Examples of customer loyalty: Sephora Beauty Insider

In this blog, we take a look at one of ecommerce’s leading examples of customer loyalty, Sephora’s Beauty Insider and will cover the following points:

• What is Sephora’s Beauty Insider loyalty program?
• Key features
• What we like about it

What is Sephora’s Beauty Insider loyalty program?

Sephora’s Beauty Insider loyalty program is a program by cosmetic brand, Sephora.

The loyalty program is free to join and includes a mobile app for users.

The app contains the loyalty card itself, so there is no need to carry around an extra card in a wallet or purse.

Why is Sephora’s Beauty Insider loyalty program one of the best examples of customer loyalty?

Like most loyalty programs, Sephora uses “money spent” to work out how many points a consumer is owed. And like most loyalty programs, points mean rewards. In the USA, one dollar is equal to one point.

Sephora’s loyalty program doesn’t just work with points, they’ve thought long and hard about what they hope to offer and what their customers want.

The loyalty program is also three-tiered, meaning at each tier, you’re eligible for a different selection of rewards and incentives.

The tiers are:

• Beauty Insider
• VIB
• VIB ROUGE

When you join the loyalty program, you’re on the Beauty Insider tier, and when you get 350 points ($350), you’re on the VIB tier. If you’re able to spend $1000 throughout the year, you’ll receive VIB ROUGE tier status.

Each tier has a selection of rewards available to suit consumers.

One key feature of Sephora’s loyalty program is the range of things they offer in exchange for their customer’s loyalty. The image below shows that for anyone in the VIB ROUGE tier, they’re able to get free two-day shipping.

They also have a rewards Bazaar, with new rewards every Tuesday and Thursday. The rewards Bazaar is where you go to spend your Beauty Insider points.

Now in the Bazaar, they don’t just sell products they’re unable to sell elsewhere. They advertise as “one-of-a-kind experiences, personalized services, and coveted sample rewards.”

As a member of the loyalty program, you can join in with free beauty classes. These work by enrolling in the class, then visiting the store where the class is taking place to have your lesson.

Alongside beauty classes, nice perks like free birthday gifts and personalized recommendations based on your own skin tone and tastes.

The idea of it is, your “beauty bag” records exact foundation shades you need, and remembers it. Once you’ve made a few purchases, Sephora will create personalized product recommendations.

For new customers, Sephora suggests you build a beauty profile where you can input information about yourself in order for Sephora to generate recommendations.

What we like about it

Clearly, Sephora is doing all the right things to make its Beauty Insider loyalty program one of the best examples of customer loyalty to date. But what are the key things we like about it here at LoyaltyLion?

1. They don’t just offer free products. Some loyalty programs simply offer free products and that’s it. Sephora considers all the needs of the customer and tries to make their loyalty program accommodate those.
2. Registering is simple, all you need initially is your name, email, password, and date of birth.
3. No matter what tier you’re in, there is a strong focus on personalization. Also the first two tiers, at least, are attainable if you use makeup and enjoy the Sephora brand. So there’s no reason why a fan wouldn’t be able to receive some of the more coveted rewards.
4. They make the online and the offline so in sync, you wouldn’t even notice the difference. You don’t even need to redeem the points yourself, it’s done for you by the sales clerk at the checkout if you buy in-store.
5. Building on the previous point, the app has apple pay, meaning you can browse on your phone, enter the store, pick up the items, knowing they’re there and pay on your phone too. All in the comfort of the knowledgeable store clerks, happy to help if something goes wrong.
6. Their loyalty program is entrenched in their brand and you can feel the passion run through – it’s not just something they’ve put together.

Sarah Choi, Vice President of the Beauty Insider program stated: “Sephora’s clients are avid beauty junkies and we want to reward her beauty addiction with a program that is built around what she loves: product”.

The figures speak for themselves, through the loyalty program, Sephora has amassed over 10 million customers.

Takeaways

Despite any issues they may have had in the past regarding their loyalty program and being able to fulfill demands they set for themselves, Sephora is one of the best examples of customer loyalty. Its customer-centric and paves the way for other big stores to do the same.

Sephora are brilliant in that they have worked extremely hard to make sure their online presence is as strong as their offline retail presence.

Sephora doesn’t use that traffic to drive web customers, but to drive in-store customers.

They understand the importance of having an online presence and using it to drive their initiatives. What they want is people in their store and how they plan to do that is through their loyalty program.

Sephora is brilliant at providing rewards and incentives that people want, and an easy way to achieve them with an easy functioning loyalty program.