How L’Oréal adopted new technologies to scale personalisation, adapt to new customer demands and evolve into the top beauty tech company

Abstract

Across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive — and likely long-lasting — impact on commercial and consumer trends. For companies specialising in consumer packaged goods and traditionally reliant on physical stores for the majority of their sales, success is no longer about staying relevant, but rather on preparing for a world where significant portions of their business will emanate from e-commerce. With brickand- mortar sales declining and consumers becoming more tech-savvy, this paper argues that beauty companies (both large and small) must look to advanced ways for customers to discover, consider and purchase beauty products. By way of illustration, the paper describes how L’Oréal embarked on a programme of digital transformation that would prepare it to outlast the current context and continue to advance in spite of a challenging market.