How Beauty Brands are Innovating Themselves Using Tech

How Beauty Brands are Innovating Themselves Using Tech
From Augment Reality (AR) to Virtual Reality (VR) tools, live commerce to social commerce, such immersive state-of-the-art technology being effortlessly integrated by the beauty brands has opened a new world of opportunities.

By Vaishnavi gupta , Sr Correspondent

30 Mar 2022 | 13 min read

The beauty industry is a fiercely competitive market with an ever-evolving technology landscape. When the world came to a standstill with the pandemic, the beauty industry not only sustained but also grew by delivering services and sharing its expertise in the digital world. With the advancement of technology, brands are now using artificial intelligence (AI) to spearhead product innovations and drive higher customer engagement - one can now leverage AI to collect data on consumer preferences and buying behavior.

From Augment Reality (AR) to Virtual Reality (VR) tools, live commerce to social commerce, such immersive state-of-the-art technology being effortlessly integrated by the beauty brands has opened a new world of opportunities.

Beauty-Tech Trends

While tech is impacting all industries, the beauty industry, in particular, had to urgently pivot and rely on tech during the pandemic. Here are a few beauty tech trends that are revolutionizing the industry:

Personalization: It is a common trend that beauty brands are adapting through artificial intelligence. It enables brands to collect data on consumer preferences and deliver on their promise of a product tailored to a customer.

Virtual Try-On: It is another trend that uses augmented reality to help customers choose makeup as per their personal requirements or skin concerns. Additionally, there are other innovative skincare tools now available to consumers. For example, a smart mirror that not only shows the reflection but also captures a photo and scans it for blemishes, red spots, fine lines, and wrinkles. These trends are becoming more commercialized. It enables users to get an in-depth assessment of their skin and a meticulously researched approach to restoring their skin via AR.

Live Commerce: Two major innovations around live commerce and augmented reality will finally be able to remove the uncertainty element that still remains for the beauty consumer looking to make their purchases online. Today, e-commerce is bridging the gap however, it cannot be the same level of experience and confidence for every consumer that an in-store experience provides.

Social Commerce: The most recent trend that has been observed is the use of social commerce platforms, where products are purchased within the ecosystem of the social app itself.

Integrating Technology to Offer a Personalized Experience

Recently, L’Oréal India launched a virtual try-on for key beauty categories, in partnership with leading e-commerce channels. “Our continued investments in AI/ AR have enabled us to make a skin ‘diagnosis’ based on a selfie or use virtual reality to try out a hair color or makeup to provide a real-time, true-to-life view of products,” a L’Oréal India spokesperson said.  In 2018, the brand acquired ModiFace, a company that is innovating in augmented reality and artificial intelligence at a scale and speed that’s unique in the beauty industry, with a goal to create beauty that is more inclusive and personalized for everyone.

Boddess is a multi beauty-tech platform that is equipped with augmented reality technology and virtual beauty tools. The brand invites its audience to take a glimpse into the future of digital beauty retail in India. “From magic mirrors that work as skin analyzer and make-up try on to interactive screens and experiential zones, to multiple strategically positioned touchpoints, we boast of providing customers with a seamless digital and physical experience,” Ritika Sharma, Founder and CEO, Boddess (House of Beauty) stated.

Insight Cosmetics is using artificial intelligence to gain customer insights and sponsor its advertisements. “We have our social media handles, the AI on our website, and that is helping us get more eyeballs. These tools are significantly helping us further staying connected to our customers and building good relationships with them,” Mihir Jain, Marketing & Sales Director, Insight Cosmetics asserted.

SUGAR offers virtual ‘try on’ to enhance consumers' buying experience by using augmented reality (AR). The brand recently executed a one-of-a-kind collaboration that put together beauty and creative gamification. An AR Filter was created on social media wherein the community took up the challenge of choosing a virtual SUGAR Cosmetics product that appeared on the screen, and applied it in the cleanest way possible to complete their look.

“We also invest in customer analytics technology, which allows us to segment buyers into groups based on behavior. This also helps us to determine general trends or to even develop targeted marketing and sales activities. Additionally, we have deployed a unique user interface for our brand-owned app that ensures education-led engagement with our consumers meaningfully, thus creating a stronger bond,” Kaushik Mukherjee, Co-Founder, and Chief Operating Officer, SUGAR Cosmetics added.

The Body Shop is currently experimenting with live commerce on social and the early indications are very encouraging. “Additionally, we are betting big on conversational commerce and particularly via WhatsApp as a channel. We feel that WhatsApp will be a digital business channel in itself and will need its own specific use cases and processes,” Atul Shivnani, Deputy General Manager (E-commerce and Digital), The Body Shop India further said.

In-Store Tech Experience

As a part of the digitalization drive, many beauty brands are incorporating more digital tools in their stores to create a seamless experience for their consumers. For instance, SUGAR has engaging educational screens across all its EBOs (Exclusive Brand Outlets), which helps consumers make educated decisions on how to use products and which ones would work for them.

“Following the omnichannel approach, we invest heavily into creating uniformity on all levels for our online and retail stores. This has been done through building a solid back-end technology to connect the logistics and operations function smoothly,” Mukherjee stated.

Another beauty brand, The Body Shop India is moving to pilot test skincare recommendation tools at some of its stores to allow deeper interaction with the in-store beauty advisor. “The initial results are encouraging but we’ll take careful, studied step towards a full-scale deployment,” Shivnani stated.

Additionally, Boddess has installed Magic Mirrors in the store to allow consumers to have a touchless and Virtual Skin Diagnosis and provide access to a tailor-made skincare regime. The Magic Mirror screen also substitutes its advanced makeup try-on feature that allows consumers to scroll and skim through a wide range of beauty products and find the perfect shades that they can try on virtually. At the store, the interactive APP that hosts bodice.com enables customers to digitally navigate, surf product catalog, and place orders. The inbuilt application visible on the screen further informs the user of events and happenings, new and exclusive product launches, latest promotions, and trending.

“To round up a seamless and technologically interactive shopping experience, we have added a click and collect feature at the store where the customer can buy or order products from the website and collect them from the store. We have also placed QR codes across the store on bestselling products to enable customers to scan and explore the products online,” Sharma added.

Future of the Beauty Tech Industry

The future of the cosmetic industry will be more about customization than generalization. The companies across this domain are trying to keep the general products and increase their sales volume. However, all the brands will try to customize the products based on their consumers’ needs and carve a niche for themselves in the future.

“For instance, if a company does not have a particular product that the consumer demands, the request will be recorded using technology in the store. That will then be sent to the brand to work on bringing that product in. Suppose a skin-tone foundation is not available with the brand. The demand will be generated at the ground level and then transferred to the company. This is how the companies will focus more on consumers' wants rather than selling their staple products,” Jain stated.

Looking through the lens of beauty, it is believed that new platforms such as Metaverse will open up access to beauty experiences at all levels. Alongside newer shopping formats, the brands will be able to use the Metaverse to expand their networks and build stronger, more engaged audiences. Also, social commerce will help build on a new presence like live shopping. The industry as we know could soon become completely transformed, as an evolution in the beauty industry is expected with these technological advances.

“It’s important to note that the growing consumer audience of Gen Z sees a brand’s online and offline channels as a single entity that they can access through different touchpoints, physical and digital, and they expect the best experience in each of these: store, website, social media feed, etc. This is definitely leading to beauty brands to develop various tech innovations as an integral part rather than a ‘nice to have’ function,” Mukherjee concluded.

The beauty industry is a fiercely competitive market with an ever-evolving technology landscape. When the world came to a standstill with the pandemic, the beauty industry not only sustained but also grew by delivering services and sharing its expertise in the digital world. With the advancement of technology, brands are now using artificial intelligence (AI) to spearhead product innovations and drive higher customer engagement - one can now leverage AI to collect data on consumer preferences and buying behavior.

From Augment Reality (AR) to Virtual Reality (VR) tools, live commerce to social commerce, such immersive state-of-the-art technology being effortlessly integrated by the beauty brands has opened a new world of opportunities.

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