For a society that is growing increasingly attached to their phones, it’s no surprise businesses are utilising the technology for their benefit. For beauty, this means a shift towards brand apps - a move studies predict will see huge popularity in 2016.
While last year saw a flurry of beauty apps welcomed to the market, a new study from Kline & Co confirms this number will rise, with apps expected to make a much bigger impact on the cosmetics business. The study discovered consumers spend 85 per cent of their mobile time on apps, with the average user downloading eight apps per month. This high percentage alerted Kline & Co to the untapped potential of apps for all businesses.
Mintel also recently confirmed consumers are turning more towards their mobile devices for beauty advice, with 45 per cent of beauty consumers preferring to find product information online rather than from a sales associate.
Mintel analyst Diana Smith explains to WWD what this means for brands: “Smartphones and tablets are playing an increasingly pivotal role in the beauty retail experience. Brands should assume that their audience has a connected device at their fingertips at all times and should look to leverage behavioral research in order to better understand when and how consumers are using these devices. The beauty category is ripe for an explosion of technology-driven innovation.”
App ModiFace’s chief executive officer Dr Parham Aarabi agrees with Smith’s comments: “By far the impact of beauty apps has been to augment and empower advisers to give more personalised choices to consumers. I think that beauty consultants will need to start incorporating more technology into their consultations if they want to keep up with the competition of apps. Tools to scan the face to recommend products will likely be the future.”
