Sephora is widely recognized for Beauty Insider, its top-notch loyalty program that treats its most-engaged members as core ambassadors for the brand. Sephora not only offers special rewards, but lets members lead online discussions and drive changes within the program, all to keep their community of shoppers loyal. How do they do it?
1. Create a community of influencers within the loyalty program
Sephora’s Beauty Insider Community is so organically active that it’s easy to mistake shoppers for influencers. As a member of the Beauty Insider Community, your homepage hub will be personalized based on your purchase and browsing history. From there, you can browse new looks, products, and join groups, ultimately leading to a healthy volume of organic Q&A and product page linking. Beauty enthusiasts are content consumption machines who revel in the ability to share their opinions to the brand and other shoppers.
There are currently over 76K conversation threads in the Beauty Insider Community, with about 1,500 active topics per day. There are also 42 different groups to join in the community, each with an average of 36K members. Beauty Insider accounts for more than 5% of site traffic, which is not so shocking considering the page is updated with around 50 looks per hour. Wait, are we talking about a social network?
2. Reward these loyal influencers with experiences- and variety
Birthday discounts and points are not enough anymore, especially for the beauty consumer. Sure, you can exchange your points for products, but what is really unique about Sephora is that they offer one-of-a-kind experiences and early access to products and events. In-store beauty services and free beauty classes are now available for all Beauty Insiders, and with experiential shopping functioning as a key factor driving consumers to brick-and-mortar locations, it’s smart.
3. Ask, listen, and implement offerings based on community needs
Sephora recently introduced changes to their tiered Beauty Insider program. Shoppers at the top two tiers can now redeem points for full-sized products and choose points or a gift for their birthday. Plus, points-per-dollar increased in the top two tiers, meaning Sephora is rewarding shoppers more significantly based on their spending status. They’re also expanding general reward options to include more choices in skin care, fragrance, hair care, and even wellness.
Sephora made these changes because their most loyal shoppers asked for them. By sending surveys asking how Beauty Insider program can be more meaningful, Sephora not only understands how to give users what they want, but appears responsive and in touch with their audience.
Sephora shoppers who filled out their surveys deserve a standing ovation, as does the company, for directly acting on their consumers’ wants and needs.
Loyalty programs are especially important in a brand’s overall strategy. Women’s Marketing specializes in marketing strategy including retail and e-commerce. Contact us today to learn more and start building your brand’s visibility.
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