What Stores Have a Loyalty Program in 2026?

Most Stores Have a Loyalty Program. Very Few Have a Good One.

Walk into almost any retailer today and you'll get asked the same question at checkout: "Are you a member?" Coffee shops, airlines, grocery chains, DTC brands, fast fashion, they all have one. Shopify research on loyalty programs estimates that loyalty program participation has grown consistently year over year. But participation is not the same as performance.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: the average loyalty program has a redemption rate in the low teens, around 14-15%. Customers earn points, forget about them, and never come back specifically because of the program. The program exists. The behavior change doesn't.

This article breaks down which stores actually have loyalty programs, how the models differ, and what separates programs that drive real retention from ones that just look good in a pitch deck.

The Big Retail Chains: Loyalty by Volume

The most well-known loyalty programs operate at massive scale:

Starbucks Rewards is probably the most cited example of a loyalty program done right. Members earn "Stars" per dollar spent, redeemable for free drinks and food. The mobile app is central to the experience. Starbucks has reported that its rewards members account for nearly 60% of US company-operated sales.

Amazon Prime is a different category entirely. It's a paid membership, not a points program. You pay $139/year and get free shipping, Prime Video, early access, and dozens of other perks. This is the model that changed what customers expect from "belonging" to a brand.

Target Circle offers cash-back percentages on purchases, personalized deals, and a birthday reward. Free to join. Simple to use.

Sephora Beauty Insider tiers members into Insider, VIB, and Rouge based on annual spend. Rouge members spend $1,000+ per year and get access to exclusive events and products. McKinsey research on loyalty programs consistently shows tiered programs drive higher spend from top customers.

Nordstrom Nordy Club uses a points system tied to a branded credit card, with tiered access to events and early product access.

These programs work because they're backed by massive marketing budgets, proprietary apps, and years of behavioral data. What works for Starbucks and Sephora does not automatically translate to a brand doing $2M a year on Shopify.

DTC Brands: Where Loyalty Programs Often Break Down

Most DTC brands run some version of a points program. You earn points on purchases, maybe on reviews or referrals, and eventually you redeem them for a discount. The platforms are real (Smile.io, Yotpo, LoyaltyLion are common). The results are often underwhelming.

The core problem: points programs reward the transaction after it happens. The customer buys, earns points, leaves. By the time they think about those points again, if they ever do, the brand has to re-acquire that attention. The program doesn't create forward momentum. It creates a trailing obligation that customers mostly ignore.

That low-teens redemption stat isn't an accident. It reflects a structural flaw in how points programs are designed. They feel like loyalty. They don't create it.

Shopify's research on repeat customers shows that getting a customer to buy twice is the hardest step. Points programs rarely solve that problem at scale.

The Model That Actually Changes Behavior: Paid Membership

The real shift happening in DTC right now is the move from points to paid membership. And the numbers are not subtle.

Paid membership works differently. Instead of rewarding past behavior, it creates future commitment. A customer pays a monthly fee upfront, say $19 or $39, and immediately receives store credit equal to or greater than what they paid. That credit feels like money they already own. They come back to spend it.

The average store credit redemption rate for paid membership programs is around 70%, versus roughly 15% for points programs. That's not a marginal improvement. It's a different category of customer behavior.

Look at what's happening across DTC verticals:

Jewelry (Tres Colori): Jewelry is the last category where you'd expect a monthly membership to work. You don't auto-ship a necklace. But Tres Colori launched "Tres VIP," $25/month in store credit plus 10% off, and now 48% of their total revenue comes from members. Their store credit redemption rate is 84%. Nearly half their checkout traffic opts in.

Eyewear (Pair Eyewear): Glasses don't fit traditional subscriptions either. Pair launched "Pair+" and now sees 216% higher LTV for members versus non-members at scale. Members account for 38% of total revenue. In a controlled A/B test against their top 20% of non-member shoppers over 10 months, members still won by 43%.

Skincare (Riversol): Riversol's challenge wasn't repeat purchase, it was product discovery. Customers kept buying the same SKU and nothing else. Their $39/month "Riversol+" membership, which includes store credit, early access, and free samples, drove a 66% increase in customer lifetime value. The program itself went from discovery call to fully live in about a month.

Fragrance (Dossier): Over 45% of shoppers opt into "Dossier+" at checkout. That's not a retention metric. That's acquisition efficiency changing in real time.

The common thread: these aren't subscription boxes. Customers aren't receiving a product on autopilot. They're paying to belong and getting credit to spend how they want. The flexibility is what makes the adoption rate so high.

Loyalty + Paid Membership: The Combination That Compounds

The smartest brands aren't choosing between loyalty and paid membership. They're running both, and building a tiered engagement system.

Casual customers earn points, stay warm, and gradually move up. Your best customers pay for premium membership benefits and return at a dramatically higher rate. The two programs reinforce each other instead of competing.

Research on retention economics consistently shows that acquiring a new customer can cost anywhere from 5 to 25 times more than retaining an existing one, depending on the industry. A layered loyalty and membership system directly attacks that cost by converting your existing buyer base into recurring members.

A customer who pays to belong AND accumulates points toward a reward is the hardest customer to lose you can build.

Which Model Is Right for Your Brand?

If you're a Shopify brand asking which stores have a loyalty program and wondering what to build, the answer is: almost every store has one, and most are underperforming. The brands pulling ahead are running paid membership programs on top of their existing loyalty infrastructure, not instead of it.

Subscribfy is the platform built specifically for this. It's what Adore Me used to reach $300M in annual revenue, and it's now available to any Shopify brand through a single app. The loyalty program is included free for membership clients. The two products were designed to work together from the beginning.

If you want to see what the numbers look like for your specific store, the ROI simulator takes about 90 seconds to run.

Most stores have a loyalty program. The question is whether yours is actually changing behavior, or just tracking it.