(Updated on December 22th, 2021)
As the world emerges from the pandemic, the beauty industry is experiencing a digital transformation. More than ever before, consumers are turning to brands for digital services and experiences that offer personalized product advice and inspiration. In order to effectively engage consumers and provide impactful shopping experiences, it has become essential for brands to create digital experiences that entertain shoppers and help each customer find their perfect product match. Beauty Tech, is an emerging new tech trend encompassing AI and AR-powered virtual try-on technologies and diagnostics. Beauty tech has already helped hundreds of beauty brands grow their sales figures and increase customer engagement.
In “Beauty Tech: The Complete Guide 2022,” we will show you how some of the world’s most iconic beauty brands have leveraged beauty technology and virtual try-on experiences to enhance their omni-channel shopping journey, in many cases driving as high as 2.5x increases in sales conversion, as well as triple-digit increases in customer engagement and digital engagement metrics such as time spent on site and product add-to-carts. We will also provide a complete guide to getting started with beauty tech, from how to select the best solution for your brand to how to integrate the technology across your brand’s ecommerce and retail shopping touch points. Whether you are a large beauty company or a small indie brand, the power of beauty tech can make the customers to have greater experience in purchasing cosmetics in more exciting way and better way.
What is Beauty Tech?
One could trace the birth of Beauty Tech back at least to early paint and photoshopping applications on desktop computers, though it really took off with the more recent advent of AI and AR technology.
“Although beauty tech dates back to the days of boxed computer programs (Cosmopolitan magazine put its name on “virtual makeover software” all the way back in 1998), it’s only recently that big brands have started to invest heavily in the space. The surge in interest has been driven in large part by advances in smartphone technology and the development of advanced beauty tech solutions such as Perfect Corp.’s AR virtual try-on solution for makeup and AI skin diagnostic technologies for skincare brands. Consumers now have their smartphone with them at all times, and through the power of beauty tech, can snap a photo to try on makeup shades and receive a personalized beauty recommendations in seconds.
Using Beauty Tech to Create Personalized Shopping Experiences
Today, beauty is not one size fits all, and when consumers shop for new makeup products, they are seeking out personalized advice and recommendations from brands. The power of AR and AI technology for beauty brands lies with its ability to cater to individual consumers and their specific beauty needs. The deep learning algorithms that drive AR and AI beauty tech help brands provide mass scale personalization to consumers. With these technologies, every customer can try-on products virtually and receive a personalized product regimen.
According to a recent study by Forrester, 77% of consumers have chosen, recommended, or paid more for a brand that provides a personalized service or experience. Forbes also recently reported that 71% of consumers feel frustrated when shopping experiences are not personalized. From this data, it is clear that beauty tech tools and personalization strategies are becoming essential to create strong customer experiences and shopping journeys.
Why is Beauty Tech important?
“AI and AR technology is fast becoming a crucial part of a beauty brand’s digital transformation strategy, as more shoppers become accustomed to shopping online and seek out more opportunities for personalization,” says Perfect Corp. founder and CEO Alice Chang, “Virtual try-on and personalized product recommendations not only help to boost consumer confidence when making purchase decisions, but also give brands and retailers a chance to reimagine their consumer journey.”
Entertaining Shoppers with Virtual Try-On and Beauty Tech
There is something inherently fun about AR and virtual try-on. This is because AR, by its nature, combines the real world with an augmented realm in which the user has control far beyond what might be possible—or at least practical—in the real world.
Fun factor example. Madison Reed finds that customers enjoy the fun factor of exploring hair color options.
The sheer fun of AR captivated the world a few years ago with the Pokémon Go craze, which blended game objects with the real-world environment a person happened to be strolling through. Suddenly parks were jam-packed with people staring at their smartphones, delighted to see a colorful character suddenly sitting in a real tree growing out of the ground. A headline in the New York Times captured it succinctly: “Pokémon Go Brings Augmented Reality to a Mass Audience.
Within the beauty industry, beauty tech and AR-powered virtual try-on experiences help captivate audiences and shoppers in a similar way. These technologies add a layer of interactivity to the traditional beauty shopping experience. Users can digitally explore dozens of makeup shades and see these products come to life through virtual try-on. This guarantees a personalized shopping experience that is also fun and entertaining for the shopper.
“We hear from customers who have been going to the salon for 40 or 50 years, in some cases, and have never colored their hair at home until trying us,” says Tyler Wozny, Senior Vice President, Digital Product at Madison Reed. Madison Reed recently launched a hair color virtual try-on experience using Perfect Corp.’s AR technology. The experience allows users to virtually try on more than 50 Madison Reed hair colors, helping each customer to find the perfect shade and feel confident about their next hair color transformation. “There’s a sense of pride that’s wonderful to see. Customers tell us the whole experience is great from start to finish. And again, our Perfect Corp. AR tool plays a big role in that.” Madison Reed has experienced a 38% increase in conversion after implementing the virtual try-on tool.
AR technologies such as the virtual try-on solutions provided by Perfect Corp. are becoming essential to entertain and engage beauty consumers along the shopping journey. Consumers are turning to digital channels for beauty product advice and inspiration more than ever before. In 2021 alone, there have been billions of virtual makeups looks tried-on digitally in Perfect Corp.’s YouCam Makeup app. As the world emerges from the pandemic, try-before-you-buy experiences are integral for creating personalized and engaging shopping experiences that drive purchasing confidence. AR virtual try-on technology has undergone major advancements over the years and now allows beauty brands to enable interactive and hyper-realistic digital experiences across the entire range of color cosmetics products, including lipstick, eye shadow, eyebrow, eyeliner, mascara, blush, highlighter, and foundation.
The hyper-realistic virtual try-on technology even extends to such categories as skincare, hair color, glasses, jewelry, earrings, nail polish, watches, and more, effectively transforming the shoppers’ beauty journey and empowering consumers to make informed purchase decisions.
Brand Success with Beauty Tech
In addition to the fun and entertaining aspects of augmented reality—and perhaps in part because of the fun aspects—technologically advanced AI and AR solutions deliver tangible, measurable results to beauty brands, and help retailers drive sales.
The business value of Beauty Tech is real and cannot be overlooked. In fact, the real-world results often surpass expectations, producing exceptional impacts on business across a spectrum of scenarios, both online and offline.
Here’s a look at how some digital-savvy companies have experienced significant uplifts from various applications of beauty technologies:
- Estée Lauder. Estee Lauder saw 2.5 times higher conversion rate with Perfect Corp.-powered Lip Virtual Try-on and found increased customer loyalty from Perfect Corp.’s AI-driven iMatch™ Virtual Shade Expert.
- M·A·C Cosmetics experienced a 200% increase in customer engagement within the first month of implementing digital solutions and virtual try-on.
- Jane Iredale Cosmetics experienced a 300% increase in average website session time after integrating virtual try-on technology. The brand also found that virtual try-on more than doubled conversion as consumers interacting with VTO converted a 117% higher rate.
- Decorte saw an 85% increase in sales after implementing virtual try-on.
- e.l.f Cosmetics. e.l.f Cosmetics saw a 200% higher conversion rate for online consumers using Perfect Corp.-powered virtual try-on.
- Benefit Cosmetics. Benefit Cosmetics enjoyed both a 101% increase in time-on-site and a 20% increase in add-to-cart using its browser-based customer AR experience powered by Perfect Corp.’s YouCam virtual try-on solution.
- Tarte. tarte saw 200% increase in sales for customers experiencing virtual try-on, triple-digit increase in time spent on site, 30% jump in add-to-cart using virtual try-on.
- Marianna Naturals. Skincare brand Marianna Naturals boost website traffic by 300%, dwell time by 330%, and sales by 30%.
- Mineral Fusion. Sees 40% boost in conversion & 141% sales increase after deploying virtual try-on.
- Madison Reed found a 38% improvement in conversion with hair color virtual try-on and 10X rise in hair color sales, using Perfect Corp. AI-powered AR technology.
- Aveda. Aveda saw a 220% jump in Try-On Tool traffic and a 5X boost in the use of Aveda’s Salon Locator vs. site average, and 14% higher sales from customers who engaged with their Perfect Corp.-powered Virtual Try-On.
- Meredith found a 300% boost in engagements with digital ads that offered their Perfect Corp.-powered virtual try-on experience.
These impactful results illustrate why Beauty Tech has become essential for beauty brands to drive customer engagement and sales. It is an immensely powerful tool that not only helps beauty brands deliver personalized product recommendations to customers but also provides real business value.
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