China 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 China is expected to grow by 16.0% annually, reaching US$21.42 billion by 2026.

The loyalty market in the country has experienced robust growth during 2021-2025, achieving a CAGR of 18.4%. This upward trajectory is expected to continue, with the market forecast to grow at a CAGR of 13.5% from 2026 to 2030. By the end of 2030, the loyalty market is projected to expand from its 2025 value of US$18.46 billion to approximately US$35.54 billion.

Key Trends and Drivers Shaping Loyalty Programs in China

China’s loyalty program market is being reshaped by platform dominance, embedded engagement, and ecosystem-driven models. Over the coming years, loyalty will function less as a standalone program and more as infrastructure supporting retention, ecosystem participation, and integrated consumption across digital and physical environments.

Loyalty Is Becoming Embedded in Everyday Consumption Journeys

Loyalty programs in China are increasingly designed as embedded mechanisms rather than standalone schemes. Points, memberships, and benefits are integrated directly into shopping, payment, and service flows, making loyalty a default layer of consumption rather than a separate engagement activity. Platforms such as Alibaba Group embed loyalty benefits across Taobao, Tmall, and affiliated services, allowing users to earn and redeem value without leaving the transaction journey. Similarly, JD.com integrates loyalty privileges into its retail, logistics, and services ecosystem, reinforcing repeat usage through continuity rather than explicit enrollment prompts.

China’s digital commerce environment is dominated by super-app ecosystems where payments, commerce, and services coexist. Consumers are accustomed to frictionless digital journeys, and loyalty programs that require separate sign-ups or manual tracking face lower engagement. The retail and e-commerce sectors have therefore shifted toward embedding loyalty into checkout, wallets, and account-based systems, aligning with broader platform-driven consumption behavior.

Embedded loyalty is expected to intensify, particularly as platforms seek to defend user time and spending within their ecosystems. Standalone programs are likely to lose relevance unless they integrate with dominant platforms or payment rails. The competitive focus will move from “program design” to “journey integration.” In China, loyalty is no longer an add-on. Its future relevance will depend on how seamlessly it is embedded into everyday digital consumption.

Platform Ecosystems Are Redefining Loyalty Ownership

Loyalty in China is increasingly controlled by large platform ecosystems rather than individual merchants. Super-apps and multi-service platforms act as the primary loyalty aggregators, with merchants participating within broader frameworks. Tencent enables loyalty through WeChat-based mini programs, where brands operate within Tencent’s ecosystem while relying on shared identity, payments, and engagement tools. Similarly, Meituan structures loyalty across food delivery, local services, and travel, positioning itself as the central engagement layer rather than individual merchants.

China’s retail and services markets are highly platform-centric, with traffic, payments, and data concentrated among a few dominant players. For merchants, participating in platform-led loyalty reduces customer acquisition friction and aligns with where consumers already spend time. For platforms, loyalty strengthens ecosystem stickiness and cross-category usage.

Platform-led loyalty is expected to consolidate further. Independent loyalty strategies will remain viable mainly for brands with strong direct-to-consumer capabilities or differentiated offline experiences. Smaller merchants will increasingly rely on platform frameworks rather than building proprietary systems. Loyalty ownership in China is shifting upward from merchants to ecosystems reshaping bargaining power and engagement models across retail and services.

Membership-Based Loyalty Is Expanding Beyond Retail

Paid and tiered memberships are extending beyond traditional retail into services, logistics, and lifestyle categories. Programs such as Alibaba 88VIP bundle benefits across shopping, entertainment, and delivery, while JD Plus combines retail discounts with logistics and service privileges. These models position loyalty as an access mechanism rather than a points-only construct.

Slowing discretionary consumption growth has pushed platforms to prioritize predictable engagement and recurring relationships. Membership models provide clearer value exchange and align with broader shifts in China’s consumer economy toward bundled services and subscription-style access, especially in urban markets.

Membership-based loyalty is expected to remain a central pillar, with further bundling across sectors such as local services, travel, and digital content. However, platforms will need to continuously recalibrate benefits to avoid membership fatigue and maintain perceived relevance.

Data-Driven Personalization Is Being Applied Within Regulatory Constraints

Loyalty programs in China increasingly use behavioral insights to tailor offers, tiers, and engagement, but within stricter data governance boundaries. Platforms leverage first-party data to personalize experiences without overtly expanding data collection. Companies such as Ant Group integrate loyalty-related incentives within compliant financial and payment services, aligning personalization with regulatory expectations.

China’s regulatory environment around data privacy and platform conduct has become more structured, requiring companies to balance personalization with compliance. At the same time, competition within e-commerce and local services demands more precise engagement to sustain repeat usage. Personalization will continue but in a more controlled and transparent form. Loyalty differentiation will rely less on aggressive targeting and more on contextual relevance within permitted data frameworks.

Loyalty Is Increasingly Used to Support Offline-to-Online Integration

Loyalty programs are being used as connective infrastructure between physical retail and digital platforms. Supermarkets, convenience stores, and quick-service restaurants increasingly link offline transactions to digital identities and wallets. Platforms like Alibaba support this through Freshippo (Hema), where in-store and online loyalty experiences are unified under a single account.

China’s retail sector continues to blend physical and digital formats, with consumers expecting continuity across channels. Loyalty programs provide a practical mechanism to connect identities, payments, and engagement across these environments without introducing friction. Offline-linked loyalty is expected to strengthen, particularly in food, grocery, and local services. Programs that fail to bridge physical and digital touchpoints risk declining relevance

Competitive Landscape - China Loyalty Program Market

China’s loyalty landscape is expected to consolidate around integrated ecosystem platforms, with loyalty becoming more deeply embedded in commerce, payments, and services. Competitive advantage will increasingly rely on data-driven personalisation, reward utility across verticals, and real-time execution. Standalone or single-sector loyalty programs are likely to face pressure to integrate with broader ecosystems, super-apps, or infrastructure providers in order to remain visible and relevant.

Current State of the Market

• Loyalty in China is ecosystem-led, shaped by large technology platforms, retailers, and service integrators. Loyalty is embedded into daily transactions across ecommerce, food delivery, payments, entertainment, and transport rather than delivered through siloed, card-based schemes.
• Programs such as Alibaba’s 88VIP, JD Plus, Meituan Black Card, and Tencent-linked loyalty via WeChat mini-programs dominate the market. These memberships offer bundled, cross-service benefits that integrate into shopping, streaming, logistics, and lifestyle needs.
• Competitive intensity is highest in high-frequency categories ecommerce, local services, food delivery, and mobility where loyalty is used to reinforce daily engagement and retain high-value users across services.
• Financial services players (e.g. Alipay, WeBank, and China Merchants Bank) continue to shift loyalty from passive points to active, usage-linked privileges frequently embedded into digital wallets and credit layers.

Key Players and New Entrants

• Alibaba Group continues to anchor loyalty around 88VIP, a cross-service paid membership spanning Tmall, Taobao, Ele.me, Youku, and Freshippo, reinforcing retention through bundled subscriptions and premium ecosystem access rather than transactional points.
• JD.com operates JD Plus as an integrated value layer across ecommerce and logistics, offering priority services and member privileges embedded into JD’s fulfilment-led operating model.
• Meituan runs Meituan Black Card as a premium loyalty tier focused on food delivery, dining, and travel, with engagement driven by location-based offers and gamified incentives tied to high-frequency local consumption.
• Tencent plays a foundational role as a loyalty enabler, providing infrastructure through WeChat mini-programs and payments that allow brands and retailers to operate their own loyalty schemes, rather than through a unified Tencent-branded program.

Recent Launches, Mergers, and Acquisitions

• Freshhippo (Hema) continues to concentrate its loyalty execution within Alibaba’s own ecosystem, with membership benefits and personalised offers delivered primarily through the Hema app and Alibaba-linked services. More broadly, China’s leading retailers are increasingly exploring deeper integration with domestic smartphone ecosystems and system-level services to surface loyalty notifications and contextual offers more seamlessly, although such capabilities remain selective and platform-controlled rather than standardised across the market.
• JD.com continues to enhance JD Plus by incorporating rotating digital content and entertainment benefits alongside retail privileges, reflecting a broader trend in China toward cross-ecosystem reward bundling rather than isolated retail-only loyalty programs.
• Loyalty expansion has instead progressed primarily through partnership-led execution. Ecommerce and payments platforms have continued to work with domestic banks to roll out co-branded credit products and embedded rewards, enabling real-time earn-and-redeem mechanics tied directly to payment and credit usage rather than separate loyalty programs.

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

China Retail Sector Market Context

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

China Loyalty Spend Market Size and Growth Dynamics

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

China 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

China Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Channel

• In-Store
• Online
• Mobile

China Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Business Model

• Seller Driven
• Payment Instrument Driven
• Other Segment

China 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

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

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

China Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Accessibility

• Card Based Access
• Digital Access

China Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Consumer Type

• B2B Consumers
• B2C Consumers

China Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Membership Type

• Free
• Free + Premium
• Premium

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

• Embedded Loyalty Programs
• Non-Embedded Loyalty Programs

China Loyalty Spend Split by Use of AI / Blockchain

• AI Driven Loyalty Program
• Blockchain Driven Loyalty Program

China Loyalty Platform Spend Segmentation by Software Use Case

• Analytics and AI Driven
• Management Platform

China Loyalty Platform Spend Segmentation by Vendor / Solution Partner

• In-house
• Third-Party Vendor

China Loyalty Platform Spend Segmentation by Deployment

• Cloud
• On-Premise

China Loyalty Platform Spend Segmentation by Offering

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

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

• Age Group
• Income Level
• Gender

China 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.