UK grocery loyalty schemes face consumer dissatisfaction

A new consumer study by HyperFinity reveals that UK shoppers are increasingly disengaged from grocery loyalty programmes, with 61% of members feeling no different from regular customers. Despite 79% of Brits desiring personalised offers, many retailers are failing to deliver value, leading 52% of consumers to report lower brand loyalty than they did three years ago.

Key frustrations for shoppers include irrelevant offers, cited by 55%, and limited savings. As cost-of-living pressures persist, consumers are showing less tolerance for schemes that collect data without providing meaningful, individualized rewards.

Industry analysis suggests a significant opportunity for large convenience networks to bridge this gap. While superstores have long used loyalty data as a competitive tool, the convenience sector—forecast to reach £49.1 billion in the UK by 2026—has underworked its data potential. Because convenience shoppers visit more frequently for specific, varied missions, their transaction data offers a rich behavioral dataset that, if processed through AI, could enable the high level of personalisation currently demanded by the market.