L’Oréal Is Trying to Bring Virtual Try-On for Hair Colour to the Masses

22 May 2024

Thanks to the French beauty conglomerate’s new partnership with Snapchat and retail behemoth Walmart, consumers across the US will be able to scan a QR code on the packaging of its Feria hair dye collection that will open an augmented-reality tool letting them virtually try on multiple hair colours, just as they would flower crown filters on Snapchat.

L’Oréal is attempting to bring new consumers to the hair-colour category through the feature, which would allow them to sample the product and see, in real-time, how it might look on their existing hair colour, said Unyi Agba, vice president of marketing at L’Oréal Paris’ hair colour division.

Fashion and beauty brands have experimented with AR for years as a way to let consumers virtually try on products like shoes and makeup; L’Oréal itself has used it before to let shoppers play with different hair colours. But for the most part, it’s remained a niche tool — more of a novelty than a mainstream consumer product. By putting it on shelves at the biggest retailer in the US, L’Oréal and Snapchat are doing their part to change that.

Of course, their efforts only matter if shoppers use it. L’Oréal said the company will not be working with sales floor associates and will not be doing a broader marketing push in Walmart locations beyond carrying the QR codes in-store. The company will be tracking engagement through the use of the QR codes which will serve as an approximation of how often the product was picked up.

“For our pilot phase, we wanted to demonstrate that this could be a new way of shopping at point of sale,” said Agba.

L’Oréal has a long history of experimenting with ways to bring virtual try-on tools to its customers. The beauty conglomerate, through Canadian AR company Modiface, which it acquired in 2018, has an ongoing partnership with Meta’s Spark AR platform to create a virtual try-on experience for brands like Lancome and Nyx on Instagram Shop and through advertising on Meta’s platforms. L’Oréal also teamed up with Google on a virtual try-on feature for some of its brands in 2019 and currently has a try-on feature available for the Feria product on its website.

Snapchat, meanwhile, previously brought its augmented reality technology to a team-up with Gucci for its sneaker collection launch in 2020, where consumers were able to virtually try on four sneakers using Snapchat’s augmented reality technology and make purchases in-app. The activation reached 18.9 million users.