Loyalty program enrolment is tightening, active engagement is steady, and Agentic commerce has hit a trust nerve.
The 14th edition of For Love or MoneyTM 2026 was just released by Adam Posner, CEO The Point of Loyalty. Commissioned in the first quarter of 2026, the report is an in-depth study covering Australian consumers’ and loyalty program members’ views on various dimensions of customer loyalty and loyalty programs impacting brand loyalty, loyalty program propositions, personalisation, AI and agentic commerce, psychology and more.
Among many interesting findings, the study found that:
- 93% of Australian consumers say they are a member of at least one loyalty program.
- Unaided respondents said they were members of just 3.8 programs per member, the lowest finding since 2015 when first measured.
- Prompted membership in 2026 based on a list of 131 programs, is an average of 10.1 programs per member.
- 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”, adding “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.”
Speaking to loyalty program relevancy, 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 remarked “Data from loyalty programs is abundant, however it is no longer about data availability, it is about relevance activation.”
Agentic commerce hit the ‘trust’ nerve as members start to consider the benefits of using AI agents across their shopping journey. Posner said “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”.
There is much more to learn from this report. You can read the official press release here and visit The Point of Loyalty to download a complimentary Executive Summary or purchase a comprehensive report version.
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).