Watsons uses facial analysis tech to find perfect foundation via mobile

Health and beauty retailer Watsons has launched its "Foundation Finder" in its mobile app, which aims to help customers identify their perfect foundation colours and shade.

Developed by Watsons' parent company A.S. Watson’s own in-house digital agency eLab, the Foundation Finder seeks to offer a seamless O+O (Offline plus Online) retail shopping experience to its customers. Using its Advanced Facial Analysis technology, the Foundation Finder claims to helps customers to find the right foundation that matches perfectly to the customer’s skin type and skin tone.

Boasting its ease of use, customers can simply take a selfie and answer a few simple questions about their skin conditions and makeup style preferences. The app will then recommend foundations that best suit the customers’ needs accordingly, said Watsons. It will also give the option for customers to choose a lighter or darker shade based on their individual preferences. In addition, personalised offers and makeup tips from professional makeup artists will be offered as well.

By providing customers with the "best choice of foundations from a wide array of international brands", Watsons guaranteed that customers will be able to find a foundation that would suit them perfectly. Furthermore, the function is digitally connected to the Watsons online store. Customers can thus immediately order their recommended products and have them delivered to their homes or pick-up in stores. They can also save the recommendation via email for later reference when visiting the stores.

The O+O experience will be key to enable the technology enhancement of the global foundation market, worth about US13.8 billion, as well as deepening the brand’s reach into a market segment with huge potential, said Watsons. The Foundation Finder will first launch in Watsons Hong Kong and Malaysia, and will subsequently be rolled out to other Asian markets including the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.

Watsons is now offering customers up to 700 foundation products from over 30 brands. The function will first appear on the Watsons mobile app and then will extend to digital gadgets in-store.

Malina Ngai, CEO of A.S. Watson (Asia & Europe) said, “Most beauty lovers struggle to find the right shade as normally we apply foundation tester on hands. In most cases, the skin colour on hands is slightly different from the face. We know this is the pain point of customers and this inspires us to work on a solution."

Ngai also said: "Making use of AR technology, we can help our customers to find a much closer match to give a perfect look. In fact, Watsons has been pioneering the application of AR technology in our O+O experience for beauty lovers. Simply using our Watsons app on their smartphones, they can try on different colour cosmetics and hair colour." She added that being able to build a relationship with customers involves both the physical store touchpoint as well as digital is the essence of the O+O strategy, and that "being relevant and fun is key to add value to customers’ daily lives".

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