New age of omnichannel: Revieve, Cloudinary and Perfect Corp. transform augmented reality beauty shopping

25 May 2023 --- The world of beauty commerce is in the middle of a transformational shift, challenging old, transaction-driven business models used by brands and retailers and enforcing a new era of relationship-driven sales. In the verticals of skin, health, beauty and wellness – the most personal categories of commerce for consumers – this evolution is clearly visible.

Revieve, a personalized digital brand experience company working with brands, retailers and digital services providers in the beauty, skin, health and wellness categories, has launched its Digital Beauty Platform on Google Cloud Marketplace.

The platform offers tailored and “deeply personalized” product recommendations based on users’ characteristics, unique preferences, skin concerns/analysis, as well as offering visualization and digital try-on experiences.

Perfect Corp. is helping small women- and minority-owned brands modernize by making their virtual try-on software available to these businesses for free (Image credit: Perfect Corp.).Benefitting beauty brands and retailers, the solutions available will help beauty brands and retailers collect and evaluate real-time data about their customers. This ultimately is aimed at strengthening inventory and merchandising strategy decisions.

“Through its unique ecosystem orchestration capabilities, Revieve not only gives its customers the ability to leverage state of the art technology for deeply personalized consumer journeys, but also unlocks additional revenue and monetization opportunities, enables operational efficiencies and accelerates time to market,” says Irina Mazur, chief product and marketing officer at Revieve.

In an increasingly digital world, such virtual try-on and hair and skin diagnostics solutions will be steadily gaining ground, tying into a “seamless consumer journey,” as Sampo Parkkinen, CEO of Revieve told PersonalCareInsights in a previous video interview.

Last September, Revieve released a complete metaverse playbook for beauty brands to take full advantage of virtual spaces, outlining the future of the metaverse and giving advice on how personal care companies might better navigate it.

Cloudinary’s automated video generating software
At a time when brand engagement is benefitting greatly from platforms like TikTok – where advertisements can be condensed into short clips or influencer-led product reviews – fast content creation is proving essential.

Cloudinary, a video creation platform for brands, has released several new advanced AI video capabilities that aim to help brands create and deliver faster, more engaging video at scale while maximizing the impact.

Cloudinary’s latest AI capabilities include video generation, AI video cropping, adaptive bitrate streaming – which adjusts video quality based on network conditions to improve video streaming – and analytics.

Auto-generated videos are offering brands the opportunity to create quick content for their social media channels.

According to a recent Cloudinary survey, one quarter of all shoppers consider access to both branded and user generated video to be essential before making a purchase. Further, 27% have abandoned an item in their cart because of poor image or video quality. 

According to the company, fashion retailer Paul Smith improved sales conversion up to 45% on their product detail pages and sports apparel brand Rapha launches new video experiences 50% faster with Cloudinary.

“Even as video cements its position as a top investment priority for brands, many struggle to deploy it consistently or efficiently enough to generate momentum – and we know this does not need to be the case,” remarks Amit Erental, senior manager of programmable media, Cloudinary.

“According to recently released Comscore data, Cloudinary's next-gen video platform is among the biggest video platforms in the US, ranking fifth out of the most popular properties in the tech category managing video content. The report also highlights the largest 100 properties and platforms in the US, dozens of which are Cloudinary customers including Discovery, Etsy and Mediavine.”

AR virtual try on boosts small beauty businesses
Beauty tech solutions provider Perfect Corp. has introduced a new program for small and indie beauty brands that are looking to transform their direct-to-consumer business with augmented reality (AR) technology.

“Our mission is to democratize access to these transformative digital innovations and make these tools accessible to brands of all sizes,” says Perfect Corp. CEO and founder Alice Chang.

“With these powerful solutions, brands can reimagine the consumer experience, provide personalized beauty to all, and unlock new opportunities for growth.”

The Small Business Beauty Tech Accelerator program will provide women or minority-owned small beauty brands and retailers with up to six months of free access to Perfect Corp.’s self-service virtual try-on solution for color cosmetics.

The service applies to seven product categories including foundation, mascara, lip color, blush, eyelashes, eyeliner and eyeshadow. With this platform, consumers are able to try-on and experiment with beauty products virtually to discover their perfect shade.

Augmented reality is being leveraged in new applications like MAC Cosmetics’ foundation matching software (Image credit: MAC Cosmetics).“Having successfully scaled from a start-up in 2015, Perfect Corp.’s AR virtual try on technology has since grown to help over 500 brands around the globe to modernize and personalize their shopping journeys, with many brands reporting up to 2.5x increases in sales conversion, 40% increases in average order value, and significantly decreased product returns,” shares the company.

At the upcoming Viva Technology event in Paris, France, Perfect Corp. will reveal its latest advanced AI & AR skincare, beauty and fashion tech solutions and AIGC (AI Generated Content) technologies.

The company will be revealing its AI Skin Analysis with Real-Time Detection & True-to-Life Emulation, which integrates dermatologist-verified AI Skin Analysis technology with live camera mode detection. The platform generates a real-time AR overlay to visualize the findings, giving consumers a more comfortable and interactive skincare shopping experience.

PersonalCareInsights’ sister platform PackagingInsights previously spoke with Chang about how technologies like virtual try-on services can do more in reducing packaging waste and drive environmental sustainability.

Early moves in a new virtual landscape
As digital solutions continue to proliferate across the beauty sector, L’Oréal – which previously explored the metaverse’s applications in services like skin diagnosis and teleconsultation – joined a host of other large scale cosmetics players including MAC Cosmetics and Chanel in rolling out technologies that allow users to try on their lipstick or eyeshadow virtually.

MAC Cosmetics’ foundation matching software, in particular, uses AR to enable the consumer to select cosmetics based on their skin tone, then to try out products virtually, getting a comprehensive understanding of the product in relation to their own preferences.

In other recent highlights, Clinique revealed its new digital online retail concept, The Clinique Lab, where consumers can discover, interact, play, learn and shop. 

Meanwhile, cosmetics brands Laura Mercier and Orveon partnered with experiential e-commerce platform Obsess to create a virtual store called “The World of Laura Mercier,” which displays three interactive Parisian-styled virtual rooms enabling an HD, 3D and 360-degree experience.

By Benjamin Ferrer