MAKE A CONCLUSION BASED ON THIS INFORMATION ABOUT ULTA'S SUSTAINABILITY TOWARDS CUSTOMER RETENTION. ( 200 words )

Sustainability towards customer retention with reference to ULTA, a beauty retailer located in US.

Customer retention is defined as a strategy that causes customers to stay and continuously patronize the company that provides the customer goods or service.

This is important because according to a study acquiring a new customer is nearly 7 times as expensive as converting an existing customer to a repeat customer. Also, there is higher likelihood of getting sale from existing customer than acquiring a new customer.

Let's take the example of ULTA and try to analyze its sustainability towards customer retention with respect to both social & customization aspect. The strategy most of which it uses are broadly mentioned as below:

All points could not be explained in such a limited time but few major aspects both all the above retention strategy are discussed below:

Part A: Overlap strategy-

1. The middle one comes under both social and customization aspect like Loyalty & memberships. Ulta has over 30 million loyalty members. It has its reward system called Ultamate rewards. This caters to both social aspect and also customization aspect. When a customer signs he has to fill his/her personal details like gender, skin tone, hair type, etc. so that its app provide suggestion based on individual customer. The app is woven into the very nature of Ulta loyalty & rewards program. Over 90% of Ulta's sales can be attributed to this strategy.

2. Gamification- Through its app customers can answer quizzes, polls and surveys in return for points using which they can avail discounts or cashback. The gamification is as per individual customer's needs. Also, through this, Ulta are able to keep in touch constantly with the customer getting their feedback and later improving product or making changes to the sku's they sell.

3. Surprise strategy as we know used by lot of retailers also Ulta to keep the customers delighted by providing them gift or reward points randomly or after a certain purchase has been made or on special occasions.

4. Web portals & app is a major contributor for Ulta through which its customer interact with them and through the existing feature it has on its website like Virtual Beauty Advisor, Ulta TV, etc. it increases the interest of the customer and engages them that causes higher conversion and retention rates.

Part B: Social retention strategy-

1. Ulta organizes beauty consultations virtually so that its customers could interact with the makeup experts and consultants to help cater to customers beauty need even in the time of pandemic.

2. If any customer is wants to open his own salon it trains and educates them online through beauty coaches.

3. Through Ulta referral program people earn referral rewards. It sometime uses a different technological partner to organize such program for example it partnered with Extole earlier for referral program.

4. Ulta is present on lot of social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter. It partners with celebrities and influencers to organize campaign sometime and take customers feedback and answer their questions. Ulta always remains highly active sharing picture, videos, events video, etc. that keep customers engaged.

5. As discussed earlier Ulta community is huge with over 30 million + members that are always engaged and interacting with Ulta through its app and social media platforms.

Part C: Customization based retention strategy-

1. Ulta sometimes collaborates with its customer through the app and asks for suggestion, feedback to launch certain product for example Ulta range of products and even some indie brands. The collaboration is sometime reward based or sometimes without reward.

2. It analyzes consumer journey very closely and for every touchpoint it brings customization. For example contactless payment using NFC technology, BOPIS strategy (Buy Online Pickup in store), Curbside delivery that it's currently implementing.

3. Contactless sampling using Virtual Try on application on web browser as well as mobile app. Powered by Modiface, Ulta provides virtual makeup application so that a person could try makeup virtually and decide whether to buy or not.

4. Individual value system- For customer who are concerned with clean beauty concept and transparencyin product they could visit the store or even buy online.

5. Personalize messages- Ulta send push up notifications and messages through social media as well as app that shows how closely it is committed to individual person. It knows the product that is good for each individual that wants to buy from Ulta.

6. Using AI & technologies- Through AI Ulta could predict individual beauty needs and its recommendation engine provides suggestion as per person

7. Interactive content- An Ulta customer could decide what content it wants to see on it's Ulta TVasynchronously and could interact with its website in exchange for recommendation or service as and when they want.

Social aspect RETENTION Customization aspect Loyalty & Membership Gamification Surprise strategy Social Media platforms Communication calendar CRM Online & offline events Virtual parties Education/Awareness programs CSR or causal marketing programs Reviews & feedback Referrals Social shopping Community engagement strategy Forums Newsletter communication Responsiveness towards customer suggestions or complaints Relationship building- Virtual or face-to-face consultations Video chats Product transparency Personalized support/assistance Monitor and cater to each step of customer journey Product/service customization Process customization Touchpoints customization through technology Customer convenience Leverage Al/ML, AR/XR/VR technologies Individual value system assessment & strategy building Personalize the marketing message & follow ups Interactive & personalized content Internet & technology