AI-Powered Beauty Tech Reboots Sephora, Shanghai

“The AI engine integrates skin profile and environmental factors as well as the science of the ingredients to deliver unbiased cross-brand product recommendations,” a spokesperson from Sephora China told Stylus.

There are two new report-creating in-store services:

• (Skin)Care Analysis: An advanced AI-powered skin analysis device with UV optical scanning capabilities for deeper-layer skin analysis.
  
  A skincare expert performs the scan, sending the analysis to the shopper’s smartphone, detailing skin health, sensitivity, ageing, lifestyle and environmental exposure effects, along with personalised AI-driven recommendations for products available in-store. 
  
  
• (Make-Up) Look Analysis: An AI and augmented-reality-powered make-up inspiration tablet with tutorials and product recommendations.
  
  It allows visitors to scan their own face by themselves (facial features, shape, structure) to create a detailed beauty report, also sent to their smartphones, showing AI-generated looks they can try on virtually. The Beauty Play real-life make-up service based on the looks (15 or 60 minutes) is subsequently available in-store free of charge.

Both Care and Look Analysis can be pre-booked via Sephora’s app and the Sephora WeChat Mini Program (sub-app in the WeChat ecosystem).

Also new is Lift and Learn – product panels and price tags with RFID (radio-frequency identification) sensors. Shoppers can learn more about the product ingredients and read millions of customer reviews by simply scanning the tags. Read Cracking the (QR/Bar) Code: Tags That Do More in Omnichannel Retail: Upgrades & Innovations.

See also Evolving the Beauty Flagship and Superstar In-Store Tech.