How Ulta Beauty doubled conversion rates with hyper-personalized retargeting

2.8

x

higher purchase conversion rates from those exposed to the in-app Scene

2.48

x

higher purchase conversion rates from push vs. Ulta Beauty average

Ulta Beauty is the largest specialty US beauty retailer for cosmetics, fragrance, skin care products, hair care products, and salon services. With more than 1,400 retail stores across 50 states and planned expansion into Mexico and the Middle East, as well as robust digital offerings, Ulta Beauty is committed to redefining the beauty shopping experience.

Industry

Overview

Exploration is an important part of the beauty journey, so converting customers upon first arrival isn’t always a given. For this reason, Ulta Beauty introduced a fresh retargeting campaign that tapped into current trends, while delivering tailored offers that incentivize action. The team created a new framework for capturing customer insights from the moment people start browsing, so they could later follow up with personalized content to inspire a purchase.

Challenge

The Ulta Beauty team needed to create a new, custom process for capturing preferences to use in retargeting, while also delivering in-the-moment value with tailored recommendations. With limited survey capabilities, they had to get creative with how they captured the right data from customers during moments of attention and deliver value in return.

Results

The flexibility of the Airship platform empowered Ulta Beauty to custom-build a new way to efficiently capture valuable insights from shoppers without developer support and deliver more tailored experiences designed to move customers from exploration to conversion. And it worked — Ulta Beauty drove 2.8x higher purchase conversion rates among those exposed to the in-app Scene compared to those not exposed.

We are continually looking for new ways to leverage data and insights from our more than 44 million loyalty members to better understand their unique needs and preferences and adapt our strategies to deepen and grow guest engagement and loyalty. With Airship, our team was able to build a new and innovative experience for our guests when they were actively engaged with our app, capturing valuable insights to deliver more tailored recommendations.

Jodi Williams
Vice President of Ecommerce, Ulta Beauty

Solution

No-code in-app survey enables personalized targeting messages

Airship offered the flexibility to build a custom survey

With Airship, Ulta Beauty quickly constructed a survey experience, using buttons to capture responses. Ulta Beauty invited visitors to select their eye color to discover what mascara color was right for them. Based on what button was tapped, the visitor was then redirected to a custom landing page offering unique recommendations. This information was appended to customer profiles using tags for future targeting efforts. Ulta Beauty’s ability to create a highly customized survey with rich imagery and GIFs without developer support enabled the team to quickly scale data collection and capture the information needed.

Testing and delivery parameters ensured a seamless rollout

The Ulta Beauty team tested the experience on mobile devices to ensure effective information capture. They were able to set thoughtful parameters for when the Scene was displayed — limiting it to appear only once for each customer during a single week. The result? A cumulative response rate of 7% and over 825K guests preferences gathered.

Retargeting via Airship’s push and Message Center solutions

Six and half weeks after survey completion, Ulta Beauty sent a retargeting message to customers via its in-app Message Center and push notifications, encouraging them to “complete the look” with featured products that would complement their eye color. The retailer’s digital architect built a custom Message Center template that allowed the team to seamlessly link the recommended products, eliminating the need for additional custom landing pages.