Does Ulta Beauty Do Your Makeup If You Ask

New York (CNN)Makeup sellers Ulta Dazzler and Sephora have a problem on their easily.

When it comes to beauty products, consumers beloved to test cosmetics, creams and fragrances on themselves before they purchase them.

But that's not really an option correct at present given the current health and safety concerns tied to the pandemic. That'south bad news for cosmetics sellers who've already suffered double-digit percentage sales declines in the first quarter considering of store closures and the "no makeup, piece of work-from-home" wait that consumers have embraced amidst the shutdown.

They're now under pressure to somehow replicate the in-store sampling feel in a convincing way for consumers to reinvigorate sales.

Ulta Beauty (ULTA), which operates over 1,200 stores in the United States, has a gameplan.

It's called GLAMLab — Ulta'south virtual makeup try-on app that offers access to more than 4,000 items.

"We know how much fun it tin can be to detect, try on and find the correct items on your ain. But prophylactic is paramount right at present," said Prama Bhatt, Ulta Dazzler's primary digital officer.

With the app, you can take a selfie or use a live shot of yourself to digitally try on a shade of lipstick, eyeshadow or fifty-fifty digitally sample a detail brand of mascara or eyeliner.

Bhatt said GLAMLab usage has increased by five times in the pandemic and "nosotros accept seen nineteen million shades tried on in the post Covid-nineteen environment."

"That's significant for us," she said.

Bhatt added, "We're continuing to grow the GLAMLab experience as we reopen our stores." New on the app, which launched in 2016, is a virtual hair color and eyelash try-on feature, for example.

In addition to the app, Ulta, which expects to accept all of its stores open by the end of June, is introducing virtual beauty advisors to answer customer questions about products.

Similarly, Sephora, which also offers a virtual try-on experience and tutorials through its app, said in an email that its "dazzler advisors" will exist bachelor to assist customers via in-shop demonstrations.

Both Sephora and Ulta Beauty already pop product samples into numberless at checkout and will continue to offer that perk.

There's no uncertainty that the coronavirus has significantly challenged the ability of brands to offer the full experience shoppers arrive the store, said Greg Petro, founder and CEO of predictive analytics and digital production testing business firm First Insight.

"The coronavirus has moved the [retail] industry away from loftier-touch to low-touch on," said Petro. The 'new normal' for retailers will be to piece of work with shoppers in a easily-free fashion to help them to observe what they need while as well giving them the space to experience comfortable."

Virtual try-ons, however, may not be enough to pacify shoppers in the long haul, said Outset Insight's Petro.

"Retailers need to make upward for it with very liberal return policies likewise," he said.

Both Ulta and Sephora said they've fabricated some adjustments to render policies. Ulta Beauty said it has extended returns to 180 days "to accommodate those who have purchased something while stores were temporarily closed."

"To ease returns for online orders, we have increased our current 30-day render policy to 60 days," Sephora noted in an email.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/18/business/ulta-sephora-virtual-makeovers/index.html

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