How L’Oreal utilizes AR tech to improve its Omni channel marketing
L’Oreal, the 113-year-old French personal care company, foresaw the opportunities of the digital era early on and has been one of the leading companies driving the adoption of various technologies to improve their customer experience. In 2018, L’Oreal acquired a start-up company called “Modiface”, which has been developing 3D virtual make-up technology for the past 10 years and aiming to provide a new shopping experience in the cosmetic industry. With the acquisition, L’Oreal has a major leg up on its competitors who will now have to find another company that is thinking about AR beauty, given that they once relied on Modiface’s AR technology.
In 2020, in order to improve their customer experience in line with their omni-channel marketing strategy, Modiface partnered with Shopee to launch the Virtual Try-On feature where customers can try out lipsticks, foundations, powders, and other beauty products instantly just like you would a Snapchat filter. Simply select a product under the L’Oreal company and tap on “Try Now”, the app will open the phone’s front-facing camera to realistically adjust the color of the product to match the user’s face. This seamless feature completely eliminates the need to travel to brick-and-mortar stores to test out products and widely improve customer experience. Now, customers can try the product for themselves, anywhere, anytime which vastly improves the omni-channel capability and reduces the time customers take to make purchasing decisions.
In addition, in preparation for Shopee Super Shopping Day 9.9 campaign in September, L’Oreal launched ‘Skincare’, an in-app feature that analyzes skin conditions using AI technology and provides a diagnosis of up to 15 skin problems, focusing on deep wrinkles, shallow wrinkles, sagging skin, acne, dull skin, large pores, and dark spots. This feature recommends tailored products according to the customer’s skin type. This feature helps improve customer experience in terms of an omni-channel strategy and has largely reduced the need for customers to visit makeup professionals at physical stores for consultations.
During Double Days, all forms of e-commerce will be launching their own promotional campaigns, not limited to Marketplace platforms like Shopee, Lazada, or JD central. During the previous year’s 9.9 campaign, Shopee set a record with 1.8 million products sold within the first minute, while the other hand, Lazada acquired 7 million shoppers in the first half of the day.
The e-commerce market continues to grow, and its trend is not looking to slow down even when entering the post-epidemic era.