Throughout December 2013, shoppers in Amsterdam were treated to a pop-up destination for personal skin analyses, hairstyling tips and first-hand trials of some of the latest beauty tools. Thousands of visitors later, the Philips Beauty Store was considered a success by the brand, as the company says it opened the door to even more beauty innovation in the future, building on women’s real-time feedback and input.
The brick-and-mortar Philips Beauty Store offered women state-of-the-art digital information sources such as interactive mirrors and displays with hands-free swipe screens. “As you could expect, we used advanced technology to optimize visitors’ experience, but the focus was on face-to-face advice and meaningful dialogue,” explained Caroline Clarke, CEO of Philips Personal Care. While women were able to browse information and try and buy Philips’ beauty tools, there were also offered free expert skin analyses, hair styling tips and product demonstrations.
“The Philips Beauty Store can be seen as an interactive learning lab for Beauty innovation,” said Clarke. “We continuously talk to women around the globe in order to deliver innovation that helps them upgrade their beauty regime, and initiatives like these help us do this. It allowed women to learn about how to easily upgrade their beauty regime at home, and it helped us to have a dialogue with them in a different setting and listen to their needs, their dreams and their preferences, while also receiving individual, first-hand feedback on our products and services,”
The temporary Philips Beauty Store was available on a high street in Amsterdam throughout the month of December and may return in beauty hotspots like Paris, New York, Seoul or Buenos Aires.
“We have no ambition to be a permanent retailer, but we definitely see great value in this type of face-to-face contact with a variety of women. And the feedback we received on our products, the expert advice and the overall experience was very encouraging to explore more initiatives like this. Also because we generated invaluable learnings that will benefit our collaborations with retailers around the world,” concluded Clarke.
