How Can Loyalty Programmes Turn Holiday Shoppers Into Regulars?

But in the months following, most of those new faces disappear, never to be seen again until they return next Christmas, if at all. For many, this can’t be helped, but if your business can retain a slightly larger slice of those customers, it could have a transformative impact on your figures for the next year.

So how can you do that? Well, one tried and tested approach is getting your holiday shoppers enrolled in a loyalty programme, and that’s what we’ll look at today. We’ll cover:

• What is a loyalty programme?

• Why holiday shoppers are worth holding on to

• How to start a loyalty programme

• Keeping new members engaged after Christmas

• Measuring success: is your loyalty programme working?

By the end of this blog, you’ll have a clear plan for turning this year’s festive rush into a steady stream of regulars well into the new year. So let’s start planning!

What is a loyalty programme?

At its simplest, a loyalty programme rewards customers for coming back and continuing to choose a business over its competitors. The more often someone shops with you, the more they get in return, whether that’s points, discounts, freebies or exclusive perks. It gives shoppers an extra reason to choose you over a competitor, and gives you a reason to stay in touch with them.

This idea is far from new. Retailers were handing out trading stamps as early as the 1890s, which became a commonplace feature in every store, like the UKs Green Shield Stamps, for example, with shoppers sticking them into books and swapping them for goods. Airlines followed in the 1980s with frequent flyer schemes, and the plastic loyalty card soon became a fixture in every wallet.

Today, loyalty programmes come in many shapes: points-based schemes, tiered memberships that unlock better rewards the more you spend, paid subscriptions, app-based offers and member-only pricing.

One of the most successful examples is on the British high street. Tesco’s Clubcard was first launched in 1995 and attracted nearly five million customers in the first year. Three decades later, it serves more than 24 million UK households and is used in over 80% of transactions at Tesco (Wales Online, via Ground News, June 2026), offering a combination of discounts in-store, vouchers, and rewards.

Why holiday shoppers are worth holding on to

The festive season brings a flood of fresh faces. Studies found that many businesses see a roughly 30% rise in new customers over the holiday period, while the average e-commerce business picks up almost a quarter of its new customers for the whole year during the holidays.

Keeping them is another matter, though. One analysis found that 69% of these holiday shoppers won’t buy again within six months of their first purchase, and Optimove found that of customers who bought just one item during the 2022 holiday season, only 16% went on to order again at all. These are customers who come in, purchase one present, and then disappear forever. While that purchase is valuable, repeat custom is what keeps most businesses going, so a business that manages to raise that 16% figure stands to flourish over the next year.

After all, that’s a lot of value just walking out the door. Raising customer retention by just 5% can lift profits by between 25% and 95% depending on the business. To put it simply: with a 10% retention rate, 800 of 8,000 holiday customers will return; push that to 30%, and it’s 2,400, from the same traffic and the same acquisition spend.

There’s also a bigger opportunity at play. Christmas is when shoppers are most willing to stray from their usual haunts: 80% of consumers say they’re open to visiting new stores or trying new brands over the season. They’re buying for other people, too, which brings you customers who might never have found you otherwise: different ages, different tastes, different budgets. Each one is a chance to reach a new part of the market, and a loyalty programme gives you a way to keep that door open long after the decorations come down!

How to start a loyalty programme 

1. Choose the right model for your goals and customers

Since the aim here is to turn holiday shoppers into regulars, your programme’s main goal is to inspire repeat visits, so start there and work back. Look at what your data already tells you: your POS reporting can show how often customers currently return, what they typically spend, and which products bring them back, while existing customer accounts reveal who your most loyal shoppers are and what they buy.

With that picture in hand, choose a model that fits from the typical options:

• Points-based: customers earn points per pound spent and redeem them for rewards, which works well for frequent, lower-value purchases

• Tiered: the more someone spends, the better their perks, which suits businesses looking to build a core of high-value regulars

• Paid membership: a fee up front for ongoing benefits, best for brands with a dedicated following

• Perks-based: member-only prices, gifts or early access, ideal if your customers value exclusivity

2. Set up your rewards

Rewards need to be appealing enough to motivate customers to come back and spend, but affordable enough to make the extra sales still worth your while. Work out the cost per member and how quickly someone can earn their first reward; if it takes too long, interest fades. If you offer too much, too soon, the business doesn’t benefit.

3. Pick your platform

Will members use a card, an app, or just their email address? Many POS and ecommerce systems offer built-in loyalty tools, which can save time and money for customer and business alike. Epos Now, for instance, offers in-house and third-party loyalty programmes that automatically sync with your customer data, making starting a scheme much easier than building one from the ground up.

4. Train your team and build sign-up into checkout

Staff are your best recruiters, so make sure they can explain the programme’s benefits in a sentence, so they can advertise the programme during each sale. Just as important is a quick, consistent way to sign customers up without holding up the queue. Offering email receipts works well here: once a customer has given their email address, joining the programme can be a simple yes or no at the till. Making sign-up easy will also ensure there’s the minimum inconvenience to customers, so you’re sure to get more on board.

5. Launch, promote and refine

Once it’s ready, and your staff are prepped, get everybody shouting about your programme in store, online, by email and on social media, ideally well ahead of the Christmas rush. Then keep an eye on the sign-ups, redemptions and repeat visits, and tweak your rewards as you learn what works. Once the loyalty scheme is up and running, it doesn’t mean you’re finished as there’s always room for improvement.

Keeping new members engaged after Christmas

January is traditionally a quiet month, as shoppers recover from festive spending. That makes it a difficult time to get them back in, as spending is at its lowest. But it’s still important to reach out while you’re fresh on their mind. Here are a few ways to bring them back:

• Send a welcome message straight away. Don’t wait until the new year. A friendly email shortly after sign-up, explaining how the programme works and what they can earn, keeps your business front of mind before the festive rush fades.

• Offer a January-only bonus. Double points, a small discount or a free gift on their next visit gives new members a clear reason to return during a quiet month, and turns a one-off Christmas purchase into a second visit. When they come back a second time, they start to solidify their relationship with you.

• Give rewards a deadline. A welcome reward that expires at the end of January creates gentle urgency. People hate losing something they’ve already earned, so a time limit can be a powerful nudge to come back sooner.

• Personalise your offers. Use what members bought in November and December to tailor what you send them. Someone who bought a gift for a keen gardener might appreciate hearing about your spring range.

• Remind them of their balance. Many members simply forget they have points waiting. A quick update showing how close they are to their next reward can be all it takes to bring them back through the door.

• Collect birthdays at sign-up. A birthday treat gives you a natural, personal reason to get in touch at any point in the year, keeping new members engaged long after Christmas is a distant memory. Lots of people spend part of their birthdays visiting businesses that do special offers and free gifts. Add your business to their list!

Measuring success: is your loyalty programme working?

So you’ve implemented your loyalty scheme, your staff are trained and your customers, new and old, are hearing about the new programme. But is it working? The first signs of success will show up early in the form of POS data.

Over the Christmas period, keep an eye on how many new customer accounts are being created and what proportion of transactions are linked to a loyalty member. If sign-ups are lower than expected, the problem is usually at the till: staff may not be mentioning the programme enough, or the sign-up process may be too slow. A quick refresher for your team or a simpler sign-up prompt can make a big difference.

Once the festive rush is over, focus on three key measures throughout the year:

• Repeat purchase rate. The first one to look at: what proportion of members who joined over Christmas have shopped with you again, and how quickly? This is the clearest sign of whether your programme is turning holiday shoppers into regulars. If too few are returning, look again at your January offers and follow-up messages.

• Redemption rate. Once customers have had time to build up some points, how many are actually using their rewards? A low rate can mean rewards are too hard to reach or not appealing enough. A very high rate is great for engagement, but check that the cost remains sustainable.

• Retention rate. How many members are still active after three, six or twelve months? Comparing this with customers who aren’t in the programme will show you the real value it’s adding.

Review these figures regularly, ideally monthly, and don’t be afraid to experiment. Small changes to rewards, timings or messaging can have a surprisingly big impact. And by next November, you’ll have a full year of data to make this Christmas’s sign-up drive even more successful.

Loyalty programmes: gamechangers or timewasters?

The festive rush brings a wave of new customers, but most won’t return without a reason to. That’s why loyalty programmes are so essential. With 69% of holiday shoppers not buying again within six months, and a 5% rise in retention capable of lifting profits by 25–95%, even a small improvement can truly transform your year. A well-designed loyalty programme, quick sign-up at the till and a strong January follow-up can help you take advantage of the Q4 surge even during the more difficult Q1.

When it comes to actually implementing a loyalty scheme, Epos Now makes it simple. The in-house Epos Now Loyalty programme runs straight from your till, allowing you to set your own point values and rewards, scan personalised loyalty cards and track member spending from one dashboard. Prefer another scheme? Epos Now integrates with leading third-party loyalty providers, too!