Beauty brand Lancôme has upped its experiential retail game, launching an augmented reality (AR) experience at its flagship store located on the famous Champs-Elysées in Paris. L’Oréal Group, which owns Lancôme, selected the landmark store (which saw 30,000 visitors monthly pre-COVID) for the experiential offering that blends the physical and digital worlds. The brand teamed up with Wilkins Avenue AR to create the experience, scheduled to last two months, using AR and spatial computing, merging state-of-the-art technology with striking set design.
Visitors entering the store are taken on an AR journey from the countryside to the streets of Paris. Customers enter a delivery truck filled with flowers, wearing Magic Leap AR Headsets to transport them to the Domaine de la Rose, which the brand recently acquired in Grasse, France (headsets and shared devices are sanitized between each user). The headset allows the user to view the AR features in-store, rather than using their mobile device to activate the experience. Meanwhile, other customers can witness the experience in real time on giant screens in the Lancôme store via broadcast technology.
“In our Lancôme Champs-Elysées flagship store, we want our clients to experience the brand like never before,” said Julie Audouin-Urdangaray, General Manager of Lancôme France in a statement. “What better way to immerse visitors in the magic of the Lancôme brand than an innovative journey taking them to our rose fields in Grasse?”
To enhance shopping experiences that increasingly are becoming forms of entertainment,Wilkins Avenue AR is currently developing a solution to add layers of interactive 3D content to “augment” any physical product in the live shopping experience. These AR experiences at points of sale can then be broadcast simultaneously and globally on live-shopping and livestreaming platforms, such as YouTube Live, Twitch, Facebook Live and Instagram Live. “Retail is changing fast,” said Thibault Mathieu, CEO and Producer of Wilkins Avenue AR in a statement. “The boundaries between commerce, ecommerce and digital content creation are disappearing.”
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Photo courtesy of Wilkins Avenue AR x Lancôme