Loyalty Winners and Losers for Q2 2025

In today’s hypercompetitive landscape, loyalty is more than just a customer retention tool. It has become a strategic lever for growth, brand differentiation and long-term value creation. Companies are investing heavily in loyalty programmes, but many still fail to monitor how their public commitment to loyalty compares to others in the market. Euromonitor International’s Loyalty Index offers valuable perspective, tracking and comparing how frequently leading brands and companies mention loyalty in public documents.

Strong Loyalty Narratives Show Clear Customer Focus

The Loyalty Index provides more than just a snapshot of company priorities. By analysing how these scores shift over time, we gain insight into which companies are increasingly framing loyalty as part of their strategic identity. A rising score may point to new programme launches, stronger customer engagement efforts, or a deliberate focus on investor messaging. In contrast, companies with stagnant or declining scores may be signalling a deprioritisation of loyalty, or focusing attention elsewhere. Between April and June 2025, clear leaders emerged across multiple consumer goods and services sectors, while others failed to show movement. These shifts highlight why tracking public loyalty narratives is valuable not only within one’s own industry, but across other sectors for additional inspiration and insights.

Among the companies with the largest quarter-on-quarter increases in their Loyalty Index scores, a few stand out with well-documented shifts in strategy during April, May and June 2025. TJ Maxx showed the most dramatic rise, with its Loyalty Index jumping from 53 to 393. This aligns with its high-profile promotional push around the TJX Rewards programme, as well as its “You Sponsored by TJ Maxx” initiative, alongside increased investor communication highlighting loyalty as a growth driver. Uniqlo also made notable gains, supported by efforts to expand personalised app features and integrate customer feedback, both of which were emphasised in company statements and retail strategy updates.

In the travel sector, Emirates saw a strong Loyalty Index increase from 22 to 180, driven by expanded communication around its Skywards programme. In July, the airline launched a global campaign offering significant bonus miles across airline, hotel, retail and lifestyle partners. While the offers extended into Q3, the campaign’s planning and promotional messaging were publicly visible during Q2, with loyalty positioned as a central differentiator in press materials. A sharp increase in Loyalty Index score often reflects a deliberate effort to elevate loyalty in strategic communications, offering an early signal of shifting brand priorities.

Loyalty on the Backburner: Signals of Strategic Repositioning

At the same time, several well-known brands showed little movement or even a decline in loyalty-related messaging, raising questions about whether loyalty remains a focus for their public strategy.

Nike’s Loyalty Index Score fell from 165 to 52 between Q1 and Q2 2025, coinciding with a strategic shift towards internal restructuring and brand repositioning. The company’s public communications during the quarter focused on launching its “Sport Offense” realignment and executing its “Win Now” actions, with no mention of loyalty programmes or consumer retention efforts in its earnings transcript or investor materials. This lack of visibility contributed to its drop in score, as loyalty was not emphasised as a strategic pillar.

Nordstrom also experienced a significant decline over the same period, with its Loyalty Index Score falling from 380 to 106. In April, the company announced changes to The Nordy Club that replaced point accumulation at Nordstrom Rack with a flat 5% discount for credit card holders, effective in June. While the change was positioned as a way to deliver more immediate value, it removed a key loyalty mechanic and shifted messaging away from points-based engagement. Although core benefits like status tracking and Notes redemption remained in place, the reduced emphasis in public communications after the company became private, following the 2024 buyout by the Nordstrom family and the Mexican retail group El Puerto de Liverpool, further contributed to the lower score.

These examples highlight the importance of monitoring loyalty-related messaging across industries. Observing both the messaging and the actual programme actions provides insight into whether brands are truly aligning loyalty with customer engagement, sales growth and long-term competitive positioning, or if there is a disconnect between what they promise and what they deliver.

To learn more about creating effective loyalty programmes, explore our comprehensive Loyalty content hub on our website. Dive deeper into the latest trends and strategies by downloading our report, New Concepts in Loyalty, and discover how to drive customer retention and revenue growth through innovative loyalty solutions.