High inflation means consumers are drawing on loyalty points for essential purchases.

Points spent on travel has declined X% in 2022, while spend on groceries has increased Y%.

By Doug Stark, VP Global Loyalty and Data Products at FIS

Chart option 1: Bar chart, with highlights on scroll

If we want to show the YoY change in spend, this chart would be the best way to do it. Scroll down to continue.

Loyalty points are now used for the essentials.

Year over year change in loyalty point spend, by category

Note: This data is not real, and is here as a placeholder.

Scroll down to begin.

Entertainment

Entertainment spending movies, live events and streaming services declined heavily in 2022. Despite the end of pandemic restrictions, consumers didn't use their points on entertainment.

Gas

Despite crude oil prices dropping 35% over the year, loyalty spending in the category increased 33%.

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Chart option 2: Grid of bar charts

To show how the spend by category has changed for different demographic groups, we can use this grid of bar charts.

All age groups reduced spend on entertainment, but millennials cut back most on travel.

Baby Boomers

Gen X

Millennials

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Loyalty programs must shift strategy in response to this change in consumer behavior.

Chart option 3: Connected dot plot

This plot can be used to show the % of points spent by category, pre-pandemic vs. post-pandmic

All demographic groups are redeeming less on travel

% of loyalty points redeemed by category, 2020 vs. 2023

Placeholder data

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This data story was built with Yarn.