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(Updated on May 5th)
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What Is a Personalized Shopping Experience?
The foundation of a personalized shopping experience is data collection. Brands need to collect useful data from their customers to understand each consumer’s personal tastes and preferences.
With the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning, brands are able to better analyze customers, know what they want, and deliver a unique experience. A personalized shopping experience enhances engagement and builds strong connections between brands and customers.
The Rise of Personalized Shopping Experiences
As brands reinvent the digital shopping experience, personalization and customer customizability are at the center of the effort. With an increase in digital shopping experiences, customers are hungry for personalized product recommendations.
In 2020 alone, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development found that global online purchases for cosmetics and personal care rose by 6%, compared to 2019 (UNCTAD).
How Beauty Brands Implement Personalized Shopping Experiences
As consumer demand grows, trailblazing beauty brands continue to find new ways to communicate with and tailor shopping experiences to meet the needs of their audiences.
Take Aveda, Neutrogena, and e.l.f., all of which have implemented AR-powered beauty tech solutions to boost their personalized beauty shopping offerings to guests, and ultimately drive sales.
Successful Personalized Shopping Experiences
Neutrogena: Digital App to Provide Personalized Skincare Regimens
As demand for personalized skincare recommendations continues to rise, Neutrogena is catering to the needs of its customers with the launch of the new Neutrogena Skin360™app.
The app’s skin score tool, powered by Perfect Corp. AR and AI technology, is able to identify 2,000-plus facial attributes and give users a detailed skin score for some of the most common skin conditions.
From dark circles and wrinkles to fine lines and dark spots, the app identifies each user’s most prominent skin concerns and provides personalized product suggestions and skincare regimens based on their results.
“We think this gives our consumers a wonderful opportunity that in an everyday purchase event, they will have an opportunity to have a personalized regimed created for them,” says Logan McGill, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health, Head of Neutrogena® Skin Tech Innovation. “This helps with knowing what products are right for them, and it brings the expert to every part of the funnel .”
Increased Sales Conversion Rate & Basket Size
The power of the personalized shopping experience is simple: the more customized the product recommendations are, the more likely customers are to stick with a routine. Through this technology, Neutrogena has seen increased conversion rates and basket size, and has truly brought the latest in skin science to its loyal — and emerging — customers.
Aveda: Personalized Virtual Hair Color Try-Ons
The power of personalization is once again at play with Aveda’s impressive new custom virtual hair color try-on tools. Powered by Perfect Corp.’s AR technology, Aveda’s virtual try-on experience has enabled its customers to play with hair color and discover the perfect shade with the power of AR technology.
▲Aveda's virtual hair color try-on experience, powered by Perfect Corp.'s AI Hair Color technology.
Digital Engagement: Increased Time-On-Site and Site Visitors
Aveda has accelerated its digital footprint with the launch of the virtual hair color try-on tool, and saw a nearly 2X increase in time spent on-site, and 8X increase in new site visitors.
As salons nationwide began opening following the pandemic, Aveda utilized its newfound reach to help its independent salon locations connect more with guests and bring customers the custom, personalized hair consultations they sought.
“Guests more and more as they shop online need to have that deeper level of consultation and personalization to find the products that are right for them,” says Rachael Ostrom, Executive Director of Digital Strategy and Transformation at Aveda.
“And we actually see that when our guests use the products that are right for them, we have higher repeat rates, higher retention rates. Every metric across the board increases.”
E.l.f.: Delivers a Personalized Shopping Experience to the Gen Z Shopper with AR
In its mission to make beauty shopping fun and playful, e.l.f. has implemented augmented reality (AR) experiences to help bridge the gap between physical and digital shopping experiences.
“We learned that the younger Gen Z consumers want this as part of the discovery and purchase journey,” says Ekta Chopra, Chief Digital Officer at e.l.f. “Also it brings an element of fun. We saw over 1.5 million interactions on our app during COVID, and those who engaged had triple digit higher conversion rates than those who didn’t. Our Gen Z consumer want to have that playful experience before they make a purchase.”
▲ e.l.f. Cosmetics makeup virtual try-on experience, powered by Perfect Corp.'s AR Technology.
Adding in the fun interactive element into its shopping experience has allowed e.l.f. to not only customize the journey but to make it perfectly bespoke to the Gen Z shopper.
“Tech is an enabler and it solves issues that the digital consumer has in the digital ecosystem: discovery, the purchase decision, and building loyalty and advocacy with them,” Chopra adds. “AR is not a nice-to-have anymore. It’s a must-have for beauty.”
Watch the full webinar here.
Personal Shopping FAQs:
1. Why is personal shopping important?
As consumer demand grows, beauty brands keep to find new ways to tailor shopping experiences to meet the needs of their audiences, to not only provide a better shopping experience, but ultimately drive more sales.
Take the famous brands Aveda, Neutrogena, and e.l.f., for example, all of them have implemented AR-powered beauty tech solutions to boost their personalized beauty shopping offerings to guests, and successfully drive sales, engagement to their websites.
Ready to Build A Personalized Shopping Experience Into Your Online Store?
Contact us for more information about integrating AR solutions into your online beauty store shopping experience. Better yet, request a free demo to see how our solutions can benefit your business.
Read our “Beauty Tech: The Complete Guide 2022” to unlock powerful ROI secrets.
References: UNCTAD, and Netcomm Suisse Observatory. “‘COVID-19 and E-Commerce.’” UNCTAD, 8 Oct. 2020, unctad.org/press-material/covid-19-has-changed-online-shopping-forever-survey-shows.
