A loyalty program buys a habit, not a preference
A transactional loyalty program buys a purchase habit. It does that well. But a habit can be taken back. The retailer next door only has to announce a better offer. That is where a points scheme stops. It never makes a customer tell someone else about your brand.
By the Demooz team
Key takeaways
- 73% of French shoppers always buy from the same retailers. But 57% would switch for a promotion (Shopfully, The State of Shopping 2026, figures reported by CB News on September 17, 2026).
- Europe looks the same: 65% return to the same retailers, and 56% would leave for a better offer. The habit is stronger in France. The switching is identical.
- David Gosse, Customer Marketing & Digital Director at French frozen-food retailer Picard, put it plainly in RelationClientMag on May 27, 2026: the program no longer creates loyalty, it confirms it.
- A budget that funds a discount enters an endless bidding war. The same budget spent on recommendation builds an asset a competitor cannot buy off you.
French shoppers come back more often. They also leave just as fast.
Shopfully's The State of Shopping 2026 surveyed 6,605 European consumers aged 25 and over, across eight countries, in the first quarter of 2026. The French figures were published by CB News and RelationClientMag on September 17, 2026.
They say three things. 73% of French shoppers always buy from the same stores. 74% pick the nearest or most convenient store, against 56% in Europe. And 57% would go elsewhere for a promotion.
Across Europe, Shopfully reports 65% returning to the same retailers and 56% ready to leave for a better offer. So this is not a French quirk.
Coming back often is not loyalty. Regularity that protects nothing is just a habit.
The card confirms a preference, it does not create one
The clearest line we have read this year came from a retail practitioner, not from a research firm.
"A loyalty program no longer creates loyalty, it confirms it." David Gosse, Customer Marketing & Digital Director at Picard Surgelés, RelationClientMag, May 27, 2026. Translated from French.
The figures agree with him. 60% of French shoppers buy mainly where they hold an active card, against 51% in Europe. So the card follows preference. But 74% pick the nearest store first: preference was settled earlier, on location, price and range.
A program that confirms is still useful. It retains, it structures customer data, it gives a reason to come back. It does not create preference. That is not its job.
What cardholders actually ask for
VML published the first French edition of its Loyalty Pulse study in May 2026, surveying 1,202 French consumers across more than fifty programs and fifteen sectors. Figures reported by RelationClientMag on May 26, 2026 and Republik Retail on July 27, 2026.
76% of French consumers belong to at least one program. 65% join free programs only, and 56% refuse to pay. What they want: discount vouchers for 48.8% and immediate price cuts for 33.4%. Only 19% put VIP treatment first.
And only 15% choose a product mainly for its brand. That is the number to keep. The program is widely adopted, heavily transactional, and brand preference stays a minority. That is not a flaw to fix. It is what the mechanism does.
A simple scheme is clearer, not stronger
Retailers adjust. Lidl France moved to a universal points system: one point per euro spent, rounded up to the next euro, points valid for two years, coupons valid for thirty days.
That is a good call. A simple scheme can be explained at the till in three seconds. It is also easy to compare. And what can be compared can be outbid: a rival can read your scheme, cost it out and beat it next quarter.
The program then becomes a cost line driven by someone else's decisions. And 57% of shoppers have already said they would leave for a better offer.
What no point ever buys: a customer speaking up
A point rewards a purchase that was already decided, from someone already inside the store. It says nothing to anyone else.
Yet the decision happens earlier, at the point of hesitation. What lifts hesitation is not a discount announced by the brand. It is someone who already owns the product: a friend, a convinced sales assistant, a user who shows the thing working.
That word cannot be bought. A point pays for a transaction, a recommendation stakes a reputation. What triggers it: a mission to complete, a product genuinely tried, recognition the other members can see. It can be organised.
And it is an asset a competitor cannot take back. There is no scheme to beat.
What this changes for you
If the card confirms preference instead of creating it, the real question is no longer the size of the discount. It is which share of the budget funds a benefit that can be taken back, and which share funds recommendation.
- Split the two budgets. The transactional program keeps its job: retain, structure data, give a reason to come back.
- Qualify the base before rewarding it. Your best advocates are not the ones with the fullest points balance, but the ones who genuinely use the product.
- Replace tiers with missions: trying a product, showing it to someone close, posting a review, helping a new buyer. These are dated acts, so they can be managed.
- Track recommendation through to the sale. A program that counts sign-ups measures its popularity, not its revenue.
This is our work at Demooz: qualifying the customer base, running an ambassador community on missions and challenges, tracking recommendations through to the sale. The goal: build loyalty without paying for more advertising.
There is no reason to shut down a transactional program. It does its job well. The decision is about the rest of the budget: fund a habit the promotion across the street can take back, or fund the one thing a competitor cannot buy off you, your customers speaking up.
