Beauty loyalty programs are an excellent way to drive customer retention and increase sales. According to statistics, 75% of customers prefer to stay with companies that offer rewards.
While some beauty businesses see high conversion rates from their loyalty programs, others don’t achieve the same results. We are here to help you if you are in the latter group.
If you want to create an effective digital loyalty program without creating a custom app, coding knowledge, or design skills, there is no better solution than PassKit – our platform allows you to create digital loyalty cards, coupons, or membership cards in minutes.
What’s best, you can promote and distribute your digital passes on multiple marketing channels and track redemption rates thanks to our advanced analytics. Sign up for a 45-day free trial to see how easy it is.
In this article, we will give you 15 tips to help you optimize your beauty rewards program and explain how you can use PassKit to increase customer loyalty.
Let’s start with some basic information about beauty rewards programs.
What is a beauty rewards program?
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A beauty rewards program helps reward your customers for buying beauty products and using beauty services.
Beauty loyalty programs can be as simple as giving members discounts or providing perks like free skincare consultations, free shipping, and even gift cards. It allows brands to build up a following of loyal customers and create a personalized customer experience based on customers’ preferences.
How do beauty rewards programs work?
Like any other loyalty program, beauty rewards programs work because they incentivize people to make repeat purchases. Customers can earn points when they use services or make purchases.
Each subsequent purchase earns them more points. Customers can redeem these points for discounts, special deals, cashback, and other rewards.
What stats show us about the beauty industry
The beauty industry is one of the most competitive markets. Here is what we can learn from statistics:
- It will surpass $716 billion by 2025 and $784.6 billion by 2027 (EarthWeb)
- Women spend approximately $313 per month on beauty products (EarthWeb)
- 66% of consumers say the ability to earn rewards actually changes their spending behavior (Bain)
- The average redemption rate is around 60% (SpendGo)
These numbers show a solid basis for creating a beauty rewards program that provides many benefits to your business. Let’s name a few.
What are the advantages of creating a beauty rewards program?
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Creating a rewards program shows your customers how much they mean to you. It’s a great way to build customer loyalty, drive repeat business, or entice customers to try new products they would not otherwise consider.
Furthermore, beauty rewards programs can help you generate positive word-of-mouth among existing customers. By rewarding loyal customers with special offers or premium products, you can encourage them to spread the word about your business.
It can, in turn, positively impact your business’s bottom line by increasing sales and overall brand awareness.
Another advantage of a beauty rewards program is that it’s easy to set up. While a few steps are involved in creating one, it’s not complicated if you use a digital loyalty solution such as PassKit.
You don’t have to hire an expert designer or build a custom integration with your current point-of-sale system. You must decide what rewards you want to offer, motivate your customers to sign up for your loyalty program, and start distributing your digital reward cards.
You can check out PassKit Pass Creator to see how it works.
What are the biggest challenges with the beauty rewards program?
The biggest challenge with the beauty rewards program is ensuring that the benefits of earning points are clear to the customer. There are many ways to earn points, and there can be much confusion regarding how customers can use them.
It takes time to educate customers on how to use their rewards effectively and even more time to ensure that they understand the value of their points.
Here are some additional challenges you might encounter.
- There’s a risk that some customers might be dissatisfied if they don’t get what they expect
- Some people might be unable to afford to collect enough points
- It can be challenging to keep track of exactly how much people contribute over time
- Beauty rewards programs can take a lot of time and resources
Having this in mind, what are the best practices to include in your beauty rewards program? We prepared a comprehensive list of tips to help you make a good start with your customer loyalty program.
15 tips to boost your customer loyalty today
Image source: Bath and Body Fusion
You can do several things to encourage customers to use your beauty rewards program. Here’s the list of the most effective practices.
1. Define your core values and rewards program goals
To keep your goals motivating and challenging, create a list of core values and beauty rewards program goals that align with those values.
It can help keep everyone on track and help you stay focused on what’s most important. The more specific your goals are, the more likely you will achieve them.
2. Create a digital rewards program
Digital rewards programs are simple, easy to set up, and can be tailored to your business, brand, and audience. A digital rewards program allows customers to earn points for every online or offline purchase. They can then redeem these points for rewards like discounts and VIP experiences.
By creating a digital rewards program, you’re rewarding your loyal customers and collecting valuable data about their preferences and purchasing habits since you can access loyalty program data using digital loyalty platforms such as PassKit.
3. Be transparent about program benefits
One of the most important things to remember about beauty loyalty programs is that they need to be transparent. After all, people want to know what they can get for their time and effort.
They could feel misled or exploited if you’re unclear about what your rewards program offers. So make sure you’re always clear about your benefits before signing up new members.
4. Make it easy for customers to join the loyalty program
Don’t make the signing-up process too complicated. If it’s too confusing or complex, the customers may become frustrated and choose not to join your program.
By offering them a smooth sign-up process, you can show them that you value their time and attention and boost the number of new members.
The best beauty loyalty programs give new joiners free samples or other perks along the way to build a sense of familiarity and trust between the brand and the customers.
5. Provide flexible ways for users to earn points/rewards
One of the most common problems in loyalty programs is that they’re too restrictive. For example, a reward program might only allow users to earn points on certain purchases or at specific locations.
In addition, it can be challenging for users to track their progress and keep an eye out for opportunities to earn even more points. Considering these issues, you can make your program more flexible for your customers. It will incentivize them to continue using your products.
For example, PassKit allows users to access their digital cards via their mobile phones. Since they always carry their phones, they can quickly check the loyalty program anytime, anywhere, to see their point balance.
6. Track your customers’ behavior
Analyzing customers’ behavior in your beauty rewards program is essential for ensuring you get the most out of the program. It helps you to understand which customers are buying more often, how effective your marketing campaigns are, and whether there are any gaps in your customer base.
Knowing how customers behave can also help you to design better loyalty programs that meet their needs. For example, if you know that some customers prefer to buy more than one item every time they visit a store, you may want to offer more frequent purchase discounts.
7. Develop an effective communication strategy
To have an effective loyalty program communication strategy, you must understand what you want to achieve.
Once you know your goals, you can plan how you want to communicate with your customers. It may include social media posts, store flyers, emails, text messages, and phone calls.
Considering different channels is essential because not all will work for everyone. When you create a digital loyalty program using the PassKit platform, we make it easy for you to distribute the passes via multiple channels like email, SMS marketing, social media, receipt marketing, and in-store advertising.
Once you’ve developed your communication strategy, ensure it’s executed consistently across all channels. If a channel isn’t working as planned or isn’t used enough, try something else.
8. Use gamification to increase engagement
Image source: Agile CRM
Simply having a program isn’t enough. It needs to be fun, rewarding, and engaging. You can do this by using gamification techniques like leaderboards, badges, and other elements commonly found in games.
For example, beauty brands like L’Oréal Paris and Maybelline apply gamification strategies by using filters and facial enhancement on social media platforms and apps.
Image source: We Out Wow
By making your beauty rewards program more competitive and fun, you can get people excited about the program and increase customer retention.
9. Give exclusive discounts to your most loyal customers
Loyal customers are the lifeblood of any business. They’re more likely to buy more, recommend you to friends, and even write reviews on social media.
Offering exclusive discounts to your most loyal customers can go a long way toward building trust and loyalty.
10. Give exclusive access to new products and services
Give early access to new products or services to your loyalty program members. They will feel honored and favored over other customers.
Exclusive access is an effective way to drive customer engagement and loyalty. It gives your customers something they can’t get anywhere else and creates a sense of trust that can make all the difference in building and maintaining a loyal following.
11. Give early access to VIP events
It’s a great way to reward your most loyal customers. By letting them know that you’re planning some exclusive offline or online events, they’re more likely to be interested and excited to sign up.
It can also serve as a form of marketing. Customers might share the information about your event with friends and social media followers, which could result in even more new beauty rewards program members.
12. Involve influencers in your program
Asking influencers to promote your rewards program can be a great way to increase the number of subscribers.
Even if the influencers don’t actively participate in the program, having them as ambassadors can help spread the word about it. Influencers have a vast reach and are seen by hundreds or even thousands of people. Working with them can also help your brand in community building.
In addition, influencers may be willing to share their experience with others, which can significantly affect how well the program is received.
13. Invite your customers to share their thoughts and opinions
Asking your customers for feedback is a great way to keep them happy and promotes long-term engagement.
Not only does it help you discover how they use your beauty rewards program, but it also lets you identify areas for improvement. By soliciting user feedback, you can better understand the needs of your target audience and tailor your beauty rewards program accordingly.
14. Allow customers to own their data
By allowing customers to choose how they use their data, you can encourage them to take ownership of their digital footprint. It gives customers a feeling of empowerment and control. They will feel safe and better connected to your brand and, therefore, more likely to act on your special offers.
15. Measure results continuously
It’s essential to measure the effectiveness of your beauty loyalty programs over time to ensure you’re achieving your goals.
If you see that people are signing up more frequently or staying engaged for longer, it could mean that your loyalty program is working. But if the numbers are declining, something could negatively impact the program’s effectiveness.
PassKit is a solution that helps business owners track analytics and redemption rates. When you log in to the PassKit dashboard, you can check the number of enrolled members, the number of cards installed in digital wallets, program performance by day, month, or year, or even which digital wallet provider your customers use.
Let’s dive into more details about PassKit and how It can help you optimize your beauty rewards program strategy.
How to create a beauty rewards program with PassKit
PassKit is a digital loyalty platform that allows you to design loyalty programs in minutes and easily create digital loyalty cards for businesses.
To create a loyalty program with PassKit, follow a few simple steps.
- Go to the PassKit platform and sign up for free
- Give your project a name and decide what type of card you want to create – a loyalty card, coupon card, or membership card
- Choose a loyalty card template that suits your needs
- Pick a barcode type – it allows you to scan the card at your POS
- Add Images (your logo and hero image) and choose colors for your loyalty card
- Add all the information and valuable sections
- Include links to your official website, social media profiles, and other useful links
- Save your design
Next, you need to distribute loyalty cards among your customers. We prepared a solution for you: multichannel distribution that allows you to share the passes with your customers via multiple marketing channels like social media, SMS marketing, email marketing, receipt marketing, retail marketing, and more. You can also promote the cards via in-store advertising and POP marketing.
Customers need to follow the URL or scan the QR code to join your loyalty program. Then they can add the loyalty card to their mobile wallet like Apple Wallet or Google Pay and use it whenever they make a transaction with you to collect points or redeem rewards.
To see how PassKit works firsthand, start a 45-day free trial.
How you use PassKit for your loyalty program depends on your imagination. There is plenty of examples out there of great ideas you can incorporate into your beauty rewards program. We picked a few interesting ones to inspire you.
5 ideas to use in your beauty rewards program
Apart from offering your customers exclusive rewards and discounts, you can encourage them to join your program by using the following ideas.
1. Award points for referring a friend
Image source: Extole
Instead of recruiting new salespeople, you can create a referral program where existing customers will refer their friends and family to get a reward. Doing this can generate new leads at a fraction of the cost.
Ensure the offer is attractive for both parties: the referring person and the new joiner. For example, Ulta Beauty has a referral program where the inviting person and the friend get 10% off their next purchase.
2. Give birthday rewards
Image source: Twitter
Who doesn’t like birthday gifts? You can make your clients feel appreciated by adding points to their rewards accounts during their birthdays or giving them a special discount they can use during their birthday month.
Most rewards programs offer birthday rewards, but hardly any give customers options to choose from. In Sephora’s Beauty Insider rewards program, customers get a choice of birthday gifts they can get.
All they have to do is visit a Sephora Store and tell the cast that they are a Beauty Insider and this is their birthday month. They also need to provide the email address they used to register for the program. Then they will be shown birthday reward options to choose from.
3. Encourage your clients to take before and after pictures
Image source: Women Ideas
Give bonus points to those customers who decide to take photos before and after using your services. Make it clear that they must share the images on social media channels to get bonus points.
4. Award points for bookings during the slow months
Every salon owner knows that there are times when the business slows down. To counteract those slower periods, promise your clients bonus points when they book your services during that time.
5. Reward customers for following you on social media
Image source: Simply Beach
Increase your social media presence by offering your customers points for following you or reacting to your recent posts.
Apart from having a list of exciting ideas, it’s good to know how successful brands put them to work to design effective beauty loyalty programs. Let’s take a look at a few examples.
3 examples of successful beauty rewards programs
Beauty rewards programs are widespread across the beauty industry. Let’s share some well-known examples.
1. Lancôme Elite Rewards
Image Source: Lancome
Lancôme Elite Rewards is a simple example of a beauty loyalty program.
The program is free to join. Each dollar spent earns customers 1 point. When they collect specific points, they can redeem them for vouchers and use them at checkout or select exclusive products from the Rewards Catalogue.
2. Aveda’s rewards program
Image source: Aveda
Aveda, a US cosmetics brand established in 1978, invented one of the most successful beauty brand loyalty programs called Aveda Plus Rewards.
To join the program, customers pay a one-time $10 fee. They get access to exclusive events, gifts, and free shipping in exchange.
Every dollar spent in Aveda’s partner salons or their website brings customers 10 points. Once customers accumulate 2,500 points, they can exchange them for a free product or keep collecting points for better rewards.
At the 7,000 points threshold, there’s another attractive reward: if customers visit one of Aveda’s partner spas, they get a $75 discount.
Image source: Aveda
Customers earn points not only for purchases but also for certain activities. If they download Aveda’s app and connect it with their loyalty account, they receive 200 points.
Aveda doesn’t forget about customers’ special days: each year, they get a birthday gift and double points.
3. Sally Beauty Rewards
Sally Beauty Rewards also belongs to one of the best beauty loyalty programs.
Customers earn 10 points for every dollar spent. Those who spend more than $200 a calendar year become Elite Members and get special perks like free shipping and a birthday gift.
They also earn more points for purchases: 12.5 points for every dollar spent at Sally Beauty.
Image source: Sally Beauty
Apart from the perks mentioned above, customers who become Sally Beauty Credit Card holders get a welcome gift of 20% off their next purchase when they use the card. They also receive anniversary gifts – surprises to celebrate the anniversary of their account opening. And they get extra 2.5 points for every dollar spent.
Beauty rewards programs: Final words
There’s no success in business without creating a solid customer experience strategy that encourages customers to engage with your company and become loyal to your brand. A beauty rewards program is a very effective solution that increases the number of loyal customers.
To launch an effective beauty rewards program, you should pick some of the tips from this article that you find the most useful and put them into practice. PassKit will allow you to incorporate them in no time – sign up for our 45-day free trial and start testing these ideas today.
