As tracking consumer movements online is becoming more challenging, creative commerce could be the secret to customer engagement.
The pandemic pushed consumers to turn to DTC shopping, and brands had to lean into technology to make the retail platform work. But as consumers are able to go back into stores, relying on traditional brick-and-mortar retail strategies may not work anymore.
Emily Fontana, head of digital marketing at One Rockwell, said the broad concept of creative commerce can help brands effectively communicate with consumers at multiple touchpoints.
“It really isn't enough to just ‘build it and they will come’ anymore,” Fontana said. “It is about getting creative and speaking with authority, authenticity and trust at every touch point in creative ways that are specific to that customer in that time, in that place, at that moment.”
Q&A
Shiseido recently partnered with technology company Revieve to launch AI Makeup Advisor, which both helps customers find products online and collects zero-party and first-party data. CosmeticsDesign spoke with Revieve CEO Sampo Parkkinen about the new tool.
Can you tell me a little bit about what this tool you launched is?
We launched the AI Makeup Advisor. Historically, the way that brands and retailers have tried to personalize the customer experience has been through a virtual try-on. They're almost like table stakes these days, brands have had them for years. When you really look at what a pure virtual try-on is, and how it fits into the overall customer experience, it sits in a narrow window of time, from a consumer experience perspective, of a consideration phase before purchase.
With the AI Makeup Advisor, we obviously understood that a virtual try-on is part of that five-star digital experience in the makeup category. But what does that overall experience look like? What is the personal customer experience that helps the consumer discover new products, helps the brand provide content, education, advice, guidance to the consumer, and recommends relevant makeup products that would fit them?
How with that same experience, can the brand collect zero-party or first-party data about the consumer, in order to really understand what the consumer is looking for? What do they feel and what is the purpose of them looking to buy these products? The insights you can get with a virtual try-on solution can tell you a lot about what people are playing around with, but not really the intent of the consumer.
As the use of digital devices rises and more young people enter the beauty consumer space, Accenture's new report estimates social commerce will more than double by 2025.
The information technology company published a report in January on the international state of social commerce, with a survey of 10,000 social media users in China, India, Brazil, the US and the UK.
While beauty was one of the smaller social commerce categories, the report said e-commerce in the segment is expanding rapidly and is expected to “capture over 40% of digital spend on average for this category in key markets by 2025.”
Audrey Depraeter-Montacel, Accenture’s global beauty lead, said not only are companies across the world finding success with social commerce, but the sales medium is expanding to include more experiential and interactive options.
Q&A
Technology in beauty is not new, but in a world of virtual tools, augmented reality and virtual reality, new frontiers of commerce may be opening up. CosmeticsDesign spoke with Pascal Houdayer, CEO of Orveon, owner of bareMinerals, BUXOM, and Laura Mercier, about virtual tech in the beauty segment.
Generally, what's happening with AI in the beauty segment right now?
In beauty, on the whole, it's not just now. It has been a trend that has been here for more than 10 years, which is basically touching different things around the IoT, virtual reality and virtual try-on, which are now accelerating with crypto collectibles. The Metaverse has specific parallel realities of shopping.
What we can say is that AI was already extremely used in beauty. Around 2015, we saw a lot of connected devices in hair care and skin care. Some of them were connected brushes, some of them were a personalized way to design a product that is exactly adapted to your skin, or your hair, like sending the hair to a lab to analyze the DNA of your hair so that we can do an exact product for the hair needs.
AI has always been used extensively in beauty, whatever the degree, including in oral care and toothbrushes, and now it's just accelerating in different ways.
Q&A
Walmart launched BEAUTYSPACENK with Space NK to bring prestige personal care to the retail giant's online and instore sales spaces . CosmeticsDesign spoke with Laurie Tessier, merchandising director for prestige beauty at Walmart, about the launch.
Tell me a bit about what the BEAUTYSPACENK retail space is and where the concept came from.
This unique collaboration, called BEAUTYSPACENK, leverages Walmart’s size and scale with the iconic British personal care and beauty company’s assortment of high-quality beauty brands and products. Customers will now have a convenient way to shop both beauty staples and prestige specialty items during their weekly Walmart shopping trip.
Space NK’s ability to curate an assortment of highly sought-after products will help us continue making beauty more accessible and allow our shoppers to find prestige specialty items all in one place. Working only with Space NK versus 15 brands separately is a huge benefit to the business model.
What is the value of bringing prestige beauty into Walmart?
Through our omnipresence, we’re able to provide our customers with both mass and prestige products in one simple and convenient destination. Our focus remains on offering a strong, exciting beauty selection that drives traffic and sales, as well as evolving the experience to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers.
