Ask any retailer in any sector what they’re focused on in 2025, and you’re likely to hear some variation of the same answer: customer loyalty. Everybody in retail is asking the same question: How can you win additional trips and spend from consumers that cross-shop more than ever before?

Intuitively, many retailers attempt to solve that challenge with a loyalty program — especially in grocery, where top programs have over 80% penetration. Today’s consumers are hungry for value, and loyalty is often the first place they look to find it. For that reason, investments in this area are smart. 

Launching a new loyalty program is a moment for celebration, but it also marks the beginning of a new set of challenges — shifting from getting it live to making it successful. Solving those new challenges are critical, because data from an Upside partner indicates that more than 50% of loyalty members churn within a year of signup.

We’ve helped other retailers solve these challenges, and we’ve developed a roadmap to make maximum impact with a loyalty program. In order to drive the right loyalty outcomes, grocers should focus on the following: 

• Reach: Employing strategies that scale for thousands (even millions) of shoppers. 

• Relevance: Interacting with consumers at their moment of need, with the right selection, using the right medium.

• True personalization: Meeting the unique value points of each individual to avoid cannibalizing expected sales.

To accomplish these, thousands of grocers have turned to Upside, a digital marketplace that reaches 35 million American consumers. Here, we’ll showcase how Upside can help grocers lay the foundation for a successful loyalty launch. 

Addressing loyalty’s blind spot: Customer acquisition

Loyalty is a really effective tool to influence and communicate with existing customers. When it comes time to shop, more than half of loyalty members in a recent Upside survey say they make decisions about where, what, and how much to buy based on loyalty promotions. Even more, nearly 40% of loyalty members said they’d stop shopping at a store that got rid of their program.

But at the same time, loyalty does have its blind spots — namely, it doesn’t help to acquire new customers. Thus, the best way to serve your loyalty program before launching it is to bring more new and cross-shopping customers into your orbit now. 

Upside uses personalized promotions to influence grocery shoppers to shop at your stores more often and spend more when they do. It thereby improves your reach, connecting you with shoppers that were previously outside of your ecosystem. 

Giant Eagle, a regional grocer based in Pittsburgh, partnered with us in order to earn more share of wallet from cross-shopping customers. Though these customers are hard to win, it’s critical to earn more of their business, as the segment has quickly become a majority. 

Together, we helped Giant Eagle find new and uncommitted customers, turning them into loyal shoppers. Of the Upside users we drove to Giant Eagle, 20% of them were brand new to the chain or had never joined its myPerks loyalty program. 

• 62% of these new and uncommitted shoppers were motivated to sign up for loyalty because of Upside. 
• On average, customers in this segment were visiting Giant Eagle 4x more frequently than before.

An ongoing challenge: Keeping your members loyal

Securing a customer’s loyalty membership is important, but industry metrics show us that’s only the first step to truly winning their loyalty. 

In our survey of the general population, the average grocery loyalty member belonged to 2.3 different programs in this category alone. The research firm Bond’s annual Loyalty Report supported that sentiment, stating that the average consumer belonged to 19 different loyalty programs and was actively engaged in only nine.

To address this challenge, Upside focuses on delivering relevant, personalized offers to influence grocery shoppers. By partnering your loyalty program with Upside, you benefit from a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts — and the result is more loyalty members that stick around.

Schnucks, a St. Louis-based regional grocer, has one of the most successful rewards programs on the market with more than two million members. In pursuit of constant improvement, we worked together to drive more sign-ups and turn average loyalty members into “super-users,” who have outsized impact on total transactions and revenue. 

More than two years after the beginning of our partnership, Schnucks has achieved a 2% same-store sales lift, a level of growth nearly unprecedented in the food retail industry. 

Upside drove this growth in part by motivating existing customers to spend more. With Upside, existing Schnucks Rewards members visited a location 24% more frequently, increased their average basket size by 5%, and grew their monthly spend by nearly a third. 

Expected impact for partner grocers

When grocers like you partner with Upside, they earn more visits, bigger baskets, and sustained loyalty from customers who were previously spreading around their shopping. 

1. New loyalty adoption and increased frequency

An average of 30% of non-loyalty customers signed up for loyalty after using Upside.

2. Higher loyalty first-year value

New loyalty customers (both new customers acquired by Upside and existing non-loyalty customers Upside induced to sign up for loyalty) are 43% more valuable than their control counterparts.

3. Greater spend & basket size from existing customers

Existing loyalty customers increased their basket sizes by 5% and their spend by 31%, on average. Additionally, existing loyalty customers made 24% more trips.

Set your new loyalty program up for success with Upside. 

Get in touch with our team of grocery experts to learn more.