When it comes to building a customer loyalty strategy, data might not seem like the sexiest topic—especially when compared to flashy loyalty perks, slick mobile apps, and cutting-edge tech.
But customer loyalty data can be a game-changing superpower if you use it right. From driving repeat purchases to gaining a competitive edge in supplier negotiations, loyalty insights can drive smarter decisions across your entire business.
In this article, we shed light on how to turn customer data into a strategic advantage so you can increase customer retention and overall business growth.
Let's get started.
In order to use data effectively, you first need to collect it. Now, this doesn't mean drowning in spreadsheets or hoarding every customer interaction. If you really want to unlock valuable insights, your data needs to be unified, actionable, and tied directly to customer behavior across all your sales channels.
Consider the following.
Today's customers shop everywhere—online, in-store, via mobile—and they expect a consistent experience no matter where they are. That’s why it’s a must to consolidate your customer data from all touchpoints. When you connect your point-of-sale, ecommerce, and marketing platforms, you can see the full picture of a customer's journey, not just isolated transactions.
This kind of holistic view enables smarter segmentation, more personalized messaging, and better-informed business decisions. Whether you're refining loyalty tiers, planning promotions, or reporting on ROI, connected data turns guesswork into strategy.
For first-party, de-anonymized data on customers no matter where they shop, use a loyalty program that connects your POS and ecommerce channels (we can help with that!). That way, you can understand not just what your customers are doing—but why—and tailor your loyalty efforts accordingly.
As far what customer loyalty data to collect, start with basic customer data, including:
In doing so, you build the foundation for personalized experiences that feel relevant and timely—key drivers of long-term loyalty.
From there, it helps to track loyalty program metrics so you can gauge the performance of your initiatives. Here are a few key metrics to keep an eye on:
Pro tip: Marsello enables you to gather and analyze all these metrics (and more) with built-in loyalty analytics, so you can take action based on real customer behavior, not assumptions.
Having data is essential—but if you want to take things a step further, it needs to be accessible, easy to interpret, and immediately actionable. While tables, charts, and graphs are useful for visualizing information, they don't always tell you what to do next.
Fortunately, emerging technologies like AI are making it easier for marketers to not just collect data, but actually put it to good use through real-time insights and personalized recommendations.
Leveraging AI to power your customer loyalty data efforts gives you a leg up in several ways:
Be more efficient. For one, AI tools allow you to spend less time analyzing and more time executing. AI saves hours or even days of time trawling through data and gives you key insights and recommended next steps (when you know how to use it). That way, your team can focus on strategy and creativity instead of manual reporting. Which brings us to our next point…
Go to market faster. Brands leveraging the latest AI tools, trends and prompts aren’t just doing things better, they’re doing things much, much faster. This gives them more time to actually action recommendations and start seeing results earlier.
When AI automates the heavy lifting, you can launch your loyalty initiatives sooner rather than later.
All this to say that staying current with AI-powered tools isn’t just nice to have—it’s essential for staying competitive. Businesses and brands using AI now will gain a first-mover advantage, unlocking performance gains that late adopters will struggle to match.
As Matt Thomas, our Co-Founder, says:
“Loyalty is about more than giving away points. It’s knowing your customers and showing that they’re appreciated. AI levels the playing field by helping you understand your customers better than ever before. Now it’s simpler than ever to engage with them—meaningfully—and bring them back through the doors.”
Right now, Matt's one of the leads on the Marsello AI project, so he lives and breathes this. Through this project, we're on a mission to help you:
Built on over a decade of campaign and transaction data, Marsello AI can turn your raw customer data into meaningful action. The result? Less time spent digging through dashboards, more time creating campaigns that actually move the needle.
You've collected the right data and turned it into actionable insights. Now, it's time to put that information to work. Here are just a few of the business-changing benefits you can expect.
When you understand your customers on a deeper level—what they buy, how often they shop, and what motivates them—you can tailor experiences that feel personal, not generic.
Whether sending a timely reward email, celebrating a birthday with a special offer, or recommending products based on past purchases, customer loyalty data helps you meet shoppers where they are.
That kind of relevance isn't just appreciated—it builds trust, encourages repeat visits, and strengthens long-term loyalty.
We can see this in action in Restart CBD, a Texas-based dispensary that uses Marsello to power its loyalty program and marketing campaigns.
With Marsello, Restart can segment customers based on behavior, set up automated triggers for specific actions, and deliver personalized emails that resonate.
Personalization is particularly important for Restart, given the strict advertising restrictions on cannabis-related products. Using loyalty data, the Restart team can segment audiences and deliver targeted email promotions that feel tailored and drive real engagement, all while staying compliant.
Customer loyalty data gives you visibility into purchasing behavior over time. You can identify which products are popular among your most loyal shoppers, which seasons drive repeat visits, and when to expect spikes in demand.
Those insights pave the way for more accurate demand forecasting and sales projects so you can avoid under- or over-stocking and keep cash flow healthy.
Loyalty data reveals what your customers care about. You can see which products earn the most repeat purchases, what feedback customers are sharing post-purchase, and how different segments respond to promotions. All of that can help guide new product launches, packaging updates, or even decisions about discontinuing underperforming items. Instead of guessing, you're developing with data-backed confidence.
Acquiring new customers is more expensive than keeping existing ones—and the right data helps you do both more efficiently.
You can use loyalty insights to create high-performing lookalike audiences and re-engage lapsed customers with campaigns that convert. That means better ROI from your marketing spend and more value from each customer relationship.
Marsello makes this even easier with Facebook Audience Sync, a feature that automatically pushes your custom segments—like "At-Risk," "Loyal," or "Window Shoppers"—directly into Facebook Ads Manager.
Facebook Audience Sync lets you:
Your loyalty data doesn't just benefit internal teams—it's a powerful external asset, too. When negotiating with suppliers or brand partners, being able to show engagement metrics, repeat purchase rates, or campaign results can help you secure co-marketing funds or exclusive deals. It proves your value as a retail partner and positions your business as one that drives results—not just orders.
In today's hyper-competitive market, customer loyalty isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a defensive moat. Loyalty programs, when properly designed and leveraged, do more than just encourage repeat purchases. They empower brands to own the customer relationship, providing critical first-party data that makes businesses more resilient against competitors and discount-first giants.
"Loyalty programs act as a defensive moat within your business, preventing customer churn," Rory Moss, Chief Revenue Officer at Marsello, emphasized during the Beyond Discounts webinar.
In a world where online retailers invest millions into frictionless purchase experiences, traditional businesses must compete not just on price, but on relationship and experience. Loyalty programs offer a structured way to do exactly that.
By tying a customer's profile to their transaction history, brands unlock powerful insights: who their best customers are, what they value most, and when they might be at risk of churning. With this knowledge, businesses can go beyond blanket discounting and create personalized, high-value experiences that build emotional loyalty—not just transactional loyalty.
"It's not just enough nowadays to develop a strong brand," says Rory, "you need your customers to experience that, love that, and feel part of that community as well."
This kind of brand loyalty is far stickier than a fleeting 10% off coupon. It's why leading loyalty programs increasingly focus on offering money-can’t-buy experiences—like exclusive events, first-access to products, and VIP communities—which help brands stay top of mind and top of wallet.
Perhaps most importantly, loyalty program data arms businesses with the ability to proactively identify customers who are likely to churn and intervene early—something traditional marketing tools often fail to do. Thanks to integrations with point-of-sale (POS) systems, e-commerce platforms, and new AI-driven tools, this kind of precision marketing is more accessible than ever before.
As Rory succinctly put it, "Owning your customer’s data gives you the ability to adjust your marketing mix, to protect your margins, and to build defensibility into your business model."
In short:
First-party loyalty data = customer relationship ownership
Relationship ownership = insulation from pricing wars
Insulation = long-term competitive advantage
In a race where price competition will only get fiercer, your customer data is your brand’s best armor.
Customer loyalty data isn't just a nice-to-have—it's your competitive edge. When you collect the right insights, make them easy to understand, and use tools like Marsello to act on them, you're not just retaining customers—you're growing smarter, faster, and stronger than the competition.
Looking to turn your data into one of your most powerful business assets? Marsello doesn’t just power your marketing programs—our platform also enables you to collect and analyze customers so you can take smarter, faster action that grows your business.
Want to talk about this with an expert? Book in some time — we'd love to hear from you.