AI and AR are being used in retail spaces. It is time to use them in the beauty industry to amplify and personalise the shopping experience. Moreover, the hotels are surprisingly getting involved in this sector. In the US, the market for shampoo, soaps and other miscellaneous items offered in hotel rooms is expected to rise from $5,53 billion to $13,17 billion in the period between 2023 and 2030.

The Beauty Sanctum

After the pandemic, the consumers’ mindsets have been changed into living their lives in meaningful terms. They are thinking twice before investing in something and the in-store experience must be more human-centric and emphatic. Therefore, beauty retailers must create a space that nourishes and heals both the consumers’ body and soul. This can be seen especially in the fragrance sector. It offers a connection between the users and wellness by creating a relaxing and immersive aura around them.

79% of the consumers prefer their in-store atmosphere to be pleasant for them to stay a little longer and 84% consider visiting it again. To do that, the retailers have to focus on creating the space as a gallery. Inviting outside members for free for the first few days would be a good strategy too. In the start, it would be viable to target a particular demographic to lure in.

Aesop’s Sensorium stores have a space dedicated to experiencing the echoes of several fragrance layers. Its outpost in Sydney has ceilings and walls covered in terracotta shade to give a warm and intimate experience. There are personalised touchpoints in the stores, including the Fragrance Armoire where the shoppers can use the fragrances to experiment.

Korea’s Soohyang unveiled The Perfume Club exclusive for the members to drench in the scents of curated perfumes, just like wine tasting. Remedy Place in New York City is known to be the first social wellness club in the world that helps improve one’s social life and health through self-caring and connection between humans.

A Chinese beauty label ToSummer refurbished a siheyuan, a historical house built 280 years before, into a flagship store with muted and neutral-toned space and an open view to the courtyard. It offers a peaceful vibe. La Prairie opened an Art of Beauty luxury lounge spa in collaboration with Heinemann at Sydney Airport. It has private pods that help travellers to escape from the pressure and stress of flight travelling.

Play with Beauty

People are looking for a way to escape from their stressed reality. They are yearning for joyous and playful environments. The same goes for beauty. In order to buy products from the industry, the shoppers are expecting an adventurous in-store experience that brings joy to them.

Inducing dopamine-pumping colours and playful activities that make the customers recall their childhood will be a great way to uplift the stressful mind of the shoppers. The retailers must target kidults, the adults who shop like kids, for this strategy.

Glossier’s Chicago flagship showcases nostalgic carnival-themed games and touchpoints. The shoppers should play the games to get free products. During the summer of 2022, Kylie Cosmetics dropped Glam Park in London which offered immersive brand experiences through games, beauty consultations and gifts.

Maison Martin Margiela opened a flagship store with a discovery bar where the shoppers can personalise the Replica perfumes with customised Polaroids, wish cards and self-developed cotton bottle labels. Drunk Elephant organised a two-day gaming experience named House of Drunk in October 2022. It displayed playstations, smoothie stores, tunnel-shaped connections and charm-designing spots.

AR and AI Tech in Beauty

Digital lovers are expecting the beauty industry to use meta-driven technologies. The consumer, especially Gen Z, are using AI services to get beauty recommendations. 71% of the customers in the US are preferring personalised experiences while shopping and over three in four are frustrated with the experience where personalisation is not involved.

Even with this, there is no shortage of contributing factors with the friendly human staff in the store. Therefore, the brands have to incorporate tech to complement the human connection which can combine offline and online.

In December 2022, the UK supermarket chain Sainsbury utilised Garnierʼs Skin Coach tool and LʼOréal Parisʼ AI ModiFace technology to offer personalised skincare consultancy in its stores. Giorgio Armani S.p.A.'s Armani Beauty flagship store in Hainan has an AR tool named Face Maestro that uses QR-code technology to offer a bespoke look and recommendations on products to customers.

Biotherm Homme had a pop-up in Shanghai that featured all-over digital screens listing the key ingredients with tutorials for the products. US’s Allure collaborated with a beauty ingredient channel ClearForMe to empower its transparency in the ingredient list. It also assisted the customers to decide what to buy.

In Hotels

After the lockdowns, people are travelling a lot which introduced the term, revenge travel. The travel and tourism market is forecasted to increase by 4,42% between 2023 and 2027, with an amount of $1.016 billion by 2027. The global luxury travel market is estimated to exceed $150 billion by 2032.

Beauty can easily enter the world of lifestyle and wellness which the hotel hospitality industry has already occupied. The travellers have an increasing habit of seeking amenities in smaller sizes that they can carry with themselves.

Equinox Hotels in the US provides over 80 mini products from the categories of sleep, beauty, skincare, and sexual wellness. This initiative has added around $55K per month to the total revenue. UK’s Soho Skin has made its to-be-launched products available in global House rooms. The guests can try and give feedback before the launch. La Bottega offers toiletries in the luxury resort named The Setai at Palm Angels, Miami.

The SLS hospitality group partners with many beauty brands such as Malin+Goetz and launched an online SLS Shop where the guests can order beauty products that were available in their rooms and get them delivered to their houses.

Sensory Experience

56% of the beauty shoppers in the UK and US choose to repurchase from the brands that they have already tried rather than getting a product from a new brand online. This allows the brands and retailers to build their stores with new aspects that can be explored by the customers to buy new products. They can go with unique storytelling with a theatrical experience such as sensorial technology. In 2019, Raconteur allied with INTERSPORT and found that the sensorial elements placed in a store can increase sales by 10%.

The Maison Martin Margiela fragrance store in Singapore showcases its perfume with videos and visual representations that can immerse the customers into the emotion and mood of the fragrance. Tatcha from the US had a pop-up resembling the Japanese forest bath experience that has a hand over the human senses.

The beauty retailer Rive Gauche from Moscow dropped D.S. & Durga’s Burning Barbershop fragrance. The store created a salon comprising burnt wood and scissors which reminded the scent’s feel on the chairs of barber. Latin American-owned Ceremonia displayed its products alongside pottery, photographs and material that can reminiscence its heritage in the store.

Cover Image: Drunk Elephant's House of Drunk, courtesy Drunk Elephant Official Website.