Five GCC Card Market Trends Reshaping Loyalty
Contactless habits, digital-first customers, open banking and fast-growing tourism are changing what cardholders in the Gulf expect from their banks.
The Gulf has become one of the most interesting card markets in the world. Payment habits have shifted quickly, regulators have pushed actively for digital and open finance, and a young, mobile-first population sets high expectations for every app on their phone.
For card issuers, these shifts are changing what "loyalty" needs to mean. Here are five trends worth paying attention to, and what each one implies for rewards and offers.
1. Cards and wallets have become the everyday default
Across the GCC, card and mobile wallet payments have moved from occasional to everyday. Contactless tapping at cafés, supermarkets and petrol stations is normal, and digital wallets on phones and watches are widely used. National strategies across the region explicitly aim to reduce reliance on cash.
What it means for loyalty: when almost every small purchase is made digitally, there are many more moments where a card can earn its place. Programmes designed around big-ticket spend miss the frequent, everyday transactions that build habits. Offers at cafés, groceries, fitness studios and family venues become just as important as airline miles.
2. Customers expect app-quality experiences from banks
Gulf consumers use world-class apps for ride-hailing, food delivery and shopping, often in both Arabic and English. They judge their bank's app against these, not against other banks.
What it means for loyalty: a static offers page or PDF no longer meets expectations. Customers expect:
- Personalised recommendations rather than generic lists.
- Maps, filters and search that work instantly.
- Clear, native-quality Arabic with correct right-to-left layouts.
- Redemption that takes seconds, with no printing or explaining.
Offer programmes need product thinking, not just marketing.
3. Open banking and new entrants are raising the bar
Regulators across the region, including in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have introduced open banking frameworks, and new digital banks and fintechs have launched in several markets. At the same time, instant payment systems are making account-to-account transfers fast and cheap.
What it means for loyalty: switching is getting easier, and new players compete hard on experience. Incumbent banks need reasons for customers to keep their card at the front of the wallet. Relevant, frequent value, delivered through the bank's own brand, is one of the most practical defences available.
4. Tourism and cross-border spend are growing
The Gulf's ambitions in tourism, events and aviation are well known. Visitors arrive for business, conferences, sport and leisure, and residents travel frequently within the region and beyond. Many GCC residents also hold accounts or cards in more than one currency.
What it means for loyalty:
- Travel, dining and entertainment offers are highly valuable, both for residents exploring their own cities and for travel within the region.
- Programmes need multi-currency support and offers that work across borders.
- Merchant networks that span several GCC markets become a competitive advantage.
5. Merchants are more digital and more data-aware
Small and medium businesses in the region are adopting digital tools quickly: online ordering, social commerce, digital POS and delivery platforms. They are also more aware of what customer acquisition costs through ads and aggregators.
What it means for loyalty: merchants are increasingly open to performance-based marketing, where they pay for customers who actually visit. Card-linked offers fit that model well. Banks that make it easy for merchants to join, set up offers and see results can build strong local networks.
What ties these trends together
Each of these shifts points in the same direction:
- More frequent, smaller transactions reward programmes that engage daily, not annually.
- Higher digital expectations reward personalised, app-quality experiences.
- More competition rewards banks that give customers visible, relevant value under their own brand.
- More digital merchants reward programmes that make joining and measuring simple.
Traditional points programmes were built for a different era. They still have a role, especially for premium travel cards, but they are not designed for this pace or this level of personalisation.
What forward-looking issuers are doing
Without naming names, the patterns we see among forward-looking issuers in the region include:
- Adding card-linked offers alongside existing rewards, rather than replacing everything at once.
- Launching white-label offers apps quickly, then embedding them into the main banking app.
- Using AI to rank offers for each cardholder instead of showing everything to everyone.
- Treating Arabic as a first language in design, not a translation task.
- Choosing security designs that keep full card numbers out of the loyalty stack.
Looking ahead
The GCC card market will keep moving quickly. Wearables, instant payments and new digital banks will all raise expectations further. Loyalty programmes that are fast, relevant and genuinely local will stand out; programmes that feel like a catalogue from a decade ago will fade.
cardoff.ai was built in Bahrain for exactly this market: Arabic and English from day one, multi-currency, a shared merchant network across the GCC, and AI targeting through Hyduri. If you are rethinking loyalty for the next few years, we would be glad to share what we are seeing.
