Team Tarte Rewards Case Study

Tarte Cosmetics found an innovative way to reach out to their target audience with their well-designed loyalty program known as Team Tarte. The beauty brand certainly understands the power of a good rewards program in keeping its customers, particularly millennials, glued to its offers.

Team Tarte is not only noted among ecommerce retailers for doing a great job at rewarding points on each purchase, but for encouraging customers to interact with them online through the same means. This strategy has enabled them to receive valuable feedback, in-depth customer data, higher CLV, and increased loyalty toward the brand.

Find out exactly how their loyalty program works, why it has achieved success, and some of its major drawbacks as you read on.

How does the program work?

Team Tarte offers valuable rewards to its members, known as “Tartelettes”, when they sign up and continue shopping on their tarte.com website.

Tartelettes earn points every time they shop, connect with the brand on social media, or complete certain activities listed on the Team Tarte activity page.

They are rewarded with 100 points when they first sign up for the program.
They can also earn 100 points for each full-sized item they purchase and gain 50 points for each mini or sale item they purchase online.

Aside from these, members can also earn points for connecting with the brand on social media, participating in surveys, writing product reviews, referring friends, and completing a beauty profile, among other activities. Team Tarte also offers its members a free birthday gift and exclusive sales offers as well.

The company uses a tiered approach in rewarding its members. A member at the first tier level is labeled a Startelette, a person enjoying second-tier benefits is described as Varsity, and a member at the third tier is labeled an MVT. The tiers are mainly determined by the number of points earned within a calendar year. Therefore, to be a Startelette, members must have earned between 0 and 1,499 points within the year. Varsity members should have earned between 1,500 and 2,999 points per year, whereas MVT members earn above 3,000 points per calendar year.

The basic tier members can access all the rewards above except bonus points, free mini items for every purchase, an anniversary gift, and exclusive shipping offers. Varsity level members enjoy a 2x points bonus during their birth month, while MVT members enjoy a 3x points bonus during that period. The only tier that enjoys expedited shipping offers, access to exclusive products, and the soulmate tier welcome gift is the MVT level.

Points earned in the program can expire if customers do not make a purchase or complete a loyalty activity within a calendar year.

Once customers accumulate their rewards, they can redeem them by selecting the reward they want.

What are the good things about the program?

One of the most attractive things about this loyalty program is that customers can easily earn points and rewards for several activities. Tarte has made the process of gaining points easy on members by first offering 100 points just for signing up.

From there, customers stand to earn more points whenever they purchase or complete a host of activities. For instance here are some of the ways members can earn additional points:

engaging with the brand by opening their emails
following an embedded link
reviewing a product
requesting more information about products
completing surveys and quizzes
helping other program members with questions on their social media platforms.

These seemingly simple activities are beneficial to the company because they increase customer engagement and a positive affiliation with the brand. The idea of rewarding almost every activity also makes the customer feel appreciated for dealing with the brand.

A great feature of this program is the loyalty samples it offers. The company saw an opportunity in fixing the prevailing risk problem of purchasing makeup products online. The company eases the pain of this risk by providing program members with a free sample of every product they purchase. Since members get to try samples out for free, they are more encouraged to purchase the products they are most interested in, resulting in immense customer satisfaction.

How could they have made their rewards program more attractive?

Team Tarte Rewards are undoubtedly well-loved by its members for all of its great sides. However, nothing is perfect, and a few areas could be improved to make the program even more attractive.

Not advertising enough to non-program members

As a member of the rewards program, one is entitled to several rewards that are nothing short of valuable. Unfortunately, a look on the company’s website reveals very little information about the rewards accessible to members when they join the loyalty program. Although the Tarte Rewards page showcases the differences between the various tiers, it does not communicate the worth of the rewards themselves. The lack of information will work against the brand in the long run because until a customer decides to join the program, they will not see why it is valuable nor be privy to the array of discounts, samples, and incredible offers they can access.

The simple solution to the above issue is to showcase the benefits, products, and experiences which can be gained from their loyalty program on the explainer page. There is no need to limit the catalog of rewards to loyalty program members. Once every customer catches a glimpse of the kind of rewards available, they can easily decide to join the program and fall deeper in love with the brand.

Clarity on Earning Rules

One major drawback of this program is that the earning rules are not clear or transparent enough. For instance, the explainer page shows that members can earn points when they are “a social butterfly”, click on emails, visit the company’s website, shop for products, and complete some “more” actions. Although the number of points earned on products is well defined, the brand has not clearly listed the number of points that can be gained for doing the above actions. There is no clear definition of what a social butterfly means to Tarte, or how it can be quantified.

The program would be much more attractive if members know the worth of the rewards and the equivalent points they can earn. They could simply add a “learn more” button, where customers can access more information about the rewards. Transparency is extremely vital to every loyalty program.

That said, the Teamtarte rewards program is excellent because it focuses on elevating the entire customer experience while promoting loyalty to the Tarte brand.

This article is part of our series of case studies of loyalty programs implemented by the world's most famous brands.