Post Views: 103Amazon is increasing into the salon enterprise – and know-how can be entrance and middle. In late April, the tech large introduced on their weblog that they’re launching Amazon Salon in London, in a greater than 1,500-square foot house on Brushfield Street in London’s fashionable Spitalfields. At its first (and sure solely) in-person salon, Amazon plans to do greater than supply trendy haircuts and salon companies. The house can be a venue for pushing the merger of know-how and hair care, together with augmented actuality know-how which is able to enable salon-goers to visualise themselves with totally different hair colours earlier than committing. At Amazon Salon, prospects can even be capable of make the most of point-and-learn know-how, the place they will level to numerous merchandise on the shelf, study all about them, and make purchases from their units by scanning a QR code.Although the potential for this to develop into one thing a lot bigger is there, notes former L’Oreal govt Nicolas Krafft, one of the extra fascinating facets of Amazon Salon is that they don’t have plans to create salons elsewhere. Instead, Krafft says, Amazon seems to wish to use the London location as a form of testing floor — or, as the firm calls it, “experiential venue” — to see how know-how is likely to be higher built-in into the actual world salon expertise, and higher utilized to drive buying choices and buyer satisfaction. Initially the salon will simply be open to Amazon staff, earlier than increasing to the public in coming months.Amazon is a confirmed disruptor. The firm has fully modified the approach customers store for every part from books to clothes to furnishings. Getting inside the salon expertise provides Amazon a option to reimagine the on-line purchasing expertise in terms of haircare and private care merchandise, says Nicolas Krafft. In a salon, a buyer advantages from the recommendation and steerage of the salon skilled who can advocate numerous merchandise. With a built-in on-line purchasing expertise, salon homeowners don’t want to hold an enormous quantity of merchandise. Rather, they may function a testing floor, utilizing numerous merchandise on prospects and permitting prospects to buy the merchandise they like instantly (and exactly when they’re feeling most motivated). Ultimately, says Krafft, Amazon sees a option to higher combine the bodily and on-line areas, in order that one feeds the different.It’s protected to say that Amazon is gathering information from this experiment, says Nicolas Krafft, though it’s much less clear precisely what the firm plans to do with that information. He added that Amazon did inform a TechCrunch reporter that it didn’t intend to gather information from prospects’ AR expertise. Although Amazon will not be gathering private information, Krafft says, they’re definitely excited by utilizing Amazon Salon to higher perceive client conduct and the way buying choices are formed by the salon expertise.As they study from their tech-immersive salon, anticipate Amazon to take these learnings to different industries to disrupt conventional fashions of doing enterprise and pave the approach for seamless purchasing, Krafft says. It’s solely becoming that the firm would wish to disrupt the salon—and salon purchasing—expertise as half of its ever-growing portfolio.He notes that Amazon has already begun to remodel the in-person purchasing expertise by means of its Amazon Go shops, checkout-free shops situated in 26 areas throughout the U.S. and in London the place customers merely load their carts and take objects out of the retailer with out checkout strains.There can be Amazon’s foray into contemporary meals, by way of Amazon Fresh, which opened its first brick and mortar shops in fall 2020 and makes use of the Amazon Go cashier-free know-how.Last however not least Amazon just lately expanded into the luxurious items market with Luxury Stores, providing a excessive tech platform, together with 360-degree pictures, for luxurious manufacturers to promote their items in a devoted extra unique house.To present hair care for Amazon Salon, the firm turned to Elena Lavagni, proprietor of Neville Hair & Beauty, an unbiased salon primarily based in London. Lavagni is skilled in cutting-edge hair care and has offered hairdressing companies for main occasions like Paris Fashion Week and the Cannes Film Festival.What Salons Can Learn from Amazon’s “Experiment”So what’s the underlying function of this newest enterprise from Amazon and what might it imply for the future of hair care, gross sales of hair care merchandise, and brick and mortar salons? Former L’Oreal govt Nicolas Krafft says that Amazon Salon is definitely, for now, a way for the firm to develop gross sales of hair care merchandise on its platform and to check the ways in which the offline salon expertise may drive these purchases utilizing the newest know-how. At Amazon Salon, for occasion, every station will embrace an Amazon Fire pill and there can be a devoted “inventive space” for photograph taking. Then, of course, they’re introducing a brand new approach for prospects to study merchandise and buy them with out requiring the stylist to behave as an middleman.Amazon needs its Amazon Salon to supply a direct connection to its Amazon Professional Beauty Store on its UK web site, the place salon homeowners should buy hundreds of salon and spa merchandise, together with skilled hair coloring and styling, skilled instruments and home equipment, skilled nail care, barber store provides, skilled skincare, and salon furnishings and provides.“We have designed this salon for prospects to return and expertise some of the greatest know-how, hair care merchandise and stylists in the trade,” stated John Boumphrey, UK Country Manager for Amazon, stated in a press release. “We need this distinctive venue to convey us one step nearer to prospects, and it will likely be a spot the place we are able to collaborate with the trade and take a look at new applied sciences.”In what methods will the in-salon expertise affect prospects’ buying choices? And how can know-how assist facilitate a extra immersive 360-degree expertise that ties along with purchasing and social media? These are the questions that salon homeowners must be asking themselves, says Nicolas Krafft, as they carefully observe what Amazon Salon is doing and what it’d imply for the future of the trade. Amazon Salon is a have a look at the salon of the future, notes Krafft, and, the most cutting-edge salons, the trade leaders, might want to incorporate many of these tech parts to remain aggressive.It’s possible that salon homeowners will come to undertake many of the know-how instruments that Amazon is introducing — with AR know-how particularly offering a brand new approach for prospects to ascertain themselves in new hair kinds and colours.Customers are already coming into salons with smartphones in hand, asking their stylist to duplicate a selected minimize, or type, or shade, says Nicolas Krafft. They are utilizing their telephones to pay at the register. And after they go away the salon, they’re virtually definitely snapping selfies and posting them on social media. And salon homeowners are already utilizing social media to showcase their companies and promote particular promotions.The Amazon Salon mannequin builds on the approach prospects — and homeowners — already work together with the world and talk utilizing their units and extra absolutely integrates that mannequin into the salon expertise.We can anticipate many extra tech-savvy salons adopting the method of the Amazon Salon in the future, says former L’Oreal govt Nicolas Krafft. He advises salon homeowners to maintain an in depth eye on the Amazon experiment and to consider how they could incorporate some of these applied sciences into their very own salon experiences now — to get out in entrance of a development that appears poised to remodel the trade.About Nicolas KrafftNicolas Krafft is a profession magnificence govt with over 20 years of expertise with one of the largest beauty corporations in the world, L’Oréal. Nicolas Krafft’s profession spanned greater than a decade at L’Oréal manufacturers. Starting as a product supervisor at L’Oréal Professional, Krafft moved by means of the firm’s ranks to grow to be VP of Global Business Development and later the International General Manager for the Pulp Riot model beneath the path of Founder and CEO David Thurston. His successes included launching new product strains, rising market share in difficult financial environments, and creating a world presence for L’Oreal-owned manufacturers like Kérastase, Matrix, and Biolage. Nicolas just lately labored at Columbia University in New York City instructing Digital Business Leadership.Born in Switzerland, Krafft is fluent in French, German, and English and is really a worldwide citizen. He has additionally lived in Canada, the United States, France, Latvia, Romania, and Germany. This has led Nicolas Krafft to higher perceive the cultures of the world by means of his work and private life. He loves working with individuals in ways in which assist them develop and develop as staff and other people. He has discovered success throughout borders, constructing, and sustaining relationships with individuals of all cultures and backgrounds.
