Dan+Dan transforms beauty waste into customer loyalty engine

The programme allows customers to return empty packaging for discounts.

Dan+Dan has spent a decade turning packaging waste into a customer acquisition tool, a loyalty engine, and an increasingly competitive differentiator.

Vania Losinto, founder and director of Dan+Dan (PT Sumber Indah Lestari), said at the Retail Asia Summit 2026 in Indonesia that the country’s beauty retail sector relies heavily on plastic packaging.

When consumers finish a product, the packaging goes to landfill, which Dan+Dan saw as a missed opportunity to bring the customer back to the store.

"I did not only want to create a store; I wanted to create an experience. I wanted to create something that Indonesia did not have yet," Losinto said.

The programme, launched in 2014, allows customers to return any empty beauty packaging to a collection box in any Dan+Dan store.

In exchange, they receive a discount on a designated brand that month. Partner brands have included Purbasari, Somethinc, and the Paragon Group.

“The programme generates repeat store visits that are not dependent on purchase intent,” she added.

Eleven years in, Dan+Dan now collects roughly 15,000 empty units per month across its 382 stores in Jabodetabek and West Java — approximately 10 empties per store per day.

The company has since layered a digital dimension onto the programme with the recent launch of its Android app. Customers now earn redeemable points for returning empties — redeemable against discounts or goods — even if they make no purchase.

The app also enables personalised purchase tracking and brand-linked discount targeting, giving Dan+Dan a direct data channel into customer behaviour.

The programme's volume is rising, and Losinto attributes the uptick directly to Gen Z consumers — a demographic that is both environmentally motivated and increasingly the core beauty retail customer in Indonesia.

Losinto's stated next step is in-store refilling — allowing customers to top up empty containers directly, cutting single-use packaging out of the loop entirely.

“Current Indonesian regulations do not yet permit this for categories such as shampoo, but growing ESG pressure on consumer goods companies makes it a credible near-term opportunity,” the founder added.