Kruidvat was founded in Dordrecht, Netherlands in 1975 and has grown into the Dutch and Belgian markets' most widely distributed drugstore and health and beauty discounter. As part of A.S. Watson Group's international health and beauty retail network, Kruidvat brings global retail expertise to a distinctly Dutch consumer context: a market that values transparency, fair pricing, and practical loyalty mechanics over aspirational brand positioning.
For Dutch independent beauty, health, and personal care retailers, Kruidvat provides a loyalty case study built on personalised weekly discounts and consistent member value rather than complex programme mechanics.
How Kruidvat Retains its Customers
Kruidvat Plus operates through three mechanisms aligned with the regular, basket-driven health and beauty purchase pattern:
Personalised weekly member discounts. Kruidvat Plus generates personalised discount offers each week based on each member's purchase history across health products, beauty and cosmetics, household cleaning, baby care, and seasonal items. A member who regularly buys a specific brand of face moisturiser, a daily multivitamin, and a particular shampoo receives member prices on those specific products. The personalisation removes the need for the member to actively search for relevant promotions: the weekly offer simply confirms that their regular purchases are this week at member price, creating a frictionless visit motivation that generic discount catalogues cannot match.
Category breadth as a basket-building loyalty tool. Kruidvat's product range spans health, beauty, household, baby care, and seasonal categories, which means a single Kruidvat Plus member can earn relevant personalised offers across multiple product categories that cover a significant share of a Dutch household's regular health and beauty spending. A member whose regular basket includes vitamin D supplements, children's cold medicine, facial cleansing wipes, dry shampoo, and nappy rash cream has a personalised offer relevant to each category, creating a loyalty programme that comprehensively serves their regular shopping needs rather than addressing only a narrow product slice.
A.S. Watson's global loyalty platform sophistication. As part of A.S. Watson Group, Kruidvat benefits from the same loyalty technology infrastructure that serves Superdrug in the UK, Watsons across Asia, and other A.S. Watson brands globally. This global platform investment means Kruidvat Plus members benefit from a personalisation engine that has been refined across 30+ markets and hundreds of millions of transactions. For independent retailers, this represents the competitive challenge: a global platform investment that individual stores cannot match. The response for independents is to use the human advantage that Kruidvat cannot replicate at scale: personal knowledge of regular customers and genuinely personalised service.
The Dutch Drugstore and Beauty Loyalty Context
The Dutch drugstore and health and beauty market is served by Kruidvat, Etos (Ahold Delhaize), and Trekpleister (also A.S. Watson), alongside specialist health food shops, pharmacies, and beauty multi-brand retailers. Dutch consumers are value-conscious in their health and beauty spending, conducting regular price comparisons across drugstores and online alternatives including Bol.com, Notino, and international beauty platforms.
Kruidvat's dominant position in the Dutch market is maintained through a combination of store density (most Dutch consumers live within walking distance of a Kruidvat), everyday low pricing, and the Kruidvat Plus personalised offers that make the effective price for regular members competitive with any online alternative.
Three Lessons for Dutch Independent Beauty and Health Retailers
1. Generate personalised weekly offers for each member's most-purchased product categories. Kruidvat's most impactful loyalty mechanic is the personalised offer on the member's habitual purchases. An independent Dutch beauty or health retailer should send a personalised weekly push notification that references the specific products the member most regularly buys: "Uw persoonlijke aanbiedingen deze week: [Brand] moisturiser, vitamine D3, en [Brand] shampoo, allemaal op leden-prijs." The specificity of the product reference signals genuine personalisation and creates a direct financial motivation that generic promotional broadcasts cannot match.
2. Offer a health category consultation as a loyalty benefit. Kruidvat competes on price but an independent Dutch health and beauty retailer can compete on expertise. A loyalty programme benefit that includes a quarterly 15-minute health product consultation, discussing vitamins, skincare routine optimisation, or sun protection suitability for the member's skin type, creates a loyalty experience that the Kruidvat checkout interaction cannot replicate. The consultation also generates purchase recommendations that, coming from a trusted adviser, are more persuasive than a generic product promotion.
3. Create a "Uw vaste winkelmandje" (your regular basket) notification. Kruidvat's personalised offers remind members when their regular products are on member price. An independent retailer should go one step further and create a "your regular basket is ready" notification: a weekly push listing the specific combination of products the member most regularly buys, with that week's member prices, and a "prepare your basket now" digital link. The ready-made basket reduces the friction of the regular shop and makes the member's habitual purchase behaviour a loyalty anchor rather than a passive transaction.
Kruidvat vs. Dutch Drugstore and Beauty Loyalty Alternatives
| Brand | Programme | Personalised offers | Category breadth | Store density | App utility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kruidvat Plus | Kruidvat (1,100+ NL) | Yes | Very broad | Very high | Yes |
| Etos Card | Etos | Yes | Broad | High | Yes |
| Trekpleister | Trekpleister | Yes | Broad | High | Yes |
| Online beauty (Notino) | No formal programme | Algorithm-based | Very broad | N/A | N/A |
| Independent wallet pass | Your store | Yes | Your range | Your locations | Yes |
Getting Started
Kruidvat demonstrates that Dutch drugstore and beauty loyalty works best when weekly personalised member discounts on regular purchase categories create frictionless financial value for engaged members. An independent Dutch beauty, health, or personal care retailer that generates personalised weekly offers on members' most-purchased categories, offers expert health consultation as a loyalty benefit, and creates a regular basket notification builds both the financial-value loyalty that Kruidvat delivers at scale and the personal expertise loyalty that independent retailers are uniquely positioned to provide.
For an independent Dutch beauty or health retailer ready to build a loyalty programme with personalised weekly offers, member consultation benefits, and basket notification tools, LoyaltyPass provides the wallet pass and notification tools to send personalised product offers, manage member communication calendars, and track category purchase patterns. The product expertise and the personal relationships are yours; the loyalty infrastructure is available from day one.
For context on how Albert Heijn integrates beauty and health products into a broader grocery loyalty programme, Albert Heijn Netherlands loyalty covers the Bonus Card approach and what Dutch retailers can learn from comparing specialist and full-grocery beauty loyalty models.
