53% of Grocery Shoppers Are More Loyal to Merchants Than Products

As consumers weigh a wide range of factors when deciding where to make purchases, PYMNTS Intelligence finds that grocery shoppers tend to be motivated by loyalty to merchants, whereas pharmacy customers tend to go wherever they can get their preferred products.

By the Numbers

PYMNTS Intelligence’s 2022 Decoding Consumer Affinity study drew from a survey of more than 2,000 United States consumers to get a sense of the factors that motivate their shopping behaviors and decisions.

The study found that, when buying pharmaceutical products, 61% of consumers said they are more loyal to products than merchants, while only 20% are more loyal to merchants than products and the remaining portion of consumers are equally loyal to each.

When it comes to grocery, however, the drivers of where to shop are very different. Fifty-three percent of grocery customers stated that they are more loyal to merchants than products, while only 35% said the reverse and just 12% were equally loyal to merchants and products.

The Data in Context

The stark contrast in consumer loyalty between pharmaceutical and grocery shopping reveals a fundamental difference in how consumers prioritize their purchasing decisions. In the pharmaceutical sector, the high loyalty to specific products suggests that efficacy and trust in the brand play a crucial role in driving repeat purchases, overshadowing the influence of the retailer.

In an effort to get consumers to be more loyal, CVS, for its part, upgraded its rewards program earlier this year.

“We heard from some of our members that they found value in our loyalty programs, but that the multiple programs could be hard to manage. So, we’ve been on a journey to combine what was at one point four different programs into a single program with two tiers,” Zach Dennett, vice president of loyalty, omnichannel and Hispanic formats at CVS Health, told PYMNTS in January.

Conversely, the grocery sector’s higher merchant loyalty indicates that factors such as convenience, store experience, and overall service quality are paramount, influencing where consumers choose to shop.

Grocery giant Kroger noted increased customer loyalty on its most recent earnings call following its efforts to personalize its messaging to omnichannel shoppers.

“Personalization enables us to balance the depth and breadth of our promotions more effectively and encourages customers to engage more with us by focusing on promotions that matter most to them,” CEO and chairman Rodney McMullen noted. “This led to an 18% increase in digital coupon clips compared to last year. Capturing more digital households is a key to our long-term growth model as these households are more loyal, spend nearly three times as much with us, and drive our alternative profit businesses.”