The beauty of loyalty: How Bath & Unwind beat the competitive beauty market and increased repeat purchase rates by 62%

The beauty industry is up from $483B in 2020 to $511B in 2021 – and with an annual compounded growth rate of 4.75% worldwide despite the covid-19 crisis. The industry is getting stronger, it’s predicted to exceed $716B by 2025 as 31% of online shoppers buy beauty and cosmetics products every few months.

However, currently, Amazon is considered the major destination for shopping beauty and cosmetics online. To compete with Amazon and secure ongoing revenue from customers, building longer-term relationships that would translate into repeat purchases is critical.

Want to know how to do it? Take inspiration from this blog where we’ll be diving into how Bath & Unwind achieved a 62% increase in their repeat purchase rate in this competitive beauty market.

First, let’s introduce you Bath & Unwind.

As an online retailer, Bath & Unwind provides handpicked, iconic beauty brands to customers around the globe. Thanks to their exclusive service, Bath & Unwind has built a big brand community.

Loyalty glow: Building a customized loyalty program that is visible across the site

First, they had to create compelling reasons for customers to return to their site. As 79% of customers are encouraged to make another purchase if they’re working towards a reward, Bath & Unwind decided it was time to build a loyalty program. Customers who become a member of their Rewards Points program can earn five points per pound spent. Once they have collected at least 500 points, they can start redeeming their money off rewards.

To ensure that customers would engage with their program, they needed to clearly communicate how it works and the benefits of joining it. To achieve this, they created an Integrated Loyalty Page. Within this loyalty destination, customers can see all components of the program and the ways to earn more points.

Now the team needed to increase program’s visibility to enhance engagement even further. So they included a link to the page within their main navigation header. If you’re guest shopper, you can see “Rewards Points” on the main navigation header but once you create an account, you can directly see your current points balance on the main navigation header, which provides continuous motivation to earn more points.

As Bath & Unwind put loyalty at the heart of their marketing strategy, they were looking ways to encourage customer spend and repeat purchase further. They discovered that when customers can see how many points they will earn if they purchase a product, they are more likely to buy that product. With this in mind, Bath & Unwind opted to display how many points a product is worth on each product page using LoyaltyLion’s Simple Components feature.

Thanks to this approach, Bath & Unwind’s team has increased the spending of their redeeming loyalty program members by 65%.

Custom blend: Engaging with customers between purchases via personalized loyalty emails

53% of shoppers who have purchased an online beauty and cosmetic product are willing to make a second purchase with the same brand. However, as the go-to place for beauty purchases is Amazon, Bath & Unwind needed to inspire customers to choose them instead. So they began to check in with their customers more regularly.

By using LoyaltyLion’s Insights feature, they identified their loyal, at-risk, and churned customers. They then began to segment and personalize their email campaigns accordingly, so that they could deliver more targeted and appropriate communications and promotions, rather than relying on blanket mailouts. 

To keep their brand front of mind even when customers aren’t transacting, they send points balance and available reward emails to their loyal and at-risk customers on a monthly basis.

As a result, Bath & Unwind not only increased their customer spend but they have also seen the repeat purchase rates of members who redeem rewards increase by 62% compared to non-redeeming members. Congratulations to Bath & Unwind’s team!

Want to find out more about Bath & Unwind’s success? Read the full case study.