Executive Summary
- The Retailer Preference Index (RPI) report details which retailers have the strongest customer value proposition for driving future, long-term market success. The retailers in the 1st Tercile overall of our RPI rankings (those retailers ranked 1-9) are made up almost entirely of banners in club, discount, and superstore formats. The retailer ranked 1st overall is Costco. Maxi, Food Basics, and Real Canadian Superstore round out the top 4.
- Retailers with stronger customer value propositions – indicated by higher RPI rankings – grow up to 2x faster over the long-term. They are also able to appeal to up to 4x as many Canadian consumers, have a higher customer share of wallet, and emotional connections.
- dunnhumby analyzed customer and financial data for the 28 largest conventional, discount, superstore, and club banners in Canada, which account for 97% of market share in those formats. Customer data analyzed included perceptions of retailers’ value propositions in five different pillars, as well as stated behaviors and emotional connection with retailers. Financial data analyzed included market share, near-term, and long-term sales growth.
- The customer perception pillar that is most associated with stronger, long-term market success is Price, Promotion, and Rewards. This pillar accounts for nearly half of the variation in financial and customer outcomes. This means that retailers who have a competitive advantage in this area are more likely to achieve long-term success. The other four customer perception pillars, in descending order of impact on market outcomes, are: Quality of the assortment, overall Speed and Convenience, Digital experience elements, and consistency of experience through Operations elements.
- Club/Superstores and Discounters dominate the 1st Quartile, and are generally well-rounded in both Price, Mass Promo, and Personalized Promo, Rewards. In 2025, the importance of these pillars increased, consolidating the leadership of many of these 1st Tercile retailers. Most of the increase in this importance came from the Personalized Promo, Rewards part of the affordability equation. At first glance, this may seem like an opening for conventionals, but many of the Club/Superstores and Discounters are also among the market leaders in Personalization.
- The best performing Conventionals compensate for their disadvantage to 1st Tercile retailer in Price and Mass Promo with targeted savings through optimized loyalty programs, excelling in promotion relevance, enhanced personalization, and offering good enough quality (without overinvesting in it at the expense of staying close enough on base price). Importantly, though, they combine this Personalization strength with clear Quality advantages over Discounters and Club/Superstores…as well as over other Conventionals.
- Quebec is the province where Price, Promo, Rewards matters the most and where the increase in importance since 2024 has been the highest. Maxi, which holds an edge over Costco on these savings elements, rode this trend toward a top spot in our Quebec rankings, unseating Costco in this region. No Frills also saw its overall ranking in Canada increase more than most banners, rising 3 spots. Maxi and No Frills exhibit the strongest one-two punch in the country on Price, Mass Promo, and Personalized Promo, Rewards.
- Retailers can use information in the RPI report to identify: retailers to benchmark against, priorities for improving their value proposition, and customer strategies to guide long-term planning.