In episode 209 of Total Retail Talks, Executive Editor Joe Keenan interviews Allegra Stanley Krishnan, vice president of loyalty at Sephora, a global beauty retailer. Listen in as they discuss the redesign of Sephora's customer loyalty program; how the brand launched its new rewards program, Beauty Insider; and why a focus on emotional loyalty is key to future efforts. Krishnan details how companywide collaboration and listening to customer feedback took Sephora's Beauty Insider from a purely transactional program to an interactive, experiential membership program. Krishnan and her team track acquisition rates, retention rates, and tier migration between the program's three membership tiers as core KPIs for Beauty Insider. She also touches on Sephora's primary goals for the new program as well as its plans to continue evolving and improving the rewards membership going forward. This episode was recorded live at CRMC 2019 in Chicago.

Allegra Stanley Krishnan is the head of Sephora’s Beauty Insider loyalty program, head of promotions and part of the marketing leadership team. She oversees Beauty Insider and promotional activity for Sephora in the U.S. and Canada, with advisory roles for Mexico and Brazil. Krishnan was brought into the organization to bring about newness and change to the Beauty Insider program, and launched a new rewards platform (Rewards Bazaar) across all digital channels (mobile web, app, desktop) in a little over a year. In addition to changes to the Beauty Insider program, Krishnan has delivered meaningful value and effected significant change to the program, including significant year-over-year growth of key metrics including active client base, sign-up, retention rates, migration and sales. She leads cross-channel promotions development, from samples to discounts, including creation of new promotion constructs. Krishnan has transformed the organizational approach to promotions, making it a key strategic lever for the business by maximizing profitability impact and delivering incremental sales. Krishnan is also the key lead on the core organizational restructure team to better optimize teams against current needs of the business, focusing on agility, speed, prioritization, strategic alignment and instituting a “centers of excellence” (COE) approach.