer experience are delivering superior engagement and incremental sales. Those treated as stand-alone marketing tactics continue to underperform.
For executives, the mandate is urgent: in an era of inflation and consumer pressure, loyalty offers the most bankable return in the marketing mix. To underinvest, or to manage loyalty in silos, is no longer just a missed opportunity. it is a strategic failure.
