By Sachin Dev Duggal
To say COVID-19 has hit the wonder and vogue sectors exhausting is an understatement of epic proportions. Retail gross sales have been weak and retailer closures have been an all too frequent incidence; there have been greater than 11,000 vogue retailer closures as of December 2020.

This has led to an enormous funding in digital transformation. As Zinnov’s ‘Digital Engineering in Retail’ examine discovered, the retail sector – spurred by COVID-19 – has invested what would in any other case have been three years’ value of digital transformation in simply six months. That’s inevitably led to intense competitors for market share.

While all of this will appear bleak and disheartening, the important thing to surviving is resilience and a digital-first mindset. That means reconfiguring how manufacturers take into consideration and ship an distinctive digital/cell expertise to their prospects. So slightly than go on with enterprise as ordinary, many manufacturers at the moment are integrating new applied sciences (each experiential and backend optimization) and including new options and capabilities into their web sites and cell apps that recreate the bodily in-store expertise, however from the security of shoppers’ properties (and digital/cell units).

Retailers must get cracking to be resilient and keep aggressive in 2021 with a number of key methods.

Levelling up with augmented and digital actuality capabilities

A key a part of the in-store magnificence expertise is the power for prospects to attempt on make-up in-person. Seeing is believing afterall. Since that’s merely not an choice anymore because of COVID-19 hygiene guidelines, magnificence manufacturers have needed to make the ‘try on’ expertise accessible just about. L’Oreal India, for instance, launched a ‘Makeup Virtual Try-On’ characteristic on their web site that lets customers see how a magnificence product or hair color seems on them (whereas at house) through the use of the stay digicam to take an image or importing a beforehand taken photograph.

Meanwhile, homegrown model FabIndia launched a ‘white glove service’ in any respect 114 of its bodily shops, the place prospects can scan a QR code in the window show and flick through customised catalogues and lookbooks in the security of their very own properties. They also can contact the shop’s private shopper by way of WhatsApp to pick, buy and ship their desired merchandise to their properties.

Increasing engagement throughout a number of touchpoints

In this new COVID-19 actuality the place digital is all the pieces, there’s nonetheless an awesome need and want for offline experiences. The secret is to mix on-line and offline experiences seamlessly. Sephora is one magnificence model that’s doing this exceptionally effectively. It spent the time to analyse and perceive the behaviours and preferences of its prospects and found that Sephora prospects are likely to look for product critiques and particular offers on different websites. Realizing this, Sephora sprung into motion and labored to recreate the standard private purchasing assistant expertise onto its app, offering key details about product suggestions, critiques, pricing and extra. Not solely might Sephora prospects proceed and develop their engagement with the model they love so dearly, however they might additionally get numerous sorts of info they’d usually discover elsewhere – protecting them engaged with Sephora longer and forming stronger loyalty.

In India, over 81 % of magnificence shoppers interact with magnificence creators on YouTube and 26 % bought a product after watching a magnificence video. So, it’s no shock that magnificence manufacturers are doubling down on their social media advertising and marketing and engagement methods. Instagram, in specific, is a favourite amongst magnificence prospects. This has lots to do with the visible nature of the platform and the power to create and submit ‘stories.’ Look at what YBP Cosmetics is doing – they create a gradual stream of photos, movies and tales that share actual make-up ideas and tutorials. With over 37,000 Instagram followers and a whole bunch of likes and feedback on every submit, the technique is working effectively for them.

Delivering on the ecommerce promise of quicker deliveries and higher offers

In the world of e-commerce, value and velocity reign supreme. The proliferation of subsequent-day deliveries and yr-spherical reductions let prospects store round till they discover the perfect value-for-money deal for their favorite manufacturers.
To cater to this shift in buyer behaviour, vogue and magnificence manufacturers are investing in logistics and e-commerce options. They’re additionally offering extra enticing reductions and packages to show their worth and value to prospects. For instance, skincare and make-up manufacturers usually roll out restricted-time units and packages with unique add-ons and equipment which can be solely accessible on-line.

Reviews are a vital characteristic of e-commerce, particularly in the wonder and vogue industries. Customers rely closely on them – each as a supply of data and as a supply of suggestions. We’ve all had our fair proportion of subpar, irritating buyer experiences – from receiving a damaged or expired make-up merchandise or ready weeks to get our merchandise delivered to our door. When these mishaps occur, the very first thing most prospects in this digital-first age do is go browsing and submit detrimental critiques on the retailer’s web site.

Negative critiques may be damaging to retailers in numerous methods – they will erode buyer belief, trigger as soon as-loyal prospects to buy elsewhere and thus, consequence in misplaced gross sales and income in the long term. This is why manufacturers are investing extra time and sources into their provide and logistics chain – to maintain the enterprise operations working easily in order that disruptions don’t result in detrimental buyer critiques, which ends up in a decline in loyalty and gross sales. It’s a ripple impact and one that may definitely be mitigated.

( The writer of the article is CEO, Builder.ai )