The Science of Loyalty
Everyone has a loyalty program. Few have loyalty.
Australia’s leading loyalty programs do not win on benefits. They win by working with human behaviour, not against it.
quantitative sample
1,143 respondents
Programs analysed
52
author
Honeycomb Strategy
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Gaining members is easy. Keeping them engaged is hard.
We analysed 52 of Australia’s leading loyalty programs and surveyed 1,143 consumers to close the say-do gap: to identify what actually moves customer spend, not what customers claim matters.
The finding that surprised us most is that the amount benefits a program offers have no bearing on its success. What separates the programs that drive real ROI is their fluency in human behaviour.
Benefits don't drive loyalty success
There is no correlation between the benefits a program offers and its success. Adding more benefits does not increase engagement or spend.
Australians actively use just five programs
Despite belonging to many more. Attention, not benefits, is the scarce resource.
A third of members shop a brand exclusively
The top-performing programs convert attention into spend. More than 1/3 of members say they shop a brand exclusively because of its program.
Most programs win sign-ups but lose engagement
Motivation alone is not enough. Most programs fail on ability and prompt, the two factors that actually sustain engagement.
Five behavioural principles separate the winners
The best programs effectivley use behavioural science to align with how people already behave.
Paid programs are reshaping the market
65% of Gen Z, 72% of Millennials and 64% of Gen X now subscribe to at least one.
WHY IT MATTERS
Loyalty is the question everyone is asking
Brands pour investment into loyalty programs on the assumption that the right mix of rewards is the secret to retention. Our research shows that assumption is wrong. High membership numbers mask a harder truth: large proportions of members disengage and never return, and no benefit combination guarantees they will stay.
Other Australian loyalty studies tell you what customers say is important to them. Using behavioural science, this report reveals the subconscious patterns that drive what customers actually do.
We’ve presented this research to rooms full of Australia’s brand and insights leaders, earning a 95% satisfaction rating. That’s led to work with multiple brands now building loyalty programs with us, that are grounded in human behaviour.
Transforming leading brands' loyalty programs
Quote from Kate
key insights
Curious?
Here’s what to expect
Nine benefit types dominate the Australian market. Exclusive discounts (offered by 90% of programs) and points-based rewards (65%) are the most popular, but…
Benefit ≠ Instant Success
There is no correlation between the types of benefits offered and the success of the program in driving engagement or spend.
And…
More ≠ Better
Success is not a function of what you give. It is a function of how well you work with human behaviour.
engagement
Membership ≠ engagement.
Sign up is just a fraction of the battle. Once you have members, the challenge is keeping them engaged.
Half of the members of a loyalty program are completely disengaged.
Australians actively use just 5 loyalty programs
Members have also grown impatient with majority expecting to be rewarded immediately on signing up, and quickly losing interest if a program stops feeling valuable.
Brands are not competing on benefits. They are competing for a finite share of attention.
engagement
Applying BJ Fogg's Behaviour Model, active engagement requires three elements to fire together: the member has to want to engage (motivation), be able to engage without friction (ability), and be reminded to engage at the right moment (prompt).
When any one is missing, members disengage. Most of the market obsesses over motivation, refining benefits to lift sign-ups. The real shortfall sits in ability and prompt.
The full report maps every failure point across both, and shows how top performers engineer them out.
The key to a successful program = work WITH human behaviour.
The programs that genuinely move spend share one trait: they work with universal truths of human behaviour rather than interrupting them. Five principles do the heavy lifting.
Flybuys proves what this looks like in practice, achieving the highest engagement rate of any program we evaluated by embedding itself into everyday shopping until using it is pure habit.
The full report shows how each principle works, and exactly how Qantas, Mecca, American Express and Bunnings turn behaviour into spend.
digital insights series
Read the complete Science of Loyalty report
The full report ranks Australia’s top retail, travel and paid programs, unpacks each behavioural science principle with real member verbatims, and shows exactly how Qantas, Mecca, American Express, Bunnings and Flybuys turn behaviour into spend. Enter your email to access the interactive report and PDF.
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methodology
How we ran the study
01
Wave 1 — 15-minute online survey, n=1,011, Australian nationally representative. Conducted November 2024.
02
Wave 2 — 15-minute online survey, n=1,143, Australian nationally representative. Conducted July 2025.
03
Qualitative — 32 in-depth interviews. Conducted November 2024.
04
52 of Australia's leading loyalty programs analysed across retail, travel, paid, and telco, banking and finance.
05
Programs scored on program membership rate, active engagement, and impact on spend.
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The Science of Loyalty is an original research report from Honeycomb Strategy that examines what actually drives loyalty program success in Australia. It combines market research with behavioural science to move past what customers say and uncover what they do. The report is free to access when you subscribe to the Digital Insights Series.
The study was conducted by Honeycomb Strategy, an award-winning Australian market research and behavioural science agency based in Melbourne, with offices in Sydney. It draws on a nationally representative survey of 1,143 Australian consumers, 32 in-depth interviews, and analysis of 52 of Australia's leading loyalty programs across retail, travel, paid membership, and telco, banking and finance.
The amount of benefits a loyalty program offers have no bearing on its success. There is no correlation between the rewards a program provides and its ability to drive engagement or spend. What separates the winners is how well they work with human behaviour, applying behavioural science principles that align with how people already think and act.
The report analyses 52 of Australia's leading loyalty programs spanning retail, travel, paid membership, and telco, banking and finance. It examines standout performers including Qantas Frequent Flyer, Mecca Beauty Loop, American Express, Bunnings Powerpass and Flybuys, and shows exactly how each turns behavioural principles into member spend.
Yes. The report is built for marketing, insights and CX leaders responsible for loyalty and retention. It gives you a behavioural framework to diagnose where your own program is winning members but losing engagement, and shows what the highest-performing programs do differently. It is designed to inform strategy, not just report findings.
Most loyalty studies tell you what customers say is important to them. This report uses behavioural science to reveal the subconscious patterns that drive what customers actually do. That distinction is the difference between perception and prediction, and it is where measurable return on loyalty investment is found.
Yes. While the study surveys Australian consumers, the behavioural principles behind loyalty apply to B2B relationships too. The forces that keep customers engaged, loss aversion, belonging, cognitive ease, operate regardless of whether the buyer is a consumer or a business.
Subscribe with your name and email address to receive instant access to the full report, along with the rest of the Digital Insights Series library and any new reports as they are released. There is no cost to subscribe.
Yes. The report is designed to be used internally. Many subscribers share it with strategy, brand, loyalty and insights teams as a briefing resource or a planning input for their own program.
Yes. Honeycomb Strategy regularly presents research findings to internal teams across Australia. Whether you are looking for a briefing session, a lunch and learn, or a structured workshop on what drives loyalty, we can tailor a presentation to your team's focus areas. Get in touch to find out more.
Honeycomb Strategy is a behaviourally led research and strategy agency with offices in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. It combines behavioural science, market research and its proprietary Human Truths framework to help leading brands make high-stakes decisions. Its clients include Westpac, AustralianSuper and Bupa. Honeycomb Strategy works across financial services, superannuation, insurance, technology, SaaS, retail, education and healthcare.