Top Operators Drive Up to 37% of Transactions via Loyalty Members

With performance indicators across restaurant and c-store loyalty programs, report enables brands to benchmark their performance against category leaders

NEWTON, MA - July 09, 2024 - Paytronix, the leader in guest engagement for restaurants and convenience stores, today unveiled the much-anticipated 2024 Paytronix Loyalty Trends Report, which finds that operators in the 75th percentile of loyalty transaction share achieve 30% of their transactions from loyalty program members, while brands in the 90th percentile see loyalty penetration reaching 37% and beyond. By demonstrating how leading brands are pioneering innovative strategies across key metrics, the report helps restaurants and c-stores optimize guest engagement and move their loyalty programs into a higher gear.

“The first step toward a more effective loyalty strategy is to evaluate your current program's performance by assessing key metrics like penetration, growth rate, discount levels, and whether members' behaviors align with your corporate goals,” said Jeff Hindman, Paytronix CEO. “With the 2024 Paytronix Loyalty Trends Report, we’re helping brands understand their program’s strengths and weaknesses and then providing the necessary guidance to create a more dynamic offering that aligns with critical goals, including customer engagement, profitability, and customer lifetime value.“

Key findings from Paytronix Loyalty Report include:

Engaging Guests and Eliminating Churn: The highest-performing quick-service restaurants (QSRs) achieve an average 62% monthly loyalty program member retention rate, while elite full-service restaurants (FSRs) retain 57.8% of their loyalty program members month-to-month, on average. Convenience stores (c-stores) lead in this area, with top performers (90th percentile) reaching an 85% average retention rate.

Loyalty Member Acquisition: The best QSRs sign up an average of 110 new loyalty members per store each month. Their FSR counterparts acquire 70 new members per location monthly, and leading c-stores add an average of 36 new members per location each month.

Personalization: Over 70% of brands’ campaigns are segmented vs. sent to their entire loyalty database. Less than 10% of campaigns leveraged predictive model scores.

Email Reigns Supreme: More than 80% of campaigns rely on email to engage guests. Although campaigns that include mobile app push messages represent over 20% of campaigns for QSR and c-stores.

Average Spend Per Visit
For QSRs, the average spend per visit is $19.05 for brands in the 50^th percentile and $30.16 for those in the 90^th percentile. For FSRs, it’s $39.35 and $77.49, respectively; and for c-stores, $13.03 and $24.30.

Methodology
The 2024 Paytronix Loyalty Trends Report drills into data by concept – quick service restaurants (QSRs), full-service restaurants (FSRs), and c-stores – then breaks out key performance metrics by percentile ranks from median (50th) to elite (90th). It’s designed to help brands compare their own results against benchmarks for key loyalty metrics, including average spend per visit, visit frequency, and average customer lifetime value (CLV). The report also examines program components, such as personalization, data analytics, program design, emotional engagement, and targeted messaging.