The Inveterate 2025 Vision: Illuminating Loyalty’s Massive Incremental Value

We know that when loyalty programs spark joy, customer engagement and retention follow. But few loyalty solutions help brands delight people. At Inveterate we know exactly how to craft membership programs that customers love.

So the greatest challenge we’ve faced at Inveterate in 2024 was opening our customers’ eyes to the charms (and benefits!) of our “brand” of loyalty. As experts in the space, we know how lucrative loyalty can be, but we needed to help our customers think about loyalty programs differently. That process has provided good practice for helping our customers create buy-in with their members 

As a result, we spent the last 12 months driving massive loyalty value for our clients and proving to them why joining up with us was so worthwhile. Read on for a look back at 2024 and our predictions for 2025. 

What we learned in 2024: Loyalty wins customer wallet share

Before Inveterate, the loyalty space had stagnated thoroughly. Most companies offered points-based systems that lacked obvious value. They failed to generate excitement or create customer buy-in. Understandably, this created an assumption that loyalty just doesn’t work. 

So we set out to educate our customers on the superiority of cashback over points and the lucrative nature of a great loyalty program. Our messaging: Rather than systematic point allotment, a loyalty program should be a smart mechanism that wins more of a customer’s wallet share by providing them with genuine value. Inveterate loyalty programs are smart tools that create a meaningful connection with the customer, which keeps them purchasing.

When our customer Carnivore Snax introduced an Inveterate loyalty program, they created entirely new revenue streams for the company, increasing spend per customer by more than 300%. They also used the revenue generated from membership fees to fund new product development and reinvest in their business. 

“If we start thinking about loyalty as a driver to increase wallet share on a segment or cohort basis, we have to start thinking about how to evaluate the success of that in a whole different and new way. And there's nobody else out there that's doing that.“ – Dylan Whitman, Co-Founder & CEO of Inveterate

Our 2025 outlook: Incrementality is everything

Heading into 2025, the Inveterate team is focused on moving our platform, company, and mission forward. To do that, Inveterate plans to help more brands grow incremental revenue through loyalty. Here’s how that will play out in the DTC space:

More brands will focus on highly strategic ad spend

This year, brands will increasingly turn to predictive marketing to maximize the impact of their advertising budgets. Predictive marketing empowers brands to make data-driven decisions by anticipating customer behaviors and preferences with precise ad spend. Instead of casting a wide net, brands will allocate that spend strategically, targeting high-value audiences with tailored messaging that drives measurable results. With tightening marketing budgets and rising customer acquisition costs, this shift couldn’t be more crucial.

For brands launching fresh loyalty programs, predictive marketing becomes an invaluable tool for measuring and optimizing investments. By tracking how customer behaviors shift in response to a loyalty program, brands can identify which strategies yield the best returns. This approach enhances incrementality and ensures every dollar spent on advertising delivers maximum value.

For example, brands like True Classic have proven that a loyalty program increases profit per customer. The t-shirt company has increased revenue 44% across 45,000 members since adopting an Inveterate loyalty program. This resulted in a $2.3 million increase in incremental revenue within 8 months. 

Loyalty programs will supercharge predictive marketing

When a brand launches a paid loyalty program, sign-ups automatically create cohorts that make it easy to collect data and run A/B testing. Participation in the loyalty program confirms customer interest because they are self-selected. Members are highly engaged, buy more, and have higher LTV. 

As a result, it’s easier to spot patterns and find even more customers with similar habits. What’s more, the reaction these groups have to products, incentives, and promotions tells you what works and what doesn’t. Brands can use that data to improve incrementality and generate more data for future projections. The self-perpetuating cycle of loyalty boosts incrementality, which grows loyalty, which boosts incrementality, and so on.

And while the extra data is a significant perk, Inveterate provides an even better one: we help you give customers a reason to choose you. On average, Inveterate loyalty programs increase purchase frequency by 125% and member spend by 158%. That sort of certainty improves predictive marketing more than anything else. 

Brands with Inveterate loyalty programs will pull ahead

Attempting to out-spend competitors to gain new customers is a Sisyphean task. In 2025, sky-high CACs will only become more suffocating as more brands join the scrum. The better (and more affordable) path to success is an Inveterate paid membership program. 

With a paid membership, customers have already invested in you, so they’re trying to find reasons to make the cost worthwhile. They already want to redeem their base rewards, so offering additional spend-based perks gives them even more reason to buy. This way, standing out from the crowd has never been easier. 

Take it from Carnivore Snax whose meat-based snacks require serious assets and machinery to produce. With a paid membership program, the boost from membership fees helps them price their premium product competitively in their vertical. The perceived value of exclusive perks helped them increase spend per customer by 319% and return purchase rate for members by 223%. 

 “More than ever, brands will be focused on understanding the profit contribution impact of their loyalty programs.” 

Our 2025 plan: Inveterate growth projects

To support our vision heading into 2025, we’re building out our product and our team. That includes: 

• Automated analysis: We’re building out tooling to automate program execution and analysis so merchants can quickly implement a loyalty program and easily understand how it influences P&L. Our goal is for our partner brands to be able to see the financial impact of programs and customer behavior trends with just a click. 
• Internal growth: We’ll hire engineering talent and leadership to create these automations and continue to develop our product’s advanced features. 
• Building momentum: As we enter our third year as a company, we’re starting to see our offerings “click” in the marketplace. We plan to build on this momentum and help more brands build incremental revenue through loyalty programs.

“We’re excited about where the loyalty momentum may take us.” 

Sound like an exciting ride? Now’s the perfect time to climb aboard. Book a demo today!