In the past, the beauty industry was one that was largely human-driven. Companies made beauty items and it was up to both salespeople and the use of mirrors to help convince customers that they looked great with their products.
It tended to involve their wearing the product themselves. But then technology began to advance. Rather than run away from these advances and cling to the past, the cosmetics industry has embraced them.
If you go shopping today, you can be helped by both salespeople and futuristic-seeming mirror screens that can show you what you would look like when wearing a certain type of make-up… without even putting the various kinds of make-up or other products on.
This allows them to try so many different variations and see how they would look. This is one of many different ways that the two industries work together. You can go to this site to learn more about technology and the cosmetic industry work together in tandem.
Improving Loyalty
Successful cosmetic companies have loyal customers that come back repeatedly. They like to feel like they are valued by these companies. So there are things that they can sign up online for to get certain perks or new items for much less than they would pay if they went to a brick and mortar store and got the same items.
Putting The Best Face Forward
As mentioned before, there are screens with forward-facing cameras. These can allow the customer to have their picture taken and then apply certain products to them. It’s a real-life version of “Mirror Mirror on the Wall .. Who Is the Fairest of Them All?” There are applications on these screens that capture the customer’s skin tone which allows it to immediately and accurately display how a certain item would look on the customer’s face. That is valuable feedback.
Shop and Workshop
There are stores that have desks where customers can sit down and look at apps that teach them how to apply certain items or how to successfully mix and match them to best suit their skin tone and other factors.
It can create a sense of interactivity – and it can keep customers busy if the salespeople are helping a lot of other people. The technology is not taking over – it is just making the overall experience a better one.
Communicate In-Store
Here is where another piece of technology – a smartphone – can be of great use. The customers can opt to have things sent to them, whether it be in the form of alerts or even links to some upcoming items that they may find interesting.
These are set up to be unobtrusive and can easily be opted out of if need be. It can also save paper since there will not be the need for print mailings or catalogs – which is good for the environment.
Using Data For Beauty
Technology allows the cosmetic industry to catalog customer data in a much more efficient way than in the past, which was very time-consuming and could be cluttered. One way this is put to use is to have them answer online questionnaires in exchange for getting perks or prizes.
All of the data is anonymous. No names or other relevant information is sent out. It is just about what people like. The cosmetics industry then bases their decisions about what things to make, what type of marketing they can do, and even see if there are new avenues that they can take.
Another way to mine this data is to have customers join subscription services where they can get items each month … and then they can see what is popular and start creating new products around those.
Going Online
YouTube continues to dominate the video market. They have billions of people logging in and watching videos. Cosmetics companies can use it to make videos for everything from tutorials to giving glimpses of upcoming things to even having live Q&A sessions with viewers.
This is a great way to showcase both personalities and items together in a seamless way.
There are a lot of beauty-based video creators. The brands could match up with these creators and have them do honest assessments of their products. If they like what they use, then that could encourage other people to go ahead and buy those products.
More and more brands are using these YouTube creators to sell their items to the public.
Using Social Media
Social media is not a fad anymore. It’s here to stay – whether people like it or not. People make a lot of decisions based on what they see on social media. Brands can use this to their advantage by cultivating an image and communicating with their customers.
Smart brands realize that it is a two-way street and don’t just use it as a megaphone to blast out advertising.
There are multiple social media outlets. The brands need to tailor their posts to each of them. Twitter is for brief posts. Instagram is more visual, so photos are better. TikTok is for the creative side. It’s best to monitor them and then adjust accordingly.
This is far from the peak of the mountain though. Cosmetics and technology will continue to work hand-in-hand together as time goes on. There are so many implementations that have not even been dreamed of yet.
The future of this field may be very different in decades to come. But it will be something where the main goal is to make the person both look and feel better about themselves. Yes, even a machine can help people achieve those feelings.