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

L’Oréal is bringing its virtual try-on feature to store shelves.

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.

This partnership, however, marks the first time it’s teamed up with a retailer to bridge the gap between reality and AR for hair colour.

“It comes down to distribution,” said Michele Nevitt, Snapchat’s head of consumer packaged goods in health and beauty, of how Snapchat’s technology is differentiated from that of its competitors. “We have 6 billion AR engagements every single day and an audience of 800 million monthly active users … We know that across all of our different ad products, we can drive results for our consumers. So we’ve really been heads down on optimising our ad platform to ensure that we’re delivering on what clients want.”

The decision to begin with the hair colour category came from its significant growth during the pandemic when consumers embraced DIY hair colour with salons closed. Since then, this segment has been able to retain new and younger customers who shop in-store, despite the higher barriers to entry, said Agba.

“If you’re in beauty retail, you can try on a lipstick shade and know whether or not it’s for you,” said Nevitt. “For hair colour, you’re often met with a sea of boxes in the aisle with shades that might look similar but you can’t try them on.”

Snapchat’s AR technology will detect a consumer’s original hair colour and its undertones before offering a filter that would best match the user’s desired hair colour. Additionally, the technology will offer users suggestions on which hair care procedures to undergo, such as toning and bleaching, in order to get the hair colour displayed on the box.

Beyond Walmart’s footprint, its own history with AR made it an appealing partner for the team-up. The retail giant debuted its own virtual try-on feature, in partnership with AR company Perfect Corp, on its shopping app in October 2023 as part of a broader push to lure more affluent customers by offering prestige beauty in-stores and online. Consumers can now sample over 2,000 products using the technology.

“Our number one goal, as always, is recruiting consumers. We’re always very focused on building the next generation of hair colour users at home and on recruiting Millennials and Gen-Z,” said Agba.