Loyalty is a proven growth engine for the business. Yet, SAP’s latest B2B Buyer Loyalty Index 2025 reveals a striking paradox:

• 86% of B2B buyers allocate more budget when suppliers act as strategic partners.
• However, only 35% of organisations have reached “strategic loyalty”—the level where relationships deliver measurable, enduring impact.

This gap represents a significant opportunity to increase revenue from existing customers and acquire new customers through satisfied customer referrals. Yet, most organisations still treat loyalty as a marketing tactic rather than an enterprise-wide business strategy.

The six types of B2B buyer loyalty

The SAP B2B Buyer Loyalty Index (BLI) builds on the foundation of the Customer Loyalty Index (CLI), which launched five years ago. Together, these global reports provide a clear, actionable framework for understanding and driving loyalty across both consumer and business purchasing journeys.

In 2025, we identified six distinct types of loyalty shaping how B2B buyers engage with and commit to their suppliers:

• Strategic Loyalty: Long-term commitment based on trust, shared goals, and mutual value.
• Incentivised Loyalty: Loyalty that is developed through pricing advantages, rebates, or bundled services.
• Legacy Loyalty: Loyalty based on historical relationships, long-standing contacts, or institutional memory.
• Default Loyalty: Loyalty arising from a lack of alternatives or the complexity of integration.
• Value-based Loyalty: Loyalty based on suppliers aligned with ESG goals or corporate ethics.
• Adaptive Loyalty: Loyalty towards cutting-edge solutions or vendors with market buzz.

Why strategic loyalty matters

Today’s B2B buyers behave more like consumers: they expect relevance, trust, and value at every touchpoint. Loyalty is no longer built solely on rebates or quid pro quo transactional relationships. Instead, organisations earn buyer loyalty through shared goals, seamless experiences, and proactive engagement that honours the mutual investment customers and brands make in one another.

The stakes are high:

• 95% of buyers say a supplier’s use of AI positively impacts loyalty
• 28% cite disconnected experiences as a loyalty deal-breaker
• Buyers switch quickly when service, cost, or values are misaligned

In short, loyalty is fragile and short-lived. To thrive, brands must cultivate loyalty rather than leave it to chance.

The cost of inaction

Failing to close the loyalty gap means:

• Higher churn
• Higher customer acquisition costs
• Missed opportunities for upselling and cross-selling
• Vulnerability to competitors who prioritise strategic partnerships

When loyalty isn’t put into practice, even long-standing relationships can deteriorate. 67% of buyers have changed suppliers due to a lack of innovation. That’s a wake-up call.

Three proven strategies to move forward

SAP’s B2B buyer loyalty research points to three essentials for 2026. The most successful organisations will review these as foundational shifts.

1. Unify CX Engagement Signals: Break down silos between marketing, commerce, and service. Connect data into a single event-driven engagement layer, so every interaction reflects real-time context.

Why it matters: Buyers expect consistency across channels. Disjointed experiences are a major threat to loyalty.

2. Standardise KPIs Beyond Clicks: Move beyond surface metrics such as impressions and clicks. Measure loyalty outcomes such as:

• Repeat purchase rates
• Time to resolution
• Contribution margin
• Lifetime value vs. cost of customer acquisition

Why it matters: Loyalty must be linked to revenue and margin.

3. Operationalise Personalisation: Equip CX teams with shared profiles and AI-driven insights. Ensure every touchpoint across email, app, web, and service feels connected and relevant.

Why it matters: Personalisation is an expectation across B2C and B2B buyers. 24% of B2B buyers are more loyal to suppliers who personalise marketing.  This moves beyond [%name% here] to offers that are highly relevant, timely, and reflect the purchase history, needs, and interests uncovered by connected data and powered by predictive AI.

From insight to action

The loyalty paradox creates a strategic imperative for many organisations. This is an opportunity to evolve loyalty from a siloed initiative to an enterprise-wide growth strategy. That means:

• Treating loyalty as a shared goal across Marketing, Sales, Service, and Procurement.
• Using AI to predict and respond to loyalty, demand, and satisfaction signals in real time.
• Connecting data and processes to deliver trust and value at scale.

Loyalty drivers such as personalised service, relevant product recommendations, and proactive support require connected CX data and real-time engagement orchestration. When customers feel understood and valued, they choose you time and again. The organisations that act now will turn loyalty into a predictable growth engine. Those who don’t? They’ll keep wondering why their best customers keep walking away.