Australia Loyalty Market Size & Forecast by Spend Value Across 100+ KPIs by Program Type, Channel Mix, Sector, Embedded Loyalty Penetration, and Platform Spend Segmentation - Databook Q1 2026 Update

The loyalty market in Australia is expected to grow by 13.5% annually, reaching US$1.13 billion by 2026.

The loyalty market in the country has experienced robust growth during 2021-2025, achieving a CAGR of 15.5%. This upward trajectory is expected to continue, with the market forecast to grow at a CAGR of 11.4% from 2026 to 2030. By the end of 2030, the loyalty market is projected to expand from its 2025 value of US$996.2 million to approximately US$1.73 billion.

Key Trends and Drivers

• Embed loyalty into everyday payments rather than standalone programs
• Australian loyalty is shifting from “points programs” to being embedded directly into everyday payment and banking flows. Loyalty accrual and redemption increasingly happen when consumers pay across cards, wallets, and in-app checkout rather than through separate loyalty journeys. Commonwealth Bank continues to position CommBank Awards within card usage and in-app servicing, making rewards a by-product of daily spend rather than an active choice. Woolworths’ Everyday Rewards integrates earn and redemption tightly into in-store checkout and digital payment flows across Woolworths, Big W, and partner merchants.
• High card penetration and frequent grocery, fuel, and everyday retail spend make payments the most reliable loyalty trigger in Australia. Retailers and banks are reducing friction and disengagement caused by separate loyalty apps. Payments-led loyalty also provides clearer control over earn economics and redemption timing.
• Payment-native loyalty will become the default design for large programs. Standalone, app-only loyalty programs are likely to lose relevance unless embedded into payment or wallet rails.

Use grocery and fuel ecosystems as the anchor for scale and frequency

• Large grocery and fuel-linked ecosystems dominate loyalty engagement by anchoring programs in high-frequency categories. Flybuys (Coles) continues to use grocery, fuel, and everyday retail as the core earn engine, with partners layered around this base. Everyday Rewards leverages Woolworths’ grocery dominance and Everyday Pay to reinforce repeat behavior across weekly shopping missions.
• Grocery and fuel represent the most consistent consumer spend categories in Australia. These sectors offer a predictable transaction frequency, which is critical for maintaining loyalty without excessive incentives. Scale players can fund loyalty economics in ways smaller retailers cannot.
• Loyalty power will remain concentrated among grocery-anchored ecosystems. Smaller retailers will increasingly plug into these ecosystems rather than operate independent programs.

Extend airline loyalty beyond travel into retail and financial services

• Airline loyalty programs are functioning as multi-sector consumer platforms rather than travel-only schemes. Qantas Frequent Flyer continues to expand its earn-and-burn across retail, financial services, and everyday partners, positioning points as a general consumer currency. Retailers increasingly participate in airline ecosystems to access engaged, higher-value members without building their own large programs.
• Airline programs in Australia have mature member bases and strong engagement mechanics. Non-travel earn opportunities stabilise engagement when travel demand fluctuates. Retailers benefit from outsourcing loyalty complexity to established platforms.
• Airline loyalty will further entrench itself as a horizontal rewards layer across retail and financial services. Competitive pressure will increase on traditional retail-only loyalty schemes.

Shift loyalty from long-term accumulation to near-term value realisation

• Australian programs are placing greater emphasis on near-term redemption and tangible value rather than long-term point accumulation. Everyday Rewards and Flybuys promote direct money-off, instant savings, and checkout-level redemption options. Programs are simplifying value propositions to reduce unused balances and disengagement.
• Cost-of-living pressures have increased consumers' sensitivity to immediate savings. Retailers are actively managing point liabilities and breakage risk. Simpler redemption improves perceived fairness and trust in loyalty schemes.
• Deferred, aspirational rewards will play a smaller role outside of airline programs. More Australian loyalty programs will resemble price-linked value mechanisms embedded in regular shopping.

Competitive Landscape

More “platform competition” for points issuance and redemption (banks/Amex ↔ retail ↔ airline), with partnerships used as the fastest lever to shift share-of-wallet. Further retirement of sub-scale programs and migration into larger ecosystems as economies tighten.

• Compete through ecosystems, not standalone programs: Australia’s loyalty landscape is high-intensity because the largest programs sit on frequent spend categories (grocery, fuel, everyday retail) and are increasingly connected to payments and partner networks rather than “points-only” mechanics.
• Consolidation pressure is visible in the long tail: Smaller retail programs are being wound down or folded into larger platforms, signalling that scale (member base and partner economics) is becoming the main barrier to staying independent.

Key Players and New Entrants

• Retail-led scale: Woolworths Everyday Rewards and Coles Flybuys remain central due to weekly purchase frequency and their ability to negotiate partner economics at checkout.
• Travel-led platform: Qantas Frequent Flyer continues to compete for everyday spend by expanding earn/burn partnerships with large retailers.
• Bank-led loyalty as distribution: Major banks use rewards and points conversion to shape card preference and retention (e.g., loyalty as part of card propositions rather than a separate program).
• New/renewed retail entrants via platform tie-ups: David Jones Rewards is being positioned with Qantas Frequent Flyer integration to accelerate member acquisition without building a closed ecosystem from scratch.

Recent Launches, Mergers, and Acquisitions

• Points-network partnerships are accelerating: Everyday Rewards added conversion pathways to ANZ Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards, increasing competition for “where points live” (bank vs. retail vs. airline).
• Retail partnership escalation: David Jones + Qantas Frequent Flyer launched a strategic loyalty partnership and rewards integration.
• Program consolidation (operational M&A-equivalent): Just Shop Rewards is winding and transitioning into Myer’s loyalty system, illustrating portfolio rationalisation in specialty retail.

This report provides a detailed data-centric analysis of the loyalty industry in Australia, offering comprehensive coverage of both overall and alternative lending markets. It covers more than 100+ KPIs, including spend value on loyalty schemes, loyalty breakage rate, and penetration rate.

The report provides in-depth segmentation across the loyalty ecosystem, capturing loyalty spend value and breaking it down by core market dimensions. It classifies loyalty activity by program models (such as points, cashback, tiered, subscription, coalition, and gamified formats), membership structures, and execution channels (in-store, online, and mobile app), alongside embedded loyalty use cases integrated into payments, commerce, and platform ecosystems. The analysis further segments the market by industry verticals and assesses technology enablement, including AI-driven personalisation and emerging blockchain-led program mechanics. In addition, the dataset captures consumer demographics, enrolment pathways, and key program economics such as value accumulation, redemption, and breakage. Collectively, these datasets provide a comprehensive and quantifiable view of market size, structure, engagement behaviour, and value realisation dynamics within the loyalty market.

The research methodology is based on industry best practices. Its unbiased analysis leverages a proprietary analytics platform to offer a detailed view of emerging business and investment market opportunities.

Report Scope

This report provides a detailed data-centric analysis of the loyalty market in Australia, with comprehensive coverage across retail-sector context, loyalty spend dynamics, and loyalty platform economics. Below is a summary of key market segments:

Australia Retail Sector Market Context

• Australia Retail Industry Market Size, 2021-2030
• Australia Ecommerce Market Size, 2021-2030
• Australia POS Market Size Trend Analysis, 2021-2030

Australia Loyalty Spend Market Size and Growth Dynamics

• Australia Loyalty Spend Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics, 2021-2030
• Australia Loyalty Spend on Schemes by Value Accumulated and Value Redemption Rate, 2025
• Australia Loyalty Spend Share by Functional Domains, 2021-2030
• Australia Loyalty Spend by Loyalty Schemes, 2021-2030
• Australia Loyalty Spend by Loyalty Platforms, 2021-2030

Australia Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Loyalty Program Type

• Point-based Loyalty Program
• Tiered Loyalty Program
• Mission-driven Loyalty Program
• Spend-based Loyalty Program
• Gaming Loyalty Program
• Free Perks Loyalty Program
• Subscription Loyalty Program
• Community Loyalty Program
• Refer a Friend Loyalty Program
• Paid Loyalty Program
• Cashback Loyalty Program

Australia Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Channel

• In-Store
• Online
• Mobile

Australia Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Business Model

• Seller Driven
• Payment Instrument Driven
• Other Segment

Australia Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Key Sectors

• Retail
• Financial Services
• Healthcare & Wellness
• Restaurants & Food Delivery
• Travel & Hospitality (Cabs, Hotels, Airlines)
• Telecoms
• Media & Entertainment
• Other

Sector × Channel Views: Loyalty Schemes Spend by Key Sectors and Channels

• Online Loyalty Spend by Sector, 2021-2030
• In-store Loyalty Spend by Sector, 2021-2030
• Mobile App Loyalty Spend by Sector, 2021-2030

Australia Retail Sector Deep-Dive: Loyalty Schemes Spend by Retail Segment

• Diversified Retailers
• Department Stores
• Specialty Stores
• Supermarket and Convenience Store
• Other

Australia Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Accessibility

• Card Based Access
• Digital Access

Australia Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Consumer Type

• B2B Consumers
• B2C Consumers

Australia Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Membership Type

• Free
• Free + Premium
• Premium

Australia Loyalty Spend Split by Embedded vs. Non-Embedded Loyalty

• Embedded Loyalty Programs
• Non-Embedded Loyalty Programs

Australia Loyalty Spend Split by Use of AI / Blockchain

• AI Driven Loyalty Program
• Blockchain Driven Loyalty Program

Australia Loyalty Platform Spend Segmentation by Software Use Case

• Analytics and AI Driven
• Management Platform

Australia Loyalty Platform Spend Segmentation by Vendor / Solution Partner

• In-house
• Third-Party Vendor

Australia Loyalty Platform Spend Segmentation by Deployment

• Cloud
• On-Premise

Australia Loyalty Platform Spend Segmentation by Offering

• Software
• Services
• Custom Built Platform vs. Off the Shelf Platform

Australia Consumer Demographics & Behaviour (Loyalty Spend Share), 2025

• Age Group
• Income Level
• Gender

Australia Loyalty Program KPIs, Behavioral Metrics & Embedded, 2025

• Primary Loyalty Motivation Split Analysis
• Loyalty Program Breakage Rate Analysis
• Loyalty Program Enrollment Channel Mix Analysis
• Embedded Loyalty Penetration by Channel

Reasons to Buy

• Comprehensive Market Intelligence: Gain a comprehensive view of the loyalty market by quantifying total loyalty spend value and its composition across loyalty schemes and loyalty platforms, supported by retail context indicators to benchmark market scale, structure, and growth dynamics.
• Granular Loyalty Spend Coverage: Analyze loyalty spend value across loyalty schemes and loyalty platforms, supported by structured segmentation across program types (e.g., point-based, tiered, cashback, subscription, community, gaming, mission-driven, paid, and referral-led formats).
• Channel and Sector-Level Execution Insights: Evaluate how loyalty spend is distributed across in-store, online, and mobile channels, and across key verticals including Retail, Financial Services, Healthcare & Wellness, Restaurants & Food Delivery, Travel & Hospitality, Telecoms, and Media & Entertainment, with dedicated sector × channel views.
• Program Structure and Participation Mix: Understand how loyalty schemes differ by business model (seller-driven vs. payment-instrument-driven), accessibility (card-based vs. digital), consumer type (B2B vs. B2C), and membership type (free, premium, and free+premium), enabling more precise program design and competitive benchmarking.
• Embedded Loyalty and Emerging Mechanisms Tracking: Assess the evolution of embedded vs. non-embedded loyalty and track spend splits linked to program enablement, including AI-driven and blockchain-driven loyalty program spend where captured in the dataset.
• Platform Spend and Vendor/Deployment Benchmarking: Benchmark loyalty platform economics by software use case (analytics/AI-driven vs. management platforms), solution partner model (in-house vs. third-party), deployment (cloud vs. on-premise), and offering mix (software vs. services; custom-built vs. off-the-shelf).
• Consumer Demographics and Program KPI Lens: Access loyalty spend share by age, income, and gender, alongside decision-critical program KPIs such as loyalty penetration (% of retail sales under loyalty), primary motivation split, breakage rate, enrollment channel mix, and embedded loyalty penetration by channel.
• Decision-Ready Databook Format with 100+ KPIs: Leverage a structured dataset with historical and forecast coverage through 2030, designed for direct integration into market models, strategic planning, and executive presentations by retailers, platforms, payment providers, technology vendors, and investors.