The Technology Augmenting the Role of the Independent Beauty Business Consultant

The direct selling beauty industry is especially vulnerable given its reliance on face-to-face interactions and a seamless global supply chain. Differentiation and superior customer experiences have become the crucial factors in a world where the selling strategies need to be redefined, and in-person beauty experiences will no longer be the same.

Direct selling businesses are now challenged with balancing efforts to reinforce the degree to which the independent distributor relationship creates a personalized touch through consultation and recommendation. Some companies, such as Avon, are betting on enhancing and improving their distributors’ virtual stores, while others, like Arbonne, are sharpening their e-commerce offers for their customers.

However, in the case of independent business owners, beauty companies must support them in providing a more personalized and safe experience to their customers, thus helping them cultivate a loyal customer base with an in-depth understanding of their customer preferences.

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Empowering the Beauty Consultant with Knowledge and Expertise

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The global slowdown challenged direct selling, forcing direct selling brands to eliminate in-person meetings, enhance sales productivity and up-skill the salesforce to sail smoothly through the shift. Migrating from person-to-person selling to digital channels and keeping its diligence closely on its customers, the direct selling beauty businesses rolled out new ways and means by which it continues its upward trajectory.

Direct selling businesses have started tapping into intelligent technologies, introducing AR/AI into their pre-sales, point of sale, and post-sale support operations across all touchpoints, whether online or in person. By equipping beauty consultants with the right tools, direct selling businesses ensure the beauty consultants' and shoppers’ safety even post-pandemic.

For that reason, the right beauty technology can allow shoppers to try on products, looks, and offer accurate product matches, replacing the traditional touch-and-try approach. Thus, bringing that “in-person experience” to a ubiquitous environment where consumers can benefit from a personalized brand experience and make more confident purchase decisions.  Increasing sales via digital beauty advisors has shown proven results, delivering greater consumer conversions and ultimately achieving a greater level of success for businesses. Similar to face-to-face consultation, companies can now recommend products based on what consumers were initially looking for and provide the continuous purchase experience that results in increased conversation rate and basket size.

Apart from these, the use of AI influences the sales forecasting, customer targeting, and advertising operations for direct selling businesses. In the next few years, a majority of direct sales software are expected to adopt AI for delivering advanced features. For instance, with the help of AI Beauty Advisor, direct sales businesses can execute sentiment analysis by running targeted campaigns. Inferences from this analysis allow direct selling professionals to create effective social conversations with customers, target the customer accounts that are likely to make repurchases more often and promote products accordingly.

By providing proper training and ‘augmenting’ the direct selling consultants, companies will deliver a personalized digital brand experience that improves return rates and brand quality. However, the challenge here is to clarify for consultants the value technology brings. An incentive for door-to-door beauty consultants is that these technologies will help them recommend products accurately and help them to uplift both the company and the individual consumer experience.

Furthermore, there is no pressure for consultants to have dermatologist-level expertise as they can delegate tasks to their digital advisors and instead focus on building relationships. Based on experience, such delegation serves to eliminate bottlenecks and shorten sales processes.

The Beauty Technology Landscape for Beauty Consultants

  1.  Online Advisor Experiences

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As direct selling companies strengthen their e-commerce front, providing the possibility for all its customers to try on products virtually and select the right products for the skin will be fundamental. With an Online Skincare Advisor, any customer can receive in-depth assistance, personalized recommendations, and high-level expertise that will help them make more confident purchase decisions and build greater loyalty with direct selling companies.

2.  E-commerce/ app Advisor Experiences

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By empowering sales consultants with the right e-commerce solutions during face-to-face sale, such as digital/physical catalogues with QR codes or apps, direct selling business will up-skill the salesforce and help them to provide the best consultation and high-level of education.

3.   Face to Face Advisor Experiences

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Beauty Advisors can leverage the Online Advisor solutions in a face-to-face setting and guide customers through the Online Advisor to provide more in-depth assistance in finding the best possible skincare products and treatments.

Moreover, direct selling companies can go one step further and meld in an AI-powered intelligent skin coach, to help beauty consultants build unique user profiles of their shoppers through data capture and browse the history of their purchases, tastes, and preferences to understand them better and recommend better-suited products.

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Delivering A seamless Brand Experience Across Devices, Geographies and Platforms

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For direct selling companies the speed, accuracy, and ease at which prospects can discover and play with the beauty within the app help users make more confident purchase decisions and encourage users to experiment and have fun in the beauty-loving digital world. Whether it’s an app or 1-on-1 live video consultation, beauty advisors have the power to instantly connect with their consumers safely and offer outstanding consultation and experiences based on rich consumer data.

That’s why It’s critical that direct selling companies hire, retain and empower technology executives that understand the complexities of implementing innovative technologies but are first and foremost champions of the user experience.