Dermalogica boosts revenue and brand loyalty with email and SMS

Dermalogica has been helping people choose the right skincare since its founding by Jane Wurwand in 1986. 

Thanks to high-quality products and a relentless commitment to educating customers about how to look after their skin, the brand is now a staple of the global beauty market, used by more than 100,000 skin therapists in over 100 countries.

Learn how Dermalogica uses Klaviyo email and SMS to build experiences customers love

Challenge

Before Dermalogica switched to Klaviyo in 2020, the team was using Mailchimp as their email provider—and it left them wanting more.

“Mailchimp at the time just wasn’t meeting our needs,” says Frankie Warner, Dermalogica’s senior CRM manager omnichannel. “We had one flow and no idea which emails were driving revenue. We were on a spray and pray send process with no real segmentation, and we knew we could be doing more.” 

After a boom in subscriber growth during the early days of the pandemic and a company initiative to move from Demandware (now Salesforce Commerce Cloud) to Shopify, change was in order.

“We needed a full-stack marketing platform that housed email and SMS, was easy to use, and that was synced with and accessible to the whole company,” Warner explains. “When we found Klaviyo, we realised, ‘Okay, this is how it should be.’”

We needed a full-stack marketing platform that housed email and SMS, was easy to use, and that was synced with and accessible to the whole company. When we found Klaviyo, we realised, ‘Okay, this is how it should be.’

Solution

Dermalogica has 55 offices around the world, but they accomplished a full re-platform in just 3 months with help from Klaviyo’s implementation team.

“Honestly, it was easy,” Warner says. “The onboarding team guided us through every step. It removed all the stress from the process and made us excited about getting started.”

Dermalogica now uses Klaviyo email and, for the first time, SMS, with 82 live flows continuously and automatically helping build smarter digital relationships—including abandoned cart, abandoned browse, SKU-specific post-purchase, and its AI face-mapping feature.

“Klaviyo holds so much data that we’re pulling in from everywhere, which we couldn’t do before,” Warner explains. This includes the Recharge integration for email subscriptions, which Dermalogica is in the process of moving to Klaviyo, and Yotpo to trigger loyalty flows.

“Suddenly, we can see any email that’s earned big ROI, draw insights, and try to replicate that success,” Warner says. “And the segmentation has been massive for us. We can pick out cohorts of people and get ultra-targeted with our messages.”

Suddenly, we can see any email that’s earned big ROI, draw insights, and try to replicate that success. And the segmentation has been massive for us. We can pick out cohorts of people and get ultra-targeted with our messages.

Strategy

With Mailchimp, Dermalogica’s data sat siloed and unused, with performance monitoring non-existent. Now, Warner’s team takes a more personalised, data-driven approach.

Smarter segmentation has given new life to Dermalogica’s AI face-mapping tool, where individuals scan their face and get recommendations about the best skincare for their needs.

With Klaviyo, each user is entered into an educational pathway flow based on their own skin concerns, with more sophisticated and tailored advice. The data informs Dermalogica’s segmentation and personalisation efforts, including product launches, email campaigns, and targeted messaging about specific products that suit certain skin types.

In keeping with its educational brand, Dermalogica uses SMS to not only share new product releases and promotions, but also share skincare tips and educational messaging—for example, “It’s sunny outside. Don’t forget to put on your SPF.”

The results speak for themselves: Dermalogica’s varied SMS messaging approach has yielded an 84.1% increase in SMS revenue per recipient in the first half of 2024.

And to keep up with customers’ changing needs, the Dermalogica team has implemented consistent A/B testing. “Our customers change their habits all the time,” Warner explains. “Someone might typically buy certain products together, but then that pattern changes. So we can adjust the post-purchase flow to include the new product people are now regularly buying.”

This adaptive approach has helped Dermalogica’s flow unsubscribe rate drop to just 0.27%—well under half the industry average.

“I absolutely love that, with Klaviyo, you never stop,” Warner says. “There’s always something else coming up. I can bring an idea to my success manager and within a few months, it’s up and running. That speed of execution is game-changing for us.”

I absolutely love that, with Klaviyo, you never stop. There’s always something else coming up. I can bring an idea to my success manager and within a few months, it’s up and running. That speed of execution is game-changing for us.