In Fortune, we explore why the brands earning customers’ visits today will be the ones best positioned to build long-term loyalty — and what it takes to earn that visit.

Customers have more ways than ever to get what they need without going anywhere. Convenience has removed friction from buying, eating, shopping, and nearly every other part of daily life. But it has also raised the bar for the moments when customers choose to engage with a brand in person.

That shift is at the core of ChangeUp’s 2026 Experience Report, which ranked more than 300 retail and restaurant brands using 400,000 data points, a survey of 6,500 consumers, and sentiment analysis of what people say about being in the store. The report, now in its second year, measures eight dimensions of experience, from return intent and memorability to relevance, advocacy, and substitutability.

The finding is clear: Customers are becoming increasingly more selective about what earns their time.

Last year, people said they would pay more, wait longer, and drive farther when a visit felt worth it. This year, that willingness has narrowed. People still spend on experience, just on fewer occasions—and every occasion carries more expectation.

The visit must earn itself

Pickup, curbside, and third-party delivery removed a reason to walk into a store. Convenience solved a real problem and absorbed the part of shopping nobody enjoys. Yet this also happens to be the same part that got customers through the door. What’s left must earn the walk-in on its own, and a lot of brands haven’t worked out how.

Grocery and mass retail, the trips people cannot postpone, kept their footing this year. Discretionary categories such as apparel and specialty didn’t. A visit that is easiest to delay or has proven to not be worth it is the easiest one for customers to drop.

When the store gets run mainly as a cost center, customers miss it less. That shows up in substitutability, the report’s measure of whether people would genuinely miss a brand if it disappeared. That dimension fell further this year than any of the other seven, including return intent and novelty. And of the 40 brands that declined on it, the majority were retail.

Restaurants are navigating a similar shift toward convenience, yet the strongest dining experiences gave customers a reason to make the trip. While restaurants continue to have a soft-traffic pattern, not one of the top 50 restaurant brands declined significantly on experience.

Read the full article in Fortune.