Are your customers shopping for skin care products on Instagram? Learning about a wellness novelty on a Zoom call? Texting with a website help desk regarding a package return? Shade matching that next foundation purchase from an app on their iPhone?
 
If so, your customer is a target customer for beauty technology innovations.
 
At South by Southwest (SXSW), a music festival that also includes marketing and advertising experts, there was a special event for the wellness and personal care industry. “SXSW 2021: Driving Engagement with Beauty Tech” featured Angelica Munson, global chief digital officer at Shiseido Group and Wayne Liu, general manager and senior vice president at Perfect Corp.

The series focused on creative new ways brands are driving engagement and loyalty with beauty technology, as seen at both Perfect Corp and Shiseido.

It’s A Perfect World with AI & AR
Perfect Corp, a leading beauty tech solutions provider and developer of virtual beauty app YouCam Makeup, is leading the beauty technology movement with both artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR).  The company recently revealed some innovations at the Consumer Electronic Show digital event as reported in Happi.


According to Liu, YouCam mobile app users have access to more than 200,000 product SKUs to try virtually. More than 300 brands worldwide have adopted Perfect’s Beauty Tech SaaS products, including Shiseido’s Nars, which has virtual try-on tools.
 
During the webinar, Liu gave an overview of the paramount features of effective digital technology.
 
“Engagement involves emotional involvement or commitment with the customer,” said Liu.  “Consumers want to be treated well and to be responded to quickly.” He added it is also important to be consistent across channels, make it clear what your brand stands for, ensure the value for privacy in data, reward loyalty and communicate a passion for beauty products.
 
“Personalize your customer interaction,” Liu suggested. “Create meaningful and relevant content. Also, reduce latency of response and break down organization silos in marketing.”
 
Now that shopping can happen anywhere, anytime, another key facet of the digital approach is the omnichannel experience, added Liu, as well as making trust and transparency a priority.
 
There are many ways to engage with the consumer right now, said Liu. It could be anywhere from replying to an Instagram message to providing personalized products via AI skin diagnostics or shade matching, which is the founding feature at YouCam.
 
Getting Specific with Shiseido
In a “fireside chat,” Liu discussed with Munson about how her company is succeeding with digital technology. Munson oversees the enterprise-wide strategy across consumer technology, data management, ecommerce, consumer engagement and digital workforce transformation at Shiseido. In her role, she strives to create a collaborative, data-driven approach to designing products and services accelerating Shiseido’s ability to adapt to changing customer demands and market forces. The Happi Top 30 leader is open to new ideas to expand its reach to consumers.

 “My job affords me the benefit to work with over 40 brands sold in 120 countries and offers an interesting perspective. Where we are now is a result of a digitally powered stay-at-home economy with habit shifts in shopping,” said Munson. “Live streaming, gaming, online education and even a virtual meeting like that shifted us to a new experience. It’s known as the New Retail Order. This legacy retail model has seen seismic change in the past year and have forced us to adapt our approaching to selling beauty products. It’s been transformative to everyone.”
 
AI has kept the economy going, added Munson. It first assisted the consumer in the stores, as seen in 2020, and now is a key element in the toolkit of the makeup artist and other beauty industry personnel.
 
“These tools and enablers now offer a human touch to the beauty experience,” said Munson.
 
Both AR and AI are just a few at drivers of the digital experience right now at Shiseido, she said. Other initiatives there include video counseling, the “tech stack” of the cloud and educating teams on how to be “digital literate” within the company.
 
“Tools like this open up a whole new world for reaching the consumer,” said Munson. “It’s online meeting offline. The makeup consultants are now beauty influencers and offer an organic connection to the consumer. The New Normal is living our lives in front of the camera.”
 
Key Takeaways
Takeaways from SXSW 2021: Driving Engagement with Beauty Tech are:
 
·      Beauty technology can drive creativity and commerce to meet the needs of the evolving consumer, as seen in the 2020 pandemic where more consumers spent time at home and online.
 
·      Now more than ever, it is noteworthy that marketers offer highly-engaged, interactive, personalized consumer shopping experiences.

·      In 2020 and now into 2021, beauty brands have successfully used technology to connect with consumers across all omnichannel touchpoints, such as digital try-on experiences.