Retail brands had a challenge on their hands maintaining customer loyalty during the pandemic. With rising prices and supply chain disruptions frustrating consumers, conditions were optimal for consumers to kill the messenger.

Location-data company InMarket’s Q4 2021 Consumer Loyalty Report looks at which brands and which categories fared best during this challenging period. The study measures the health and long-term viability of chain retail brands across several categories. These include big box retail, department stores, apparel, dollar, grocery, QSR, and drug stores.

The report’s Loyalty Score evaluates the average number of visits per chain. It is a key indicator for a retailer to retain customers and grow lifetime value. The higher the score, the higher the customer retention for that brand.

It should probably come as no huge surprise that brands that did what they could to protect consumers from rising prices fared best.

“InMarket analyzed shopper visits of 11-180 minutes to find that in general, brands that tuned in to consumer concerns and offered value. Most times by keeping prices low, saw above-average consumer loyalty,” the report said. “In many cases, those who instead opted to raise prices experienced the opposite.”

Big box retail fared better than most other categories for this reason. As the graphic above shows, Walmart’s gaudy 5.68 score was more than double its key rival Target’s 2.62 loyalty score. Yet Target still outperformed most retailers. And Sam’s Club, as the chart also notes, was the only warehouse club to make the top five.

All About Logistics

You might have an inkling as to why Walmart fared so well. And it’s not the greeters (they were phased out in 2019). It’s superior logistics. Companies with the efficiency and purchase power to keep prices low amid intense inflationary pressure did the best job of maintaining customer loyalty.

This begs the question, is loyalty just about price? It certainly seems that way. For example, as the chart below shows Macy’s scored just 1.6. This was slightly better than rivals like Nordstrom (famous for its focus on customer experience). But all the department stores, save Kohl’s, had below-average scores.

“Only Kohl’s saw slightly higher than average consumer loyalty scores in the department category,” the report explains. “Others, like Macy’s, chose to pass inflationary costs onto their consumers instead of internally absorbing them. This decision may have deterred consumers from returning frequently. As 4 of the top 5 chains saw lower than average consumer loyalty.”

It seems when the going gets tough, the best customer experience is a low price.