AR Continues Struggle in Retail

An area we spent lots of early time in.  Good overview article of current work.

Despite advancements, AR struggles to take off in retail   By Anna Hensel in Modern Retail
This is the third part in a series by Modern Retail about the technologies that were going to change retail — and where they are now. See our previous stories, about the future of robotics, and the truth about RFID.

Three years ago, retailers began spending money on AR.

In 2017, Williams-Sonoma acquired Outward, an AR and 3D imaging startup for $112 million. The following year, Ulta Beauty also acquired an AR startup for an undisclosed amount, as did L’Oreal. Retailers like Walmart and Nike acquired other startups that specialized in virtual reality and computer vision, but also with the goal of using them to create experiences that incorporated some type of virtual reality component.

That ushered in a stampede of retailers eager to experiment with AR. Michael Kors and Warby Parker were some of the first companies to experiment with running AR in Facebook ads. Macy’s launched AR experiences for both furniture and beauty shoppers.

AR right now is big among two categories: beauty or furniture. Sephora, Ulta Beauty, Wayfair, Williams-Sonoma and Ikea have all launched virtual try-on experiences that use AR. Retailers in apparel have also experimented with adding these types of tools — the most recent being Asos — many of those efforts remain firmly in the experimentation phase. Because of the nature of the technology, it’s really those three industries where it can make a real difference — especially in fashion.

But even for the retailers who have invested heavily in AR by building their own virtual try on experiences, they haven’t been able to point definitively to how much their AR tools have resulted in a sales increase.

“There’s still some hyping [around AR], no doubt,” said Andrew Lispman, e-commerce analyst at eMarketer. “But I think the reality has set in when you see the initial use cases…are mostly edge cases. They may work well for their category, but it’s not a use case that extends between all or even most categories.”   ...." 

Augmented Beauty by Modiface at L'Oreal

An area we did lots of research and development on.  Now based on this piece, it seems that the tech has finally caught up to the needs.   But will it practically work as a marketing, sales and operational tool?  Remains to be seen.   See images at the link.

L’Oreal acquires Modiface, a major AR beauty company
By Ashley Carman @ashleyrcarman  in TheVerge

L’Oreal announced today that it has acquired Modiface, a company that’s had a hand in the creation of many custom augmented reality beauty apps, including those from Sephora and Estée Lauder. L’Oreal didn’t disclose the amount spent, but it did tell Reuters that it now owns Modiface’s numerous patents that help users visualize makeup and hairstyles on themselves. The partnership makes sense in that Modiface has already worked with L’Oreal multiple times, including on the launch of its Style My Hair mobile app, which lets users try on different hairstyles. For that app, Modiface manually annotated 22,000 facial images to create the experience.  ... "

Virtual VR-Like Makeover from Sephora

Was involved with tests of this concept a number of times, it seemed the idea thing for the smart home, cosmetics aisle.  Several makers had this available, but it seems not to have stuck.   Good video at the link,  This uses a more VR-like approach, which is nicely demonstrated in a Sephora store.

How does this look? Be your own virtual make-up artist  In the BBC.
French cosmetics chain Sephora has introduced technology that enables its customers to try on make-up virtually and test out different colours and shades before buying.

Its "virtual artist" tech is also available as a mobile app.
Like other retailers competing in a fast-moving digital landscape, the company is using online tools to engage customers in its physical stores. ...  "

Consumer Brands Using Chatbots

I have in the talked some of our efforts about using chatbots for consumer brands.  FastCompany more generally has an examination of current brands that use chatbots, including Sephora.  Good general design ideas and cautions.

Very Human Lessons From Three Brands That Use Chatbots To Talk To Customers ... Seamless interactions make for happier and more engaged users who want to keep coming back. ... " 

New Realities of Local Retail

In ThinkwithGoogle:
" ... The relationship between digital and local stores is changing—something we learned from our new Digital Impact on In-Store Shopping study, commissioned from Ipsos MediaCT and Sterling Brands. From it, we identified three new realities of retail: digital drives in-store traffic; smartphones are in-store shopping assistants and varied shopping habits call for a holistic approach to measuring retail success. Savvy retailers are learning how to reach customers by better connecting the online to the offline and by caring less about where a sale happens and more about how to help shoppers convert. Some brands, such as Macy's, REI and Sephora, are already doing so. Find out how. ... "

Augmented Cosmetics Reality at Sephora

Have seen this idea tried many times.  Give consumers the ability to have a mirror that shoes how cosmetics will look on their face.  'The 'magic mirror' idea.   Here a new example at Sephora.  An example of augmented reality.

Sephora Haul Addiction

Ann Althouse examines the 100,000 videos entitled "Sephora Haul' on Youtube.    Quite an interesting view of what might be called cosmetics addiction and ultimately cosmetics in retail.   Despite my former  involvement in cosmetics CPG, I was unaware of this social direction.    Jezebel also comments.  A problem that has no name?  At one point it would be interesting to try to extract insight from these 100K videos.