Roughly a decade after discontinuing its first mobile app, beauty brand Clarin has decided the time is right to try again. Following a successful UK pilot launched in October 2024, Clarins introduced the new app in the U.S. in summer 2025. The Paris-based company subsequently rolled out the app to Canada and Australia and is now launching it in France and other markets.

“We think the context now is much more favorable,” says Laurent Malaveille, Chief Digital, IT & Business Support Officer for Clarins Group. For starters, Clarins’s online sales are now more than 13 times what they were when the initial app debuted in 2012, as ecommerce is no longer a novelty.

“We also found an affordable cost to build and maintain the app,” Malaveille continues, “thanks to our hybrid approach leveraging many of our mobile website pages” such as product listings. Working with digital partner Merkle, Clarins “focused our native development only where it really makes a difference.”

Among other functions, the app allows persistent login, one-click checkout, and the ability to opt in for push notifications. It also enables users to scan product barcodes while they’re shopping in a store so that they can check ingredient details, customer reviews and other information not available on the packaging. These features are in addition to those available on Clarins’s other digital channels, such as AI-powered skin analysis and a generative AI chatbot.

‘Adoption Per Se Is Not a Goal’

The choice of the UK as the test market for the app was to a degree a matter of chance. “We typically rotate our pilots between our large markets,” Malaveille explains. “So this time it was the UK.”

Malaveille admits that Clarins was concerned potential users might be suffering from app fatigue: “Would our customers download the app and not be reluctant to add another icon to their already-cluttered phone screens?” The answer, he says, “has definitely and quickly been yes.” Nearly 30% of what the company describes as loyal customers in the UK have adopted it, results that led Clarins to push up the rollout to other markets.

The high interest also confirms that the app is a preferred communication channel for consumers, according to the brand. Plus, it helps Clarins support its growing subscription business, which includes 10% off of purchases, free shipping and free samples for subscribers.

However, “adoption per se is not a goal,” Malaveille says. “I would say it’s more a means to an end. The definite goal is really lifting sales. So basically, thanks to smoother experience, we expect a higher conversion rate on the app. Thanks to the convenience of push notifications, we also expect a higher frequency of visits. So as a result, basically we expect a lift in sales combining higher conversion and higher frequency. And the analysis on the first customer cohorts having downloaded the app confirms these assumptions, with a significant uplift in the frequency of purchase.”

Since the app was designed in large part to better serve existing customers rather than to attract new ones, Clarins is promoting it primarily via organic channels, including banners on the mobile site, email campaigns and SEO. The company offers bonus loyalty-program points for downloading the app and is touting app-exclusive offers as well.

Clarins isn’t resting on its app laurels. “On top of rolling out the app in more markets, we also have plans to further enhance the app experience,” Malaveille says, “and we keep introducing regular releases and improvements, but we prefer to keep them confidential at this stage.”