When good neighbours become good customers: Loyal regulars generate up to 5 times more revenue for Britain’s local businesses

• New Square data shows repeat customers anchor local economies despite squeezed budgets, with 70% of UK consumers shopping locally weekly and 44% visiting cafés and restaurants weekly

• 80% say their relationship with their favourite local business is more than transactional, as people crave connection and want familiar relationships

DISTRIBUTED-WORK-MODEL/London, UK – 18 March 2026 – Britain’s local businesses are powered by loyal regulars who generate them up to five times more annual revenue as they typically return to a business 11 times throughout the year, according to new research from Square, the global technology company. The Square Local Economy Report reveals that over the past year, in restaurants and cafés, 74% of UK consumers have made local purchases a few times a month or more, 70% are shopping locally at least weekly, and half (49%) are buying from local beauty businesses multiple times a month.

Four in five (80%) consumers say their relationship with their favourite local spot is much more than transactional, with 40% describing the relationship as familiar – that feeling of being recognised when you walk through the door – and another 29% saying they feel connected with a personal bond with the staff.

Peter Dore-Smith, Founder of Kaffeine, said, “Having regular customers helps in times of trouble or economic challenges because they will usually support you. It is often a forgotten thing that as a café, we can be a huge part of a person’s day. During Covid, when we opened as a hatch at the doorway, customers would walk up to five miles to get to our store. This commitment by our regulars helped us in those times.”

This community aspect means that consumers are willing to prioritise quality experiences when choosing where to spend locally. Quality remains the most important factor influencing consumer decisions, cited by 73% of respondents, followed by price (63%) and convenience (57%). These experiences can translate into spending growth, as in the past 12 months, 22% of consumers say they increased spending at local businesses.

John O’Beirne, CEO at Square International, said, “While some households may be tightening their belts, local spending continues to hold strong. But local growth doesn’t come from a single “big bet” moment – it’s nurtured over time, with regulars acting as stabilisers for businesses. Owners need to design their business around repeat visits and low-friction loyalty. That means combining consistent quality, human connection and convenient digital tools to make repeat visits easy and rewarding, so everyday purchases can become lasting habits.”

Repeat customers who return to the same business at least four times in a year form the backbone of local commerce, and business owners recognise this as they actively invest in marketing to build relationships with them. Use of Square’s marketing products has risen every year since 2021, and in 2025 alone, loyalty subscriptions grew by 46%. In fact, 93% of Square businesses using a marketing product successfully maintain regulars, compared to 39% of businesses that don’t use a marketing product. This is leading to regulars returning far more frequently.

Looking forward, consumer confidence in local spending remains strong as more than a quarter of UK consumers (27%) say they plan to shop or dine locally more often in the next year. Consumers are willing to support local businesses even when prices rise. While affordability is a factor to consider, customers will stick with brands with higher prices if the value is obvious, with more than two-thirds (69%) saying they would continue spending with a local business if higher prices delivered better value or experience.

Joanna Mangion, Founder and Director, nue ground Wellness Lifestyle said, “Our growth has come through loyalty, increased frequency, and a widening customer base. Since opening a studio next to our café, customers are spending more time with us: coming for a class, staying for brunch, getting a massage, enjoying a wellness drink, or working from the café. Spending has become more intentional as quality matters more, and overall engagement has increased.”

To learn more about how customers are supporting their local communities, you can find the Square Local Economy Report here.

ENDS

Methodology

Square Data Collection:
Square analysed all buyer-seller interactions from January 2019 through December 2025. A buyer-seller relationship was considered to be “regular” if there were transactions between them on four or more distinct dates within a year; all other relationships were considered “transient.” Note that a single buyer can have both regular and transient relationships with different sellers. To calculate regular versus transient statistics, Square grouped transactions by regular and transient labels and computed summary metrics for each group, such as average spend and total transaction volume.

Network Data:
Square isolated all “regular” buyer-seller relationships in 2025 based on the methodology described above. Square constructed city-level networks by drawing a connection between two sellers if they share at least one regular buyer. Most analyses are based on each network’s largest connected component – i.e., the largest subgraph where there exists a path between every possible pair of nodes.

Network visualisations represent the subgraph of a given city by postcode. For each city, we select the postcode that produces a subgraph containing 10-100 sellers and the greatest number of connections to demonstrate local connectivity and ensure visualisation clarity.

Marketing Data:
Square analysed statistics based on enrolment in any of the following marketing products: Email Marketing, Text Message Marketing (US only), and Loyalty Programmes. We compared two groups of sellers: enrolled in a marketing product versus not.

Consumer Survey:
Square and Studio by Informa TechTarget conducted an independent survey of 1,009 consumers in the United Kingdom between September 23 and December 30, 2025. Respondents were screened to include a representative sample of age groups (18 to 61+) and geographical locations within the United Kingdom.

Where appropriate, all Square data is aggregated to protect privacy.

About Square

Square makes commerce and financial services easy and accessible with its integrated ecosystem of commerce solutions. Square offers purpose-built software to run complex restaurant, retail, and professional services operations, versatile e-commerce tools, embedded financial services and banking products, buy now, pay later functionality through Clearpay, staff management and payroll capabilities, and much more – all of which work together to save sellers time and effort. Millions of sellers across the globe trust Square to power their business and help them thrive in the economy. Square, Cash App, Spiral, and Tidal are a part of Block, Inc. (NYSE: XYZ). For more information, visit www.squareup.com.