Loyalty program enrolment is tightening. Active engagement is steady. AI and agentic commerce hit a trust nerve.
MAY 13, 2026 – Results from the 14th edition of the annual Australian customer loyalty and loyalty program research study, For Love or MoneyTM 2026, reveals market penetration of programs remains high with 93% of Australian consumers indicating they are a member of at least one loyalty program.
The volume of enrolled memberships is tightening.
With loyalty programs here, there and everywhere, the research reveals the unprompted membership average of 3.8 programs per member is at its lowest since 2015 (5.0) when first measured. Prompted membership in 2026 based on a list of 131 programs, is an average of 10.1 programs per member.
Volume loses its shine. Activity is steady.
Active membership remains steady with 50% of members indicating they are active in all of their programs (51% in 2025), where an active member is defined as having identified their membership when making a purchase in the past 12 months.
Research author Adam Posner said “loyalty programs are universal across many business-consumer categories including retail, entertainment, hotels, hospitality, airlines, telco, insurance, banking, and now prevalent in business-business and trades.”
Posner added “The savviness of consumers is evidenced by the reduction in programs resonating with the awareness and knowledge to dive deeper into those that are more meaningful and valuable to them.”
Who cares about loyalty programs? A generational shift
The generations tell a deeper story with Gen Y increasing their active participation from 45%
in 2025 to 54% in 2026, a 20% incremental increase in program engagement year-on-year. Gen Z have the lowest active rate of 40% in 2026, decreasing from 48% in 2025.
Posner commented “loyalty programs have a tapestry of audiences and it’s clear the generations differ in their care-factor for programs and engagement”.
“Show me the money”. “Give me choice”. “Add joy to my life”
Members are concentrating on programs delivering clear and tangible value. The report
highlights nine currencies of collection members care about with financial benefits ranked most important. Boomers are significantly more about “show me the money” and Gen Z more about “experiences that are more than money”.
Research author Adam Posner said “with a mature and cluttered loyalty program landscape, members want to engage with programs making an impact on their lives in a positive way, saving them money, providing choice, and adding some Joyalty* Moments of Magic to their lives”.
Loyalty programs are data rich but relevance poor.
With the abundance of data available to loyalty programs, almost two-thirds (63%) of members believe programs have the volume of data to tailor personal and relevant offers to their needs., yet only 40% say they often or always receive personalised and relevant offers.
Posner added “Data from loyalty programs is abundant, however it is no longer about data availability, it is about relevance activation.”
AI is here, there and everywhere. Agentic Commerce hits a low temperature of trust.
In 2026, the awareness of any of the six use-cases of AI enhancing the loyalty program experience has increased to 74% (66% in 2025) with a more guarded view on ‘comfort’, as overall concern increased across the six use-cases of AI enhancing the loyalty program experience.
Agentic commerce hits the ‘trust’ nerve as members start to consider the benefits of using AI agents across their shopping journey.
Posner added “Attempting to get a temperature of trust from members based on their comfort or concern of agentic commerce has identified a low 23% of members are comfortable about using an AI Agent – agentic commerce, to facilitate their shopping across the various stages of the purchase journey”
The impact of personalisation. From creating confidence to adding anxiety.
Deepening the insight of the impact of personalisation and relevance, for the first time, the
For Love or Money™ research identified 15 types of personalised and relevant communications and offers across a scale of those that are creating confidence, to those that are adding anxiety for members.
Posner said “this new area of research reveals a useful ‘shopping list’ of personalised and relevant communications and offers for loyalty programs to consider the impact on creating confidence vs adding to the anxiety of their members”.
77 Australian loyalty programs scored with the Loyalty Program Experience Index SPVX™
Loyalty programs span many sectors with a variety of structures, benefits and rewards and for the fourth year, the 2026 For Love or Money™ research reports on The Loyalty Program Experience Index SPVX™ for 77 Australian loyalty programs.
The Loyalty Program Experience Index SPVX™ is a rating of a loyalty program by its members based on their experience with the program weighted against three key variables of how Simple (S), Personal (P) and Valuable (V) the program is to them.
Posner added “The overall average index of 71.9 in 2026 has increased from 68.6 in 2023, another indication of how programs are improving across the overall experience based on the three variables of how simple, personal and valuable the programs are to members”.
Posner continued “This year, 33 programs achieved a score equal to or greater than the average of 71.9 with paid/subscription and fee-based programs like Everyday Extra from Everyday Rewards, Amazon Prime, Coles Plus and OnePass along with free-to-join programs like Flybuys, Everyday Rewards, McDonald’s – My Macca’s Rewards and Medibank Live Better Rewards scoring well from the members’ point of view.”
Posner added “Loyalty programs in categories of high frequency of purchase tend to have more resonance with members, who have the potential to gain more value. Those programs that are paid/subscription or fee-based, tend to have more committed members seeking value based on paying for the extra value or service.
As the ‘Value’ variable is the highest weighted variable, these programs will tend to but not always be higher scored programs.” He said.
A complimentary Executive Summary of the full report is available at www.thepointofloyalty.com.au with a comprehensive report available for purchase at www.thepointofloyalty.com.au.
Media Contact
For further information or to arrange an interview, contact:
Adam Posner: CEO – The Point of Loyalty
0433 818190
adam@thepointofloyalty.com.au
About the research
The For Love or MoneyTM 2026 research is the 14th Australian edition of the annual research study. It was commissioned by The Point of Loyalty and conducted independently by First Point Research and Consulting in the first quarter of 2026 through a national online panel of 1,002 Australian consumers of men and women aged 18+ who are members of at least one loyalty program. The research was structured to gain quantitative results with comparative analysis as well as qualitative insights.
About The Point of Loyalty
The Point of Loyalty is a strategic customer loyalty and loyalty program consultancy dedicated to help brands make sense of the clutter and conformity of loyalty and rewards programs to drive incremental business growth. CEO Adam Posner is a customer loyalty and loyalty program specialist and has been involved in the design, development and deployment of customer loyalty and rewards programs across industries including entertainment, pharmacy, hotels and accommodation, sport, trade, education, hospitality and retail (various).