The metaverse is coming – but what does it mean for beauty?

At this year’s Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna trade show and exhibition, one of the hot topics under discussion was the metaverse – and how it could affect the beauty industry.

A panel moderated by CosmeticsDesign-Europe editor Kacey Culliney explored how beauty brands could tap into the potential of the metaverse. But first, according to the panel, the virtual reality version of the internet needs to reach the mainstream.??

Valerie Vacante, director of strategy, product experience and innovation at Merkle, described the metaverse as being very ‘fragmented’ at this early stage. A number of innovators and companies are working unilaterally on their own projects, but none are yet interconnected. Some are even using their own currencies, making them more like nation states than one fully connected, immersive online world.??

How beauty brands can ‘get involved’??

With the metaverse being unchartered territory right now, the advice to beauty brands from the panel is to start small. It would be unwise to commit a significant chunk of investment or resources to metaverse projects, but this doesn’t mean brands can’t start investigating the possibilities.?

It’s all new to many brands, so research will be key to understanding the technology and platforms. At this stage, companies can “get involved” by looking into selling on NFT marketplace, buying virtual real estate on platforms like Decentraland or even creating their own mini in-house metaverse.?

?There are likely to be many opportunities to be creative with metaverse-related projects, making sure that the top priority is always to enhance the consumer experience.??

Beauty and the metaverse: the possibilities?

Envisioning how the beauty industry could harness the metaverse, the panel explored a number of exciting potential applications. These included:?

• Building virtual try-on capacity, so that users can test out products virtually before buying.?
• Making it possible for consumers to buy virtual beauty products, and then buy a version of the same in the real world. For example, a customer can buy a lipstick for their metaverse avatar, then the same physical version of the lipstick for themselves.???
• Merging metaverse and physical retail environments. One example discussed by the panel was Tommy Hilfiger showcasing its Spring Collection at Fashion Week, which offered customers the chance to buy NFTs to use for purchasing real-world items.??
• Building virtual showrooms for test marketing, demonstrating retail environments, training and client learning.??
• Launching early pilots through test labs, requiring minimal investment and the chance to get valuable, almost instant feedback on new product lines.??

The metaverse can also make it possible for brands to expand far beyond their ordinary geographical reach, which can be an extremely costly strategy to achieve in the real world.???

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