The best loyalty programs in Canada do more than hand out discounts—they change customer behaviour. Members visit more often, spend more per visit, and feel a genuine connection to the brand. That's the standard the best programs are held to, and it's a higher bar than most achieve.
This blog looks at the top-performing loyalty programs in Canada right now, what makes them work, and what Canadian businesses can learn from them.
What Makes a Great Loyalty Program?
According to the LoyalT 2025 study—the most comprehensive analysis of Canadian loyalty program performance, based on 15,000 Canadian consumers—the best programs are measured on three dimensions: their ability to change member behaviour, their level of engagement, and the emotional attachment members feel toward the program. The programs that score highest on all three aren't just giving away free stuff. They're building habits, delivering consistent value, and making members feel like they belong.
The Best Consumer Loyalty Programs in Canada Right Now
The LoyalT 2025 study evaluated 87 programs across 11 sectors. Here are the top 10 overall performers in Canada, along with what sets each one apart:
1. Royal Perks (Burger King) Burger King's Royal Perks ranked first in Canada—and first across all three LoyalT indexes (Engagement, Attachment, and Behaviour)—by doing something deceptively simple: making rewards feel immediate and attainable. Canadians also ranked it as the most generous program in the country and gave it the best Communication score—meaning their messaging is relevant enough for customers. There's also no long accumulation period before value kicks in, which is exactly what drives the behaviour change the study measures.
2. My Panera (Panera Bread) My Panera made quite an entrance for its first-ever appearance in the LoyalT rankings—earning 2nd place overall and first in the Attachment Index, making it the most loved program in Canada. The program learns member preferences and delivers rewards tailored to individual habits rather than generic offers. The key takeaway for any business building a loyalty program is that when your communications feel relevant, and your rewards feel personal, members become genuinely interested in your brand.
3. Pet's Rewards (Global Pet Foods) Global Pet Foods made a high-profile debut in the top three this year. Their Pet's Rewards program—powered by DataCandy—stands out for its clarity: members track purchases of everyday essentials and earn free bags of food or litter after meeting straightforward purchase thresholds. In a category where customers are buying the same products repeatedly, a loyalty program that rewards exactly that behaviour is a natural fit.
4. Real Rewards (American Eagle Outfitters) American Eagle's Real Rewards is a tiered program that rewards spending with escalating benefits—more points per dollar, better perks, and exclusive access as members move up through four levels. Its strength is that higher-tier members feel genuinely differentiated, which drives the kind of sustained engagement the LoyalT study captures.
5. Papa Rewards (Papa John's) Papa Rewards is a straightforward formula: spend money, earn points, redeem for discounts. Pizza is a repeat purchase category, and Papa John's has built a program that captures and rewards that natural behaviour without overcomplicating it.
6. Treats Rewards (PetSmart) PetSmart's Treats program ranked alongside Global Pet Foods in the pet category—and also in the top three for perceived generosity Canada-wide. Its broad product coverage and flexible redemption options give members consistent reasons to engage.
7. PC Optimum (Loblaw Companies) PC Optimum fell from first place last year to seventh—not because it got worse, but because the programs around it got better. It remains one of the most widely used programs in Canada, with strong redemption rates and a broad range of coalition value (grocery, pharmacy, fuel).
8. Domino's Rewards (Domino's) Domino's earns its ranking through sheer simplicity and speed. Members earn points on every order and can redeem them for free pizza quickly—no complicated tiers, no expiring offers. In the restaurant sector, which outperformed all other categories in the 2025 study, Domino's is a consistent top performer.
9. Gap Good Rewards (Gap Inc.) Gap Good Rewards covers purchases across Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta, and gives members more ways to earn and redeem. Its mobile app was rated the best mobile experience in Canada in the 2025 study. The quality of mobile experiences is now a necessity for today’s customers.
10. MyMcDonald's Rewards (McDonald's) McDonald's has climbed steadily since launching MyMcDonald's Rewards in 2021. Its success comes from an extremely high transaction frequency—members visit McDonald's more often than almost any other brand—combined with a mobile experience that makes earning and redeeming frictionless.
Best Loyalty Programs for Restaurants in Canada
The restaurant sector was the standout performer in LoyalT 2025—the only category to score above average on all three indexes: behaviour, engagement, and attachment. Four of the top 10 programs overall are restaurant programs: Royal Perks, My Panera, Papa Rewards, and Domino's Rewards.
What restaurant loyalty programs get right: they benefit from high visit frequency, which gives members more opportunities to earn rewards and feel the program's value quickly. The best restaurant programs pair that frequency with a mobile experience that makes ordering, earning, and redeeming seamless—and they deliver rewards fast enough that members don't lose interest between visits.
What to look for in a restaurant loyalty program:
- Fast time-to-reward (members should feel value within the first few visits)
- Simple earn mechanics—points per dollar or per visit, not complicated multipliers
- Mobile-first experience with easy in-app ordering and redemption
- Personalized offers based on order history
Best Loyalty Programs for Retail in Canada
Retail loyalty programs face a different challenge: purchase frequency is lower, so programs need to work harder to keep members engaged between visits. The top retail performers in Canada—Real Rewards, PC Optimum, Gap Good Rewards, and Pet’s Rewards—each solve this differently.
PC Optimum wins on breadth: members earn points across an enormous range of everyday purchases, which keeps the program relevant even when members aren't buying clothing or electronics. Real Rewards and Gap Good Rewards win on aspiration: tiered programs that give members a reason to consolidate their spending with one brand. Treats and Pet's Rewards win on category fit: pet owners buy the same products repeatedly, making it easy to build a habit-forming program around natural purchase behaviour.
What to look for in a retail loyalty program:
- Earn opportunities that extend beyond big purchases
- Tier structure that rewards your best customers meaningfully
- Coalition options that increase earning velocity
- Personalization that surfaces relevant rewards, not generic ones
👉 Read our guide on turning your retail employees into brand ambassadors.
What the Best Programs Have in Common
Across restaurant and retail, the top-performing programs in Canada share three characteristics that the LoyalT 2025 study identifies as the drivers of genuine loyalty—not just repeat transactions.
1. Immediate rewards drive engagement. The best programs reduce the time between action and reward. Members who feel value quickly are more likely to build habits around a program. Long accumulation periods before any reward is reachable are the fastest way to lose member attention.
2. A seamless experience is the baseline. A high-quality mobile experience—easy to navigate, quick to earn and redeem, reliable across in-store and online—isn't a differentiator anymore. It's the minimum expectation. Programs that create friction lose members to ones that don't.
3. Personalization needs real insight. The programs that rank highest on attachment aren't just using members' first names. They're learning purchase preferences and delivering rewards that feel relevant to individual habits. Generic offers at scale don't build emotional connection—personalized value does.
The study also surfaced something worth noting for any business operating in Canada right now: 82% of Canadians said they felt motivated to favour Canadian retailers, and 42% reported increasing their use of Canadian loyalty programs. In the current climate, a well-run loyalty program isn't just a retention tool—it's a competitive differentiator.
Running Your Own Loyalty Program? Here's What to Know
The programs at the top of the LoyalT rankings are backed by sophisticated platforms, clean data, and thoughtful program design—but the underlying principles are accessible to businesses of any size.
If you're a Canadian restaurant or retailer considering a loyalty program, the most important decision is the foundation: the platform you build on determines how well you can personalize rewards, track member behaviour, and adapt your program as your business grows. A program that's easy to join but difficult to manage won't stay competitive.
DataCandy powers loyalty programs for Canadian restaurants and retailers, including Pet's Rewards—one of this year's top three programs in Canada. Our platform is built for businesses that want to move beyond basic punch cards and into data-driven loyalty: tracking purchases across channels, delivering personalized offers, and measuring the behaviour change that actually matters to your bottom line.
Discover how DataCandy’s tools can build you a top-rated loyalty program
