Beyond Discounts: Building Holiday Loyalty That Lasts

Every year, the holiday season puts your brand’s loyalty to the test. You slash prices, launch your biggest campaigns, and target every channel to capture attention before your competitors do. But as the discounts deepen, so does the challenge, because customers aren’t buying from whoever’s cheapest anymore. They’re buying from whoever feels most relevant.

This year’s Customer Loyalty Index 2025 revealed a clear warning: loyalty built on incentives is starting to crumble. True Loyalty has declined by 5%, while short-term, trend-driven loyalty is on the rise. Shoppers are still engaging, but they’re switching faster, spending less consistently, and forgetting brands more quickly than ever before.

The message is clear: discounts can win you a transaction, but not a relationship. If you want your customers to keep coming back after the Black Friday rush, you need to offer something stronger than a one-off deal. You need to deliver ongoing value, personalized engagement, and emotional connection that outlasts the sale.

If it feels harder to hold onto your customers lately, you’re not imagining it. The latest Customer Loyalty Index 2025 shows that even your most loyal shoppers are slipping away faster than before. True Loyalty, the kind built on genuine trust and emotional connection, has fallen by 5% year-over-year, the steepest drop since tracking began.

What’s filling that gap isn’t long-term commitment, but Trend Loyalty: fast, emotionally charged, and fleeting. In fact, 14% of consumers now describe themselves as “Trend Loyal,” meaning their choices are driven by viral products, social influence, and cultural momentum. These customers will line up for your flash sale today and scroll past your brand tomorrow.

That’s the heart of the loyalty recession – a world where engagement looks strong on paper, but real, tangible customer connection is in decline. You might see clicks, conversions, and new sign-ups during the holidays, but without deeper personalization and relevance, those customers won’t stick around.

The good news? You can reverse the trend. By using your data intelligently to recognize intent signals, anticipate needs, and reward loyalty beyond discounts, you can build the kind of emotional and experiential value that competitors can’t undercut.

Holiday shoppers might be price-sensitive, but they’re not price-loyal. A lower price might grab their attention, yet it’s how you make them feel that earns their return. In the Engagement Era, value is defined by consistency, recognition, and the emotional impact of every interaction.

According to the Customer Loyalty Index 2025, 60% of consumers say brands don’t understand them as people, while 23% claim that batch-and-blast marketing actively damages their loyalty. That’s because generic offers send a clear message: you’re one of many, not one in a million.

When your brand personalizes experiences by recommending products based on behavior, timing emails to individual preferences, or tailoring incentives to reflect past purchases, the perceived value of every interaction rises. Even a modest, well-timed offer feels premium when it’s built around the customer, not the discount.

Relevance is now your most powerful differentiator. In a market where nearly every brand competes on cost, the brands that compete on care, anticipating what customers want before they ask will win the holiday season and the months that follow.

Black Friday brings a surge of shoppers who hit your site and bag orders while prices are low. And while it may bring a surge of new customers, it’s what happens next determines whether they remember your brand in February. The biggest opportunity isn’t the sale itself, but how you follow up.

Every transaction gives you data: what customers buy, when they buy, and what might inspire them to come back. The key is acting on that data quickly and meaningfully. With automation and predictive AI, you can create post-purchase experiences that keep your brand top of mind long after the sale ends.

Here’s how to turn seasonal shoppers into lasting loyalists:

• Follow up with relevance. Use predictive segmentation to send thank-you emails, product care tips, or replenishment reminders based on what customers bought, not just when they bought.

• Reward ongoing engagement. Invite new customers into your loyalty or subscription program, offering early access to January launches or exclusive perks that make them feel valued beyond the discount.

• Reactivate the one-and-done buyers. Identify customers who haven’t re-engaged after purchase and trigger personalized win-back journeys with meaningful incentives, like personalized recommendations or exclusive bundles, not blanket codes.

• Connect your channels. Reinforce your message across email, mobile, and social, so each customer interaction feels consistent and intentional, wherever they are.

Every personalized moment after the purchase strengthens your connection and reduces churn. If you can plan beyond the transaction with the goal of opening a relationship, you’ll carry your holiday momentum straight into the new year.

The reality is that you can’t build lasting loyalty on discounts alone, especially when every competitor is shouting louder and selling for cheaper. What sets your brand apart is how you use data, timing, and emotion to turn short-term transactions into long-term relationships.

That’s exactly what SAP Emarsys helps you do. Our AI-powered personalization engine uses real-time customer data to predict intent, recommend next-best actions, and deliver personalized  offers across every channel. You can identify your most valuable segments, tailor incentives based on behavior, and automate journeys that nurture customers far beyond Black Friday.

With SAP Emarsys, every campaign you launch becomes smarter and more personal. You’ll turn the surge of seasonal traffic into relationships that last. Not because you discounted harder, but because you engaged better.