Drawing on the evolving research on customers' identification with companies, our study explores the mechanism by which customer-company identification generates customer loyalty in a retail setting. We demonstrate that customers' identification with the retailer is a central element to establish strong emotional ties i.e. affective commitment between customers and the retailer. These emotional ties or affective commitment to the retailer in turn (a) motivate loyalty intentions, i.e. repurchase intention but also (b) motivate so-called customer extra-role behaviours, behaviours which are neither expected by definition nor financially rewarded by the organization such as customers suggesting improvement chances or customers giving other customers a helping hand. We empirically demonstrate that while all of these extra-role behaviours are strongly levered by customer-company identification (through the resulting affective commitment), only some are driven by the classic relationship construct satisfaction. We additionally show which image perceptions of the retailer form the basis for identification by highlighting those stereotypes that are most salient in triggering customer-company identification. These findings are of high managerial relevance as they uncover a mechanism to strengthen the emotional relationship between the retailer and its customers that goes beyond the ubiquitous primarily economic bonding approaches through e.g. customer loyalty cards or bonus systems.