Imagine typing “best summer dresses for wedding under $150” into Google and instead of the usual list of links, you’re presented with an AI-generated summary. Three to five specific options, recommended and explained. No scrolling, no decision fatigue, no clicking through to brand sites. That’s the reality of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), now rolled out widely.
For ecommerce brands, it’s unsettling. The familiar journey of search, site visit, browsing, basket and purchase — and the data that goes along with that — is being disrupted. Instead of earning clicks through SEO-optimized product pages, brands are becoming one of many names in an AI summary — or not featured at all. In this new world, loyalty isn’t just about retention. It’s your brand’s insurance policy when your ability to gain website traffic and the accompanying data is at risk.
SGE is already changing how people shop. A quarter of consumers have used AI whilst shopping, and 80% of searches are now carried out without any click-through to traditional links, suggesting AI is absorbing most user needs before brands even get a chance. AI is no longer a silent guide; it’s a decisive influence.
Ecommerce leaders are right to worry. Less direct traffic doesn’t just mean fewer opportunities to capture first-party data. It also means less control over how you’re presented. You could be positioned as the budget option when you pride yourself on quality, or overlooked entirely if your product descriptions aren’t rich enough to feed the algorithm’s criteria.
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In addition to this, acquisition costs are likely to rise as brands pump more budget into paid search to compensate for organic decline. Meanwhile, insight gaps grow. With AI summaries doing the talking, fewer customers visit sites directly, leaving brands in the dark about what triggered discovery or conversion.
But there is a route to maintaining visibility and reputation. Loyalty.
At its core, loyalty builds familiarity, trust and emotional connection. These are precisely the qualities that influence AI recommendations. The more consistently your brand is reviewed positively, mentioned by name and associated with credibility in customer-generated content, the more likely it is to be surfaced by AI. In other words, your loyalty program members can help you feed the algorithm with the right signals.
Your loyalty program isn’t just a nice-to-have retention tool. It’s a way to maintain visibility when search landscapes shift. Programs that encourage reviews, for example, create the detailed, sentiment-rich content AI tools prioritise. Our research of 4,000 shops found that 70% of consumers are willing to leave reviews in exchange for loyalty points, rising to 81% among millennials. Longer, more descriptive reviews boost both consumer confidence and AI discoverability, and greater incentives for photo or video reviews are a good idea.
And it’s not just about appearing in AI summaries. Loyalty programs ensure that when someone does click through to your site, you don’t lose them again. By enrolling them in your program, you gain direct access to continue the conversation across various channels — whether that’s through email, SMS, app notifications or exclusive member content. This is crucial at a time when brands are seeing drops in site traffic and must maximise every visit.
85% of shoppers say loyalty programs influence their decision to buy again. For younger shoppers, that influence is even stronger: 95% of Gen Z and 92% of millennials agree loyalty keeps them coming back.
But it goes deeper than transactions: 71% of millennials and Gen Z say they feel more emotionally connected to brands through loyalty programs, compared to just 39% of boomers. When AI makes buying faster and simpler but strips away brand experience, emotional loyalty is what keeps a brand in shoppers’ minds — and hearts.
First-party data is another hidden power of a loyalty program. Profiles and quizzes, incentivised through points, help brands understand their customers better and replace some of the data lost from reduced website visits. 78% of consumers say they would complete a quiz or profile in exchange for loyalty points.
This data fuels personalization, creating the tailored communications and experiences that keep customers engaged outside of search. It also equips brands with insights to create content that AI tools are more likely to surface, because you’re answering the exact questions your customers are asking.
But perhaps most importantly, loyalty programs bring back the human touch. AI might make shopping easier, but it can also make it feel transactional and soulless. Loyalty brings back enjoyment, emotion and connection. Programs that go beyond discounts to offer experiences, exclusivity and community tap into something AI can’t replicate — how it feels to belong.
Our own consumer research underlines this: 68% of consumers say loyalty programs today are more financially rewarding than they used to be, and 60% say they offer better experience-based perks. For example, programs like Never Fully Dressed’s invite top-tier customers to concerts, style them personally and create VIP moments that build identity and belonging. This isn’t transactional loyalty. It’s transformational.
When loyalty is viewed purely as a retention tool, its strategic potential is limited. But reimagined as a brand visibility strategy, it becomes essential. It creates owned communication channels to counter the volatility of paid search and changing organic search. It drives the creation of rich, customer-generated content that AI algorithms favor. It fuels personalization through first-party data. And it makes shopping enjoyable, keeping customers coming back not because they’re trapped in a points cycle, but because they feel connected to your brand.
The AI revolution in search isn’t slowing down. As SGE becomes embedded in consumer behaviour, brands that fail to adapt will fade into the AI summary ether. Loyalty is no longer a nice-to-have, nor just an engine of repeat revenue. It is your brand’s insurance policy — protecting visibility, deepening relationships and creating a direct line to your customers when algorithms mediate everything else.
Now is the moment to shift your loyalty mindset from a back-end retention lever to a front-line strategy for brand visibility, emotional connection and competitive strength in an AI-first world.
Charlie Casey is CEO and Co-founder of LoyaltyLion, one of the world’s top-rated loyalty platforms. Thousands of Shopify brands use LoyaltyLion to accelerate growth by turning more one-time shoppers into returning customers. Prior to founding LoyaltyLion, Casey joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as an Economics Advisor before becoming a consultant at Deloitte.
