The shift, in response to trade executives, displays a structural behavioural change fairly than only a seasonal gimmick.
Amit Koshal, founder and chief govt of rewards platform TWID, famous that his platform noticed meals and groceries ship the best common financial savings for customers in 2025, at about 8% of order worth, exceeding financial savings from invoice funds, e-commerce, and even journey. TWID works with retailers throughout classes, together with food-delivery platform Swiggy, e-commerce platform JioMart, vogue e-retailer Myntra, and journey portal MakeMyTrip.
“Greater than 5 billion reward factors had been redeemed throughout our community this 12 months, unlocking over ₹100 crore in worth, signalling a transfer from occasional, high-ticket redemptions to routine, on a regular basis utilization,” Koshal instructed Mint.
The rise in redemption frequency, at the same time as per-transaction ticket sizes have moderated, suggests reward factors are more and more getting used for normal bills fairly than saved for indulgences. In that sense, rewards are starting to perform as “embedded liquidity” at checkout, that means a mushy budgeting layer that helps households easy spending with out altering consumption patterns, in response to Koshal.
For fintech Razorpay Inc.-backed funds platform POP, which rewards customers with POPcoins for routing UPI (Unified Funds Interface) transactions by it, magnificence, private care, and meals are the highest spend classes, with repeat charges rising sharply as affordability improves.
“India is a value-centric market. Loyalty factors are particularly highly effective for repeat clients—as soon as somebody has dedicated to a model, rewards reinforce that relationship and provides them another excuse to maintain coming again,” mentioned Bhargav Errangi, founder and chief govt officer (CEO) of POP.
POP’s companions embody well being meals model Yogabar and cosmetics manufacturers Revlon and Foxtale.
The Indian loyalty programme market, as of 2025, is reasonably concentrated, with the highest gamers accounting for 50-60% of the market. Manufacturers akin to Payback India, Amazon Prime, and Tata Neu dominate the phase, whereas startup-driven digital loyalty platforms and retailer-specific programmes add aggressive range, in response to estimates by market analysis agency Future Market Insights.
Constructive reinforcement
For years, bank cards have anchored the nation’s rewards financial system, conditioning shoppers to build up factors by spending and redeem them largely inside bank-led ecosystems. However customers now need rewards to translate into direct, tangible advantages at their favorite purchasing and supply platforms.
“I have a tendency to stay to a few apps for many of my purchasing,” mentioned Aditya, a 28-year-old product supervisor in Bengaluru. “If the factors I earn there can be utilized simply on my common purchases, it’s sensible. It simply makes the general expertise a bit extra worthwhile.”
Riya, a 30-year-old advertising and marketing skilled in Mumbai, agreed. “If I’m ordering groceries daily, I’d wish to see my factors scale back that invoice immediately fairly than wait a complete 12 months to purchase a flight ticket.”
Taking a cue, platforms are even bringing international names to enhance their attraction.
In January, Swiggy and e-commerce platform Flipkart partnered with Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad Airways to allow members to earn and redeem air miles on meals supply and purchasing in India.
In August, hospitality chain Marriott Bonvoy linked its journey rewards with Flipkart’s ecosystem, permitting level conversions and redemptions throughout journey and retail.
The nation’s high marketplaces are concurrently widening the scope of their in-house loyalty engines.
Flipkart has layered a number of tiers into Flipkart Plus, linking rewards extra carefully to frequency and class spend. Everlasting, father or mother of food-delivery platform Zomato, continues to bundle eating and food-ordering advantages by its Gold programme. Actually, a discount so as worth for Gold clients led to greater web order worth development within the December quarter, on account of upper ordering frequency from the extra budget-conscious clients, Everlasting mentioned in its Q3 shareholders’ letter.
Magnificence retailer Nykaa is piloting ‘Glam Cross’ to construct loyalty for its associate manufacturers, Mint reported on 6 January.
These programmes goal to make rewards interoperable throughout classes fairly than confined to single use-cases, mentioned Satish Meena, analyst at market analysis agency Datum Intelligence. “The shift comes as platforms sharpen their deal with loyalty initiatives, betting that broader use circumstances will allow repeat utilization and elevate lifetime worth.”
Loyalty is not low-cost
Nonetheless, behind the push lies a rising pressure. As extra platforms pile on tiers, partnerships and cross-category redemptions, the price of funding rewards is rising, at the same time as margins in groceries and necessities stay skinny, in response to Datum Intelligence’s Meena.
“Proper now, many platforms are paying to maintain clients energetic. If these rewards don’t result in actual loyalty over time, they merely develop into an added value fairly than a development driver.”
Furthermore, the subsequent part of loyalty will hinge on making rewards really feel extra liquid and instantly helpful, Meena famous. This contains simpler conversions, wider service provider acceptance, and layered advantages, akin to precedence service and unique entry, designed to deepen engagement past easy cashbacks.