The Loyalty Economy: how repeat shoppers are reshaping eCommerce

Shoppers reward brands that have treated them well. Asked what matters most when returning to a brand, a past good experience beat every other factor, including price and one-off discounts. The pull of a first-time offer, the tool most brands lead with to acquire new customers, ranked last of the five options we tested.

The pattern held across age groups. Even among the most price-sensitive shoppers, experience outranked a discount by a wide margin, suggesting that spend follows trust more reliably than it follows a deal.