AUSTIN, TEXAS — In its debut appearance at the South By Southwest conference this week, cosmetics and splendor logo Lush converted two recycled delivery bins right into a tech-powered reproduction of its Tokyo idea save. The mobile-heavy activation at the other display floor housed conveyor belts transporting 54 bathtub merchandise, which were in particular created for the thirtieth anniversary of the beauty agency’s first bath bomb.
With a short span of a QR code, guests should download the Lush Labs mobile app and use the visible search characteristic to get admission to rich statistics at the unwrapped bathtub merchandise’ “virtual packaging,” from ingredients, name, and fee to videos of what they seem like whilst dropped in a bath of water.
Social community and UGC
While the app does not currently feature cellular ordering capabilities or patron critiques — it’s nevertheless in R&D — Lush’s head of technology studies and development Adam Goswell said the network capabilities would soon be brought.
“We want to integrate reviews on our platform along with social content material,” Goswell told Mobile Marketer in a smartphone interview. “There’s an extraordinary amount of social content material they convey in this is probably higher than our own. The clients share how they use it, details about the merchandise, and private feedback.”
Incorporating social and person-generated content material into the mobile app will provide consumers extra practical insights into loads of merchandise than traditional critiques and star scores can Goswell stated. For now, the visual seek prototype handiest recognizes Lush’s fleet of tub bombs, as everyone requires hundreds of pictures, 3-d imaging, and gadget mastering earlier than hitting customers’ fingers. But Goswell predicts the app may be capable of apprehending all of the corporation’s merchandise through the give up of 2019.
“When we placed Lush Labs into our primary purchasing app, you will count on it to apprehend something you could physically see in the store,” he said.
Fusing tech and sustainability
The Lush Labs app and cellular-driven SXSW activation constitute a broader shift closer to incorporating technology and waste-reduction initiatives into the company’s approach. For instance, by permitting users to view a video of what a tub bomb looks like while dropped in a bath, Lush says it could shop water via getting rid of the want for in-save demonstrations.
An Asia flagship vicinity is about to release in mid-May inside the Shinjuku region of Tokyo. It will house packaging-free products, additional tech-powered experiments, and interactive studies, per Goswell. Special lights and projections, in-shop video navigation, and interactive windows in the store will display Lush’s clean awareness of worldwide customers and retail advertising innovation thru generation.
“Because of the global nature of the customers you get in that region of Japan, we want to look at innovative methods of not having the whole thing written and translated,” Goswell stated. “There are all forms of loopy matters we are going to do with lights that let us change the shop overnight into exceptional lighting fixtures configurations.”
Meanwhile, in Milan, Berlin, and Manchester, U.K., Lush has deployed “naked” concept stores that sell packaging-unfastened items as a part of a broader push into sustainability. The brand started ten years ago.
“If you eliminate the packaging, manifestly the consumer does not get all of the records that would have come on a conventional label,” Goswell said. “We needed to train a manner to deliver that information in a pleasing manner that does not require packaging. We’d alternatively use things like scannable QR codes, bar codes, and different conventional stuff, but we did not feel comfortable printing greater matters or attaching labels to the products.”
Bath time gets linked.
As Lush dives deeper into creating greater immersive and tech-powered reports, the cosmetics and beauty logo is entering into physical hardware with the improvement of a connected speaker that clients can use in the bath or shower, consistent with Goswell. The prototype, already on its 1/3 version, has been displayed at several enterprises and is set to hit keep cabinets and online around the holidays.
“We need to give clients the full Lush enjoy in a tool that might deliver them a temper-converting revel in the toilet or shower or bedroom, with colors and accent moods that we might software,” Goswell said. “Think special light shows designed to complement a product you’ve got already got.”
