Safety and service: Why tech-driven, no-touch retail-tainment is the future for beauty - Lancôme

The firm most recently joined forces with South Korean retailer Lotte to open a pop-up store.

The pop-up features contactless elements to ensure consumer safety, such as digital payment methods, electronic price tags, personalised QR codes and personal mobile shopping carts for a complete digital contactless journey.

The smart store is also enabled with augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, to give consumers an experiential retail experience without compromising on their safety.

“The pop-up is an important opportunity for us to demonstrate the way we reinvent in the beauty of tomorrow in Travel Retail together with retailers,” ​said Emmanuel Goulin, managing director at L’Oréal Travel Retail Asia Pacific.

“This fully integrated physical and digital experience offers a seamless beauty experience, enabling us to personalise our interactions with travellers, affecting their entire beauty journey.”​

For the first time, Lancôme implemented the AR-enabled ModiFace make-up try-on service, known as Dream Face at Lotte Smart Store, in travel retail.

According to the company, this technology will allow shoppers to try on make-up products, including foundations, and offer accurate shade matches to replace the traditional touch-and-try approach.

This service can be access via the in-store tablet or by scanning the QR codes next to each make-up icon through the Lotte duty free app.

Digital revolution

Additionally, the smart store also has other interactive elements to engage consumers.

For instance, the Génifique Game Table, allows consumers to discover for themselves the second generation of Lancôme’s Advanced Génifique serum.

At the centre of the smart store is the Advanced Génifique serum LED bottle which brings personalised and connected experience with name engraving services for the Génifique bottle and social sharing technology.

“Digitalisation nowadays, in no doubt, has revolutionised the way nearly every company interacts with consumers; the tech-enabled contactless concept at the Lancôme X Lotte Duty Free Smart Store pop-up offers new ways for us to build special relationships with travellers through Beauty Tech innovations, digital services, and enhanced connected and personalised retail-tainment,”​ said Goulin.

Goulin told CosmeticsDesign-Asia​ that placing technology “at the heart of retail-tainment” ​was key.

On the other hand, consumers are also seeking for brands that serve the values they share, he added.

“One of these values they want us to commit to is sustainability, which is why we ensure our pop-ups are ecologically designed; for example, the fixtures at the Lancôme X Lotte Duty Free Smart Store have been ecologically designed and intended to be reused in future occasions.”​

This pop-up follows the YSL Beauté Pure Shots pop-up in Haitang Bay, China.

Goulin said: “Our journey on both digitalisation and sustainability was introduced last month at the YSL Beauté Pure Shots pop-up in Haitang Bay. The pop-up featured the revolutionary YSL Urban Skin Check that is backed by the ModiFace AI technology, and the pop-up itself is ecologically designed.  We look forward to announcing more exciting plans in the near future.”​