Marketing

The loyalty trend you’re not watching but should be

Retailers looking to drive more year-round sales and eliminate off-peak season lulls should look to their reward and loyalty programs to proactively engage shoppers in meaningful, strategic ways.

Photo: Adobe Stock

July 1, 2025 by Jennifer Farmer — Director of Merchant Development, Valuedynamx

Many retail brands place heavy emphasis on peak shopping occasions like the winter holidays and long weekends. But the truth is that the busiest shopping seasons of the year only account for about 20% of total sales volume. Even over the 2024 winter holiday season, when YOY holiday spending had increased, the National Retail Federation reported holiday sales still only accounted for a fraction of total 2024 sales.

Off-season traffic is more important than ever — and not just because of the growing challenge and uphill battle retailers face at the start of each year with increasingly common waves of post-holiday returns.

During slower periods, driving sales and engagement not only helps level out the peaks and valleys over the course of the year, but also drives ongoing loyalty, increases customer lifetime value, and positions you to be top-of-mind when the busy shopping seasons do come around. Many retailers don't realize leveraging your loyalty and rewards program to achieve these goals is an often-overlooked way to operate better and boost sales — particularly outside of peak shopping periods.

There is no "off-season" for retailers, and forward-thinking merchants are closely monitoring and adjusting their rewards and loyalty programs to get the most out of them. To ensure year-long —not seasonal — success and continued loyalty from your customers, consider focusing on the following aspects of your reward program:

• Hyper-personalization. Knowing your customers and ensuring your offerings are relevant to them has never been more crucial. Understanding their shopping patterns, reward preferences, and even their favorite shopping channels can help you offer them the value they want for participating in your loyalty program. The more touch points you can nurture when customers "burn and earn" rewards, the more you can ensure off-season shopping doesn't fall off. In fact, our research found that when people feel as though they derive equal or more value than they invest in loyalty programs, they are far more engaged and willing to spend with that brand. The study showed that loyalty program satisfaction is directly tied to positive redemption events that create joy among consumers. This "redemption joy" can be nurtured through personalized rewards that make customers feel as though brands truly understand and value them throughout the year.
• Nurturing the right partnerships and supplemental programs. Working with partners that provide customers with curated affiliate and card-linked offers from your retail brand can help provide third-party support outside your in-house loyalty efforts. A recent report from Acceleration Partners showed that relationships between AP's clients and CLO providers were 26% higher in 2024 than the previous year, and revenue driven by those partnerships grew by a whopping 158% YOY. Retailers can also reach a wider range of audiences (potentially boosting new customer acquisition) by diversifying your publisher mix and exploring new or more effective marketing channels. For example, having your brand part of a bank program that offers special promotions through debit and credit card programs during non-peak seasons can open engagement opportunities among existing and new customers.
• Leveraging AI and machine learning. Artificial intelligence is at the core of many conversations, but few retailers apply the technology as thoughtfully as they could be to enhance customer relationships and experiences. Using available customer data, AI can help you predict when each individual shopper may be at risk of disengaging from your brand — and help merchants understand when and how they are most likely to succeed in driving off-season interactions and sales. Thanks to machine learning, you can also adjust real-time marketing campaigns to make them more effective and better forecast upcoming shopping occasions. AI and machine learning applications can permeate your loyalty strategy year-round — ensuring that the "off-season" is as fruitful as possible.
• Unified commerce experiences. There is a measurable fluidity when customers can successfully and seamlessly engage with brands across different shopping channels. Creating cohesive brand experiences throughout the entire shopping cycle will set retailers up for more successful interactions. This means ensuring easy points redemption, smooth digital wallet experiences, and clear ways to earn points that will be meaningful to each customer. When consumers experience friction or cannot interact with a brand via their preferred channel, they will be less likely to return to avoid future frustration.

Retailers looking to drive more year-round sales and eliminate off-peak season lulls should look to their reward and loyalty programs to proactively engage shoppers in meaningful, strategic ways.

In many cases, brands can find ways to better leverage their personalization features, partnerships, and customer experiences through more strategic initiatives. There is no off-season when it comes to shopping and driving customer loyalty — and the brands that focus on year-round optimization stand to benefit from what others might consider non-peak, non-priority periods.

About Jennifer Farmer

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