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Personalization as the digital strategy for beauty commerce

Sampo Parkkinen, Revieve CEO, explains why in a vertical like beauty, where the usage of products is of a highly personal nature, the importance of personalizing the customer-experience is critical.

Photo by istock.com

September 9, 2019

By Sampo Parkkinen, CEO, Revieve

Beauty is one of the most personal verticals of all of retail. If not the most personal. In physical stores, the personal nature of beauty is evident in the important role the in-store beauty consultant plays in helping consumers discover, evaluate, try-on and ultimately purchase beauty products.

This extremely personalization of the in-store beauty customer-experience can seem difficult to replicate across digital channels, where consumers are increasingly looking to be serviced to the same, if not better, degree as they currently are in stores. However with the advancements of modern technologies like computer-vision, AI and AR, providing an experience that's even more personalized than that of the in-store experience consumers receive through the in-store beauty consultant, is more than possible. In fact this level of personalization should be the driving force of a digital strategy for any beauty brand or retailer.

The benefits of personalization in other key retail verticals, like fashion, are well understood by brands and retailers. Moreover consumers in fact expect personalization as part of their digital experiences. In a vertical like beauty, where the usage of products themselves is of a highly personal nature, the importance of personalizing the customer-experience is highlighted even more.

Rest assured, there are significant benefits to personalizing the beauty experience. These benefits range from pure brand benefits to tangible revenue-generating benefits. In our work with brands and retailers across four continents, we've highlighted globally the following advantages of personalizing the beauty customer-experience leveraging technology that can provide your brand with a sustained competitive advantage.

These key benefits include:

1. Increased customer retention: Personalizing the beauty customer-experience helps position you as an expert in beauty. This expert-status increases customers trust in you and creates tangible customer retention with consumers returning to benefit from this expertise time and time again.
2. Brand leadership and innovation: Providing a personalized customer-experience for your beauty customers with the help of modern AI and AR-technologies leads to consumers perceiving you as an innovator. Someone who they can count on to receive a customer-experience that improves over time and someone who doesn't shy away from continuously improving the experience you provide to them.
3. Conversion and revenue: Personalizing the beauty experience also leads to tangible business results. Increased conversion and average shopping basket size are direct, tangible indicators that you will receive as a result of personalizing the customer-experience. An ROI no CFO can disagree with.

With these tangible benefits and the increasing consumer desire to receive a personalized experience that provides them with value, personalization should be considered as the digital strategy for beauty brands and retailers in the beauty category for 2019 and beyond.