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Fashion and beauty apps can retain more customers by giving timely value and making every session feel personal. It’s all about nailing that moment when users are ready to explore, buy, or come back.
But here’s the issue: most fashion apps chase installs, not loyalty.
Why do users drop off after the first interaction? What keeps some brands top of mind while others get deleted?
At Propel, one of the top 5 platinum Customer.io partners globally, we see this every day. And we’re breaking it all down for you.
This guide will show you exactly how to build loyalty, engagement, and repeat visits. You’ll see how the best fashion and beauty apps actually retain customers.
If you work on fashion and beauty apps, this blog on customer retention strategies for fashion and beauty apps is your full playbook. Yes, we said it twice.
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Customer retention in fashion and beauty apps means getting users to stick around, browse again, and keep buying. It’s about reducing churn and turning one-time users into loyal customers.
For example, Sephora’s app retains more users by combining loyalty perks, personalized product suggestions, and seamless checkout.
Read this for more on customer retention and why you might want a retention marketing agency.
Most fashion and beauty apps have a 30-day retention rate between 10% and 20%. The top 10% go higher.
See complete industry retention rates.
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Retention in beauty apps doesn’t happen by accident. It’s built into the product and messaging experience - timely, emotional, and personal.
Here’s how the top beauty and fashion apps do it.
Lifecycle marketing is crucial for repeat usage. It’s not about blasting offers. It’s about guiding users across their buying journey - from first visit to repeat purchase - using behavior-specific messaging.
Nykaa personalizes journeys using product-specific restock nudges and cross-sell flows. For example, "Running low on your kajal?" is more powerful than a flat 10% off. Here’s a breakdown of what a lifecycle marketer does.
Onboarding is the moment your app proves its value. A 30-second messy experience can lose the user forever. It’s your one shot to build trust, relevance, and habit.
Sugar Cosmetics asks about skin tone and concerns up front, so it never shows irrelevant products. This speeds up time-to-first-value and builds personalization early.
How would you feel if I continued to pitch our retention service in this blog, rather than providing a detailed retention strategy for your app? Not good, right? Similarly…
Beauty is highly individual. A user who prefers matte lipsticks shouldn’t be pushed to use glossy tints. Recommendations must feel relevant, not robotic.
Sephora’s “Picked for You” carousel is powered by real behavior. It’s not static. It adapts daily. Learn how customer segmentation can really help.
The best in-apps are like helpful sales reps. Not spammy popups. They tell users what they need to know - exactly when they need it.
Nykaa uses app banners smartly. No noise. If you add lipstick but don’t buy, the next time you open the app, you see “Still eyeing this?” front and center.
The gap between first and second order is where most users churn. Nailing this step turns casual buyers into retained users.
SUGAR’s “buy again and get a mini free” flows are memorable. They don’t just push products - they create rituals. You could replicate this with retention marketing tools like Customer.io or MoEngage.
Beauty buyers often add products but hesitate to checkout. These moments are gold. The right nudge can rescue 15–20% of carts.
Colorbar uses subtle FOMO + discounts in abandon flows. It doesn’t wait till the last second - it acts fast when intent is warm. Back it up with tools like lifecycle marketing.
Buying shouldn’t end the relationship. Post-purchase is your chance to build trust, drive second orders, and get referrals.
Headspace’s retention strategy includes thoughtful post-purchase nudges that reinforce habit. Beauty apps can do this with skincare reminders like “Time to rehydrate?”
User reviews aren’t just testimonials - they’re content, trust signals, and data. But only if you actually collect them.
Purplle has smart prompts like “Rate this product based on hydration” - specific and easy. It leads to higher review quality and trust.
Seasons = new needs. Retargeting old users with new season content is a low-cost, high-ROI move.
Mamaearth tailors campaigns by climate region and festival. North India sees dry skin kits in winter; South India sees sun care kits - right on time.
Segmentation helps you talk to buyers based on what they did, not just who they are.
Sephora uses "Only for You" flows based on behavior. It’s smarter than broad campaigns and builds stickiness. Learn how behavioral segmentation works in detail.
Retention is hard without tech that tracks user intent and delivers the right message at the right time.
Top D2C beauty apps in the US and India stack up with Braze + Shopify + reviews tools. See our full list of top retention tools.
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The most effective strategy? Match lifecycle messaging to changing shopping behavior.
A 20-year-old Gen Z makeup buyer doesn’t shop like a 45-year-old skincare user. Yet most brands treat them the same. That’s where churn creeps in.
Retention today is about dynamic lifecycle flows - campaigns that change based on age, category interest, purchase timing, and user intent.
Smart fashion and beauty apps are adapting fast, using behavioral segmentation and personalized automation to stay relevant at every stage.
Want to do it right? Work with a customer retention specialist who gets these nuances and builds flows that flex with your users.
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You need a retention agency if you want:
Here are 3 agencies that deliver:
Propel is a Top Platinum Customer.io Partner and a certified agency for Braze, Klaviyo, and MoEngage.
What makes Propel different?
They're not just strategists - they actually build your journeys, write your emails, and push campaigns live. Fast.
Services include:
Flexible pricing - pay only for as many campaigns as you need.
Who are they?
A growth marketing agency with a solid content-meets-retention playbook. Especially good for e-commerce and fashion DTC brands.
What they do well:
Who are they?
A digital marketing agency focused on performance creative, paid ads, and retention experiments for consumer mobile brands.
What they do well:
Propel, and not because we wrote this.
Because:
💡 Want real examples? Check our real case studies.
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Retention isn’t magic. It’s a system.
Top-performing fashion and beauty apps build retention like a machine - measurable, repeatable, always-on.
Here’s exactly how:
From first app open to repeat purchase, define every step a shopper takes.
This gives clarity on where users bounce and where you need to intervene.
Use tools like Mixpanel, Amplitude, or get a MarTech stack audit to identify drop-offs between onboarding, browsing, checkout, and reorder loops.
Set up automated nudges when users:
Not everyone’s the same. Don’t treat them like they are.
Use behavioral segmentation to group users by what they do, not just who they are - like browsing makeup vs. skincare, or one-time buyers vs. loyalists.
Set up:
Focus on what matters:
Don’t wait a year to adjust your flows.
Run monthly experiments, clean dead segments, and use retention marketing tools to automate what’s working.
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Retention isn’t guesswork - it’s measurable.
Here are the key metrics every fashion and beauty app should track:
Tells you what % of users stay over time.
Formula: [(E − N) / S] × 100
Shows how much a user is worth across their lifecycle.
You can increase customer lifetime value with smarter journeys.
Captures how loyal users really are - ask, “Would you recommend us?”
A MarTech audit aligns tools and data to track all these better.
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Retention = revenue.
Fashion and beauty apps don’t scale from installs. They scale from repeats - users who come back, reorder, and tell their friends.
If you’re not keeping users, you’re just renting attention.
Here’s what happens on both sides of the retention game:
You’ll face:
You’ll get:
Retention isn’t a “nice-to-have” - it’s your edge. Beauty brands that win today are the ones who focus on keeping their users, not just attracting them.
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Retention means building a system, not just running a few campaigns. The best apps know their metrics, build lifecycle journeys, and adapt to changing shopper behaviors.
What’s a good retention rate? Depends on the product, but anything over 30% monthly is solid. And what’s the best strategy? Lifecycle marketing that actually matches what users want.
The good news? It’s not too late. Demand is rising, and the opportunity to win loyalty is wide open.
Teams like Propel (a top-rated lifecycle partner) help fashion and beauty brands build retention that lasts, without fluff.
You’ve got this.
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A 30-day retention rate between 10% and 20% is considered healthy for fashion and beauty apps. If you're hitting 25% or higher, you’re among the top-performing brands. These benchmarks reflect how well you're engaging users after install - especially during onboarding, first purchases, and seasonal campaigns.
Yes, 100%. Retention tools help automate your campaigns and deliver messages at the right moment. Without them, your team ends up guessing or manually managing flows - slowing growth. Tools like Customer.io, MoEngage, or Braze let you build journeys that are behavior-driven, not broadcast-based.
Great onboarding is fast, personal, and nudges users toward their first win. Use one-click signups, onboarding quizzes (e.g., skin tone match, budget preferences), and real-time nudges like “bestsellers in your range.” Brands like Nykaa and Fabletics personalize right from the first screen, helping users build trust quickly.
Yes. Propel is a top Customer.io partner, and certified across Braze, Klaviyo and MoEngage. You get access to expert-built campaigns, creative + copy help, CRM audits, and full journey automation - on flexible plans made for lean teams.
Start with “finish what you started” nudges. Use push or in-app reminders for added-to-cart items, wishlists, or viewed products. These journeys usually lift repeat purchases by 10–15%, especially when personalized with name, product, or a small discount.
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More on beauty brand retention
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Use our free Retention Impact Calculator to see how much revenue you’re leaving on the table — and how much you could unlock by improving retention.
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