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Cultivating consumer loyalty is one of the most important aspects of brand-building, and some companies do a better job than others in inspiring that sort of customer devotion. Global research consultancy Brand Keys identified some of the brands who’ve mastered the art of building a loyal following in their 2025 Consumer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI).
The index identifies not only leaders in brand loyalty across a variety of categories, but it also reveals how that allegiance can help predict consumer purchasing behavior, sales, profits and market share.
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“The impact of loyalty on brand profitability has increased so significantly since we released our very first calculations in 1997,” said Robert Passikoff, founder and president of Brand Keys. “We introduced gold, silver and bronze levels to this year’s CLEI to specify brand loyalty hierarchies in the companies consumers evaluated.”
The index looks at everything from antihistamines to smartphones, including a number of fashion and retail categories. In athletic footwear, Nike came out on top, followed by Adidas and New Balance, while Dick’s led for sporting goods retailers, followed by Academy and Big 5. And in the online shoes category, Zappos earned gold, Amazon silver and Footlocker and Nike shared bronze.
The study found that Amazon leads the pack for online retailers, followed by Walmart and Etsy. Levi’s came out on top for apparel retail, with Zara earning silver and Old Navy and Ralph Lauren in a tie for bronze. Macy’s earned gold for department stores, with T.J. Maxx and Kohl’s rounding out the top three.
Among discount retailers, Dollar Tree has the strongest consumer loyalty, followed by competitors Dollar General and Family Dollar. And Costco reigns for price clubs, with Sam’s earning silver status and bronze for BJ’s.
To determine the winners, Brand Keys surveyed more than 81,000 consumers aged 16 to 65, analyzing their attitudes and relationships with 1,100 brands in 104 categories. The firm based its rankings on a brand’s ability to successfully deliver on drivers of consumer demand, such as path to purchase and brand expectations.
The research also revealed a number of economic factors related to brand loyalty. Brand Keys found that it costs 15 to 22 times more to recruit a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. An increase of loyalty of just 5 percent can increase lifetime profits per customer by as much as 86 percent. And depending on the sector, a loyalty increase as small as 2 percent can equal the savings of a 28 percent across-the-board cost-reduction program.