Key Takeaways
- True Loyalty has dropped 5% since 2024, marking the steepest decline in five years, with only 68% of consumers claiming brand loyalty
- Trend Loyalty has emerged as a sixth loyalty type, driven by social media influence—14% of consumers are now Trend Loyal, with 15% purchasing based solely on TikTok trends
- 84% of brands fail at personalization, creating a massive gap between customer expectations and delivery that actively damages loyalty
- Mobile-first is critical: 36% of consumers express loyalty through brand apps, primarily for rewards (76%) and personalized messages (58%)
- B2B buyers behave like consumers now, with 95% saying AI use positively impacts their loyalty and 67% switching suppliers due to lack of innovation
- Quality alone isn’t enough: Customers demand consistency across channels, emotional connection, values alignment, and real-time relevance
- Loyalty is now organization-wide: No single department owns loyalty anymore—it requires cross-functional collaboration and unified data strategies
Loyalty isn’t what it used to be. Even the world’s most iconic brands are watching customer devotion slip through their fingers in 2025, replaced by something faster, louder, and far more fleeting. According to SAP Emarsys’s latest Customer Loyalty Index and B2B Buyer Loyalty Index, we’ve officially entered what I’m calling the Engagement Era — a time when loyalty is no longer assumed but must be continuously earned through personalized, AI-powered experiences that feel genuinely human.
The numbers tell a stark story: True Loyalty has declined by 5% since 2024, marking the most significant drop in five years. Meanwhile, a new loyalty type has emerged from the chaos of social media and viral trends. Welcome to the age of Trend Loyalty, where brands are one TikTok video away from obsession — or oblivion.
The Death of Loyalty as We Know It
Let’s start with the uncomfortable truth: only 68% of consumers now say they’re loyal to specific brands, a sharp retreat to 2021 levels after years of growth. For B2B buyers, the picture is similarly fragile. While 71% claim loyalty to at least one supplier, that commitment increasingly depends on seamless integration, personalized service, and innovation — not legacy relationships or brand heritage.
What’s driving this fragility? A perfect storm of economic uncertainty, infinite choice, and rising expectations. Today’s consumers and business buyers alike will switch brands without hesitation if their needs aren’t met. In fact, 28% of consumers have abandoned brands simply out of boredom, while 68% of B2B buyers have switched suppliers due to poor customer service or cost considerations.
The message is clear: consistency, relevance, and personalization aren’t nice-to-haves anymore. They’re the price of admission.
Enter Trend Loyalty: Fast, Emotional, and Fleeting
Here’s where things get interesting. SAP Emarsys has identified a sixth type of customer loyalty in 2025: Trend Loyalty. This is loyalty driven by social influence, viral appeal, and cultural momentum — think Stanley cups, Glossier launches, or whatever product an influencer declared “life-changing” last Tuesday.
The data reveals just how powerful, and precarious, this phenomenon has become:
- 14% of consumers are now classified as Trend Loyal
- 15% have purchased products purely because they were trending on TikTok
- 20% feel emotionally connected to products simply because they’re trending
- 29% quickly lose interest once the trend cycle ends
For Gen Z and Millennials, these numbers are even higher, with trend-driven behaviors running 10-15% above average. This generation isn’t just watching social media; they’re using it as their primary research tool. In fact, 16% of consumers now trust TikTok and social media trends more than traditional ads and product reviews.
But here’s the challenge: trending today doesn’t mean loyal tomorrow. While viral moments can drive explosive short-term growth, they rarely translate into lasting relationships without a deeper engagement strategy.
The Personalization Gap Is Costing You Customers
If there’s a villain in this story, it’s the yawning gap between what customers expect and what brands deliver. Consider these findings:
- 84% of brands fail to differentiate themselves through personalization
- 60% of consumers believe most marketing emails aren’t relevant to them
- 40% say brands don’t understand them as people
- 23% report that batch-and-blast marketing actively damages their loyalty
In the B2B space, the stakes are just as high. A staggering 95% of buyers say a supplier’s use of AI positively impacts their loyalty, yet many organizations still struggle with fragmented data and disconnected customer experiences. When 28% of B2B buyers cite disjointed experiences across touchpoints as a top loyalty killer, the cost of siloed systems becomes painfully clear.
The solution? AI-powered personalization at scale. But this isn’t just a marketing challenge — it requires real-time data integration across every department and touchpoint.
What Actually Drives Loyalty in 2025
Despite the complexity, the fundamentals of loyalty haven’t changed entirely. Quality still matters — 59% of consumers cite high-quality products as their top loyalty driver. For B2B buyers, broad product range, seamless system integration, and strong employee relationships top the list.
But quality alone isn’t enough. Today’s loyal customers expect:
- Consistency across channels: 28% of B2B buyers and countless consumers demand seamless experiences whether they’re shopping online, in-store, or via mobile app
- Emotional connection: 37% of consumers express loyalty by installing a brand’s app, while 48% actively recommend favorite brands to friends and family
- Values alignment: 39% of Gen Z consumers have switched brands over poor sustainability practices
- Real-time relevance: 76% of consumers want rewards and incentives, but 71% also demand helpful, timely, personalized messages
The luxury sector offers particularly instructive lessons. Luxury brand loyalty increased across several categories in 2025, with 59% of luxury consumers citing brand longevity as a key driver — up 12% from 2024. These brands understand that loyalty at the high end requires hyper-personalized, high-touch experiences that make customers feel truly seen.
The Mobile-First Loyalty Revolution
If you’re not optimizing for mobile, you’re already losing. Some 36% of consumers now express loyalty by downloading brand apps, with usage driven primarily by rewards (76%), personalized messages (58%), and helpful prompts (52%).
But here’s what’s fascinating: the channels customers prefer for communication remain remarkably traditional. Email leads at 69%, followed by SMS at 43% and direct mail at 43%. The lesson? Meet customers where they are but make every interaction count. Generic, batch-and-blast messaging doesn’t just fail to drive loyalty, it actively destroys it.
B2B Loyalty: Where Business Meets Human
The B2B Buyer Loyalty Index reveals that business buyers are behaving more like consumers than ever before. Strategic Loyalty — the B2B equivalent of True Loyalty — now depends on the same foundations: trust, shared values, and personalized experiences.
What’s striking is how widely loyalty responsibility has spread across organizations. No single department dominates the loyalty landscape anymore, with representation fairly evenly distributed across Finance, Marketing, IT, Operations, and Procurement. This underscores a critical point: loyalty can no longer be siloed. It must be a shared goal supported by unified data and cross-functional collaboration.
The rise of AI is transforming B2B relationships in profound ways. Some 25% of buyers are more loyal to suppliers who incorporate AI into their products, while 22% now prioritize suppliers appearing highly in AI search results. This represents a fundamental shift in how business relationships begin and evolve.
Perhaps most tellingly, 67% of B2B buyers have switched suppliers due to a lack of innovation. In a world moving at AI speed, standing still is the same as falling behind.
The Path Forward: Engineering Loyalty in the Engagement Era
So how do brands thrive when loyalty is this fragile? The answer lies in treating loyalty not as a rewards program but as a comprehensive business strategy powered by intelligent, real-time engagement.
Here’s what winning looks like:
First, close the personalization gap. Use AI to deliver relevant, timely experiences across every touchpoint. This means moving beyond demographic segments to understand individual preferences, behaviors, and needs.
Second, embrace omnichannel consistency. Your customers don’t distinguish between channels — they just want seamless experiences. Whether they’re engaging via email, SMS, mobile app, or in-store, the experience should feel connected and personalized.
Third, build emotional connections. Data and technology enable personalization, but emotion drives loyalty. Find ways to make customers feel understood, valued, and special — not like another email address in your database.
Fourth, respond in real time. In the age of Trend Loyalty, speed matters. Use AI to recognize and respond to fast-moving signals, turning viral attention into lasting relationships.
Finally, operationalize loyalty across your entire organization. This isn’t just Marketing’s job anymore. From supply chain to customer service to product development, every team plays a role in creating experiences that earn loyalty.
The Bottom Line
The Engagement Era demands more from brands than ever before. Customer loyalty in 2025 is fragile, fleeting, and increasingly difficult to earn. But for brands willing to invest in AI-powered personalization, unified data strategies, and genuine customer understanding, the rewards are substantial.
True Loyalty may be declining, but it’s not dead. The brands that will thrive are those that recognize loyalty as a continuous journey, not a destination — earned through every interaction, every touchpoint, every moment of relevance and care.
In this new era, loyalty isn’t about who you are. It’s about how well you understand who your customers are — and showing up for them in ways that matter, every single time.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn.
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