Customers Spend 19% More After Joining a Brand's Online Community

That’s not just a small uptick, it’s a fundamental shift in customer behavior. And here’s the kicker: 66% of those who engage in brand communities report feeling more loyal to the brand. Your customers aren’t just using your product, they’re looking to become part of something bigger. The question is: are you giving them a community to belong to?

Why Online Communities Build Immediate Loyalty

When a customer posts a question or shares advice in your community, they’re doing something traditional marketing can’t: offering genuine peer insight. That authenticity resonates because it comes from fellow users, not the company’s PR team. Humans have always relied on word-of-mouth, and online communities supercharge this tendency. 

Consider this: 80% of people join brand communities to share knowledge and help others, and 66% are motivated by the desire to feel part of a group with shared interests. That kind of peer support creates a layer of trust that traditional marketing often struggles to achieve. While ads can raise awareness, it is the voices of real customers that bring authenticity. In fact, 85% of marketers and community builders say that branded online communities improve the customer journey and strengthen trust in the brand. When people hear from others who have used the product, it builds credibility in a way that feels natural and lasting.

From Engagement to Revenue: The Conversion Impact

Loyalty is only the starting point. When customers feel connected to others through community, that engagement often leads to real business impact. Peer-to-peer interaction builds not just satisfaction, but stickiness that can translate into both stronger retention and higher spend. In fact, 66% of businesses with online brand communities report a meaningful improvement in customer retention. When people feel supported and part of something, they are far more likely to return.

There is also clear upside when it comes to revenue. Customers who participate in a brand’s community tend to spend more over time, one study found an average lift of 19% in purchase value. For some companies, that impact scales significantly. In fact, 18% say their branded community now influences more than 30% of total revenue. The takeaway is simple: community-driven engagement not only supports long-term loyalty, it becomes a meaningful driver of growth.

The Search and Discovery Edge

Beyond retention and revenue, communities play a powerful role in discovery. Today, 27% of consumers say they use online communities focused on a product or service as part of their decision-making process. That means the conversations happening in your community are often exactly what prospective customers are searching for.

Whether someone is comparing products, researching a purchase, or exploring solutions in your category, there is a good chance they will land on content created by your users. These peer-driven insights (real questions, honest answers, and shared experiences) carry more influence than polished marketing copy. They offer the kind of authenticity that builds trust early in the journey.

There is also an added benefit: every post, reply, or recommendation in your community adds to your content footprint. This user-generated content boosts your SEO visibility and helps your brand show up more often in organic search. In short, a thriving community does more than support existing users, it attracts new ones by making your brand easier to find and more credible once discovered.

Owning the Community: The Platform Advantage

Many brands begin their community journey on external platforms like Facebook Groups, LinkedIn, or Discord. These channels can be helpful for early traction, they offer built-in audiences, familiar UX, and low lift to get started. But over time, they introduce some limitations that are worth considering.

When your community lives entirely on a third-party platform, your brand is subject to its rules, algorithms, and evolving priorities. Content might not always reach your members, engagement can fluctuate based on platform changes, and the experience competes with unrelated content.

By gradually moving your community into a space you own, you create more consistency, control, and long-term value. An owned space gives you direct access to your audience, full visibility into engagement patterns, and the ability to shape the experience to reflect your brand’s identity.

It also tends to drive stronger results. Users in branded communities often spend more, one study found around 19% higher average spend compared to users outside the community. And because the experience is fully integrated with your product, it encourages deeper connection and more repeat engagement.

External platforms can still play a role in discovery and visibility. But bringing your community closer to home helps you build something lasting, a space that grows with your users and strengthens over time.

Building Your Brand Community Strategy

If customers spending 19% more and churning less sounds good, the next step is figuring out how to cultivate that kind of community. That starts with making it easy for users to connect and contribute.

Give people a dedicated space to ask questions, share ideas, and support one another. Seed a few conversations around topics you know resonate. Invite early adopters or power users to weigh in, even a handful of active voices can help spark ongoing dialogue.

Let the community take shape in its own way. It does not need to be tightly scripted. The most trusted spaces are the ones that feel human; where users can share honest feedback, offbeat experiences, or small wins. That sense of realness builds credibility.

Your role is not to direct every conversation, but to create the right conditions for them to thrive. Set a clear tone, make the space feel safe and respectful, and be consistently present. When someone takes time to post something thoughtful or help another user, acknowledge it. Highlighting contributions, thanking participants, or surfacing great posts in a newsletter can go a long way.

Over time, those small signals compound. As new members join, they are welcomed by existing ones. Questions get answered before your team even sees them. The community begins to sustain itself not because of heavy moderation, but because the brand helped build something people value.

It starts by showing that you are invested. When users see that, they invest in return.

Beyond Sales: Community as a Competitive Moat

The 19% spending boost and improved retention are just the start. A thriving community can transform your brand’s long-term trajectory. When customers identify as part of your brand’s community, they become more than buyers. They turn into advocates, evangelists, and even co-creators. They share feedback that shapes your roadmap. They recommend your product to peers. They create content, answer questions, and make the experience better for the next user. Over time, that becomes a flywheel of growth that no paid campaign can replicate.

In a world where traditional marketing is tuned out and users seek connection over promotion, community is not just a retention tool. It is a long-term growth engine. Some estimates put the ROI of online community initiatives as high as 5,315%, a reflection of just how powerful this lever can be when done well.

• For Product Leaders: Look for opportunities to embed social touchpoints directly into the product. Features like forums, user profiles, or interest-based chats create reasons for users to return, even when they are not actively transacting.
• For Marketing Teams: Your most compelling stories are already being told by your customers. Use community content like testimonials, walkthroughs, peer advice to enhance campaigns with real voices. The community also serves as a source of ongoing word-of-mouth and reduces acquisition costs over time.
• For Founders: Think of your community as a strategic asset that compounds. It may not show up on your balance sheet overnight, but it shapes every key metric that matters from LTV and CAC to NPS and churn. A strong community gives your brand staying power.

The bottom line: products that bring people together do more than meet a need. They build belongings. That is what keeps users coming back, not just for what the product does but for what it represents.

In today’s market, community is not just something you support. It is something you lead with.