Amex says UK shoppers now hold 12 loyalty schemes each

American Express said on 9 September that 90 percent of British adults belong to at least one loyalty scheme, and that the average person is signed up to 12 of them. The figures come from the company’s own Rewards Report, based on a survey of 4,000 UK adults.

Supermarket schemes reach 87 percent of the sample

Supermarkets sit at the top of the list, with 87 percent of the people surveyed in at least one grocery scheme. High street shops follow on 66 percent. Food and drink chains reach 50 percent. Reward or cashback credit cards, the category Amex sells into, reach 44 percent.

Twelve memberships is not twelve relationships. Amex says 35 percent of what people spend earns them anything back, and that 46 percent have folded rewards into a daily routine. The rest of the cards sit in a wallet doing nothing.

The average redeemer saved £132.30 over twelve months

People who actually cash in their points saved £132.30 across a year, on the company’s numbers. The top 5 percent of savers did far better, at £797.50. Across all schemes, Amex puts total rewards redeemed in the UK over the past year at £4.43 billion.

What people do with the money has shifted towards the practical. Amex found 40 percent use rewards to take the edge off everyday costs and 37 percent to get better value on something they were going to buy anyway. Another 21 percent treat the balance as a small emergency fund.

Experiences matter to a quarter of scheme members

Money is not the only draw. Amex says 53 percent get perks beyond a discount, 32 percent use schemes to unlock experiences they could not otherwise get, and 26 percent say they have reached something they would call once in a lifetime. Dan Edelman, general manager of UK merchant services at American Express, said rewards are “embedded in everyday life”.

These numbers come from a company that sells rewards cards, so read the credit card share with that in mind. They still line up with other pictures of the British shopper. The IPA has reported that UK adults now spend 44 percent of their commercial media time alone, which is the same shopper making the same private decisions. Retailers are meanwhile turning that scheme data into advertising: Toom has opened retail media in more than 300 Rewe stores. And loyalty is not a cushion against bad trading, as the John Lewis Partnership loss of £89 million shows.

The money in play is £4.43 billion a year, earned on 35 percent of what people spend. That share is the number worth moving. Getting a member to put one more weekly shop through the scheme is worth more than signing up somebody who will hold card number 13 and never use it.