The supermarket loyalty card isn’t the same thing as supermarket loyalty

For years, supermarket loyalty was relatively easy to understand. Win the customer, keep the customer and encourage them to spend more.

The reality of grocery shopping in 2026 is considerably more complicated.

Our latest Beyond Spend analysis shows that even shoppers we classify as Weekly Loyal Buyers use an average of three grocery retailers. Weekly Bargain Hunters use around six.

That means a customer can be genuinely loyal to Tesco, regularly shop at Lidl, use Co-op for top-ups and still head to M&S for particular products or occasions.

For retailers, this changes the growth question.

The opportunity is increasingly about understanding which part of the customer's grocery life you currently own, and which part you could win next.

Lidl shows what happens when customers come back

One of the clearest examples in Q2 comes from Lidl. The supermarket moved from ninth to first for Comeback Trend, our measure of whether recent customers are becoming more likely to return.

That contributed to an exceptionally strong quarter. Lidl finished first in the Growth Momentum League, second for Competitive Standing and second for Loyalty.

What makes this particularly interesting is the combination of behaviours behind the result.

More shoppers are engaging with Lidl. Customers are allocating more of their grocery spend to the retailer. Recent customers are also becoming more likely to return.

Together, those behaviours show Lidl strengthening its position across several different dimensions of the customer relationship.

There is more than one way to grow

Lidl's performance is significant, and Q2 also shows retailers finding very different routes to growth.

Co-op is a good example. It has the smallest average basket of the ten retailers in our analysis, at around £12, yet it recorded the strongest Reach Growth and finished second in the Growth Momentum League.

Its role in customers' lives is different. A small basket can represent a highly valuable relationship when a retailer repeatedly captures top-ups, immediate needs and convenience occasions.

For Co-op, growth is being driven by winning more shoppers and more occasions.

M&S presents another model. It moved from tenth to first for Spending Shift during Q2, meaning customers were allocating a greater proportion of their grocery expenditure to the retailer.

For a brand traditionally associated with quality, treats, convenience and food-to-go, that matters. It suggests an opportunity for M&S to play a larger role within the broader family grocery shop.

Big baskets don't tell the whole story

Q2 also demonstrates why looking at a single measure of supermarket performance can be misleading.

Aldi recorded the largest average basket of the ten retailers analysed, reaching £27.10 in June. Co-op's was around £12.

Those basket values reflect very different shopping missions. Aldi is capturing substantial grocery shops, while Co-op is capturing smaller, more frequent convenience occasions. Both can be commercially valuable when they support the role the retailer plays for its customers.

For retailers, the more useful question is: What are customers coming to us for, how often are they doing it and what other grocery missions could we credibly win?

Geography changes the picture again

The same principle becomes even clearer when we look around the UK.

Average grocery transaction values vary considerably. In June, the average transaction in Greater London was £16.60, compared with £21.60 in Scotland.  

Retailer strength changes too. Aldi performs particularly strongly across the Midlands, Wales and Yorkshire and the Humber. Lidl has notable strength in the South West and Northern Ireland. M&S occupies a distinctive position in London and Northern Ireland, while Co-op is considerably stronger in Scotland.

For national retailers, averages can therefore hide as much as they reveal.

Understanding the customer means understanding the mission, location and competitive choices surrounding each transaction.

The next battle is for a bigger role in the customer's life

One of the biggest lessons from Q2 is that there is significant growth potential within customers' existing grocery spend.

There is already a substantial grocery wallet in play. The opportunity is to earn more of it. That might mean persuading an occasional shopper to return, turning a top-up customer into a more frequent visitor, capturing an additional weekly mission or giving an established customer a reason to consolidate more of their grocery spending with one retailer.

In a market where customers routinely maintain relationships with several supermarkets, loyalty increasingly comes down to relevance.

The retailers that understand why customers choose them today, which missions they currently own and where they have permission to play a bigger role will be best placed to find the next source of growth.

Download the full Q2 2026 report here