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Retail Brands Among Top 100 Loyalty Leaders

Of the latest Top 100 Loyalty Leaders surveyed by Brand Keys, 17 percent of those on the list are retail brands from a number of sectors.

The listing represents the 20th annual survey by Brand Keys. It examined 635 brands in 72 categories.

In the latest loyalty listing, Amazon was the top retail brand on the list in second place, coming in behind Google, which placed first on this year’s ranking. Amazon was in eighth place on the 2015 listing. Zappos was second among retail brands, in 20th position on the overall Top 100 listing, which was down from its 12th position last year. Next was Ralph Lauren in 24th place, up from its 43rd ranking last year.

Others who made the Top 100 were: Nike, 15; Lancôme, 42; Sam’s Club, 47; MAC Cosmetics, 48; Old Navy, 53; Victoria’s Secret, 58; eBay, 64; TJ Maxx, 69; J. Crew, 70; Costco, 77; Forever 21, 83; Estée Lauder, 87; Gap, 93, and Clinique, 97.

In addition to Zappos landing lower in the rankings, eBay also saw a drop — it was 38 a year ago. Also falling was J. Crew, which was in 60th place last year, and Gap, which as in the 73rd spot in 2015. Among the beauty brands, Lancôme, Lauder and Clinique saw declines from 2015: Lancôme was at 39, Lauder from its 53rd spot and Clinique, which was 76. And while Sephora also fell, it only slipped two notches from last year’s ranking of 24th place.

New to the list this year is Burt’s Bees, coming in at 96.

Robert Passikoff, Brand Keys founder and president, said, “The shifts in loyalty leadership in retail have been monumental over the past couple of years.”

He explained the “largest loyalty shifts [that] we’ve measure this year have actually been in more traditional areas like apparel retail and athletic footwear, both a gift and a curse.” Passikoff said that while loyalty is a leading indicator of positive consumer behavior toward brands, it is getting more difficult for brands to create the kind of emotional engagement that resonates with consumers’ desires for connection.

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