A research study by Worldcore, a European fintech company, on the possibilities of integrating blockchain technologies into the beauty industry.
A research study by Worldcore, a European fintech company, on the possibilities of integrating blockchain technologies into the beauty industry.
Despite the vast size of the beauty industry and body care goods market ($430 billion in 2016, $750 billion by 2024), penetration of new IT-technologies is estimated as minimal as of fall 2018. This is associated with both the essential differences between the technologies and the absence of apparent common points, and the general conservatism. Nonetheless, there are several startups that have launched an ICO for the purpose of integration of two dissimilar products.
EpigenCare uses a person’s genetic profile to select the most appropriate skin care products. A person’s anonymous genetic profile is recorded in the blockchain, along with the information on beauty products and their testing. When a program participant’s genetic markers come into the recommended zone of a specific product, the information is transferred to the registered client and project tokens, which may be spent on the purchase of the recommended product or on receiving a discount, are awarded to their account.
The Jolyy startup engages blockchain-based CRM systems, customary for the B2C segment, in the beauty industry.
The blockchain segment of the Novacap pharmaceutical company, which proposes that as a result of implementation of their inventions, every cosmetic product with a COSMOS/ECOCERT certificate should have a blockchain passport, where the path of every component for its production is tracked. From identifying the plant that was the source of the essential oil or the mine for mineral components, to the shift number that manufactured and packaged the ready product.
Following the analysis of dissimilar projects, experts of the Worldcore European fintech company have predicted the directions that the integration of global beauty and blockchain industries are slated to follow.
Goods’ origin confirmation. Each beauty product, from household shampoo to silicone implants in plastic surgery, requires a confirmation of its safety for health, including via the creation of a ledger of ingredients and their delivery chain to the manufacturer. The existing technologies do not allow to track the deliveries of goods or raw materials to the end consumer. With blockchain technologies, not only batches of goods, but entire logistical and production chains can be tracked to the end consumer, whose smartphone will have a simple blockchain explorer installed. Upon scanning a product’s bar code, the explorer will display its entire history from production to the store shelf.
Marketing technology implementation. For the majority of B2C products in industries with high added value, such as the beauty industry, pharmaceutics, or the wellness-industry, active, or even aggressive marketing strategies are used.
They include advertising campaigns, engaging celebrities to increase brand awareness, promo campaigns, etc. While the marketing paradigms of the late 20thcentury (network structures, quick logistics) are already being implemented to the full extent for the majority of products, 21-century paradigms (sales process gamification, SMM) are being realized exclusively for niche products due to the high cost of these procedures.
Blockchain-based technologies that stipulate for transparency and tokenization[1] of everything, are what will allow to switch to 21-century marketing at an affordable price. For instance, the blockchain explorer integrated with a VK group dedicated to a new organic product line of a famous brand, awarding game currency or beauty tokens to the most active blockchain users for purchasing and testing the products will allow to raise customer loyalty to the brand and the product. “For the beauty industry, the clients’ participation in changing their image is important, that’s why feedback with people providing the services is crucial,” says Alexey Nasonov, CEO Worldcore.
Client relationship management. For a modern company, it’s crucial to build a relationship with its existing clients in order to maintain the organic growth of the client base. Each one of us is willing to recommend a hair stylist we like or a spa salon to our friends and acquaintances. Various CRM systems are used to maintain a client information ledger, and they share the same universal disadvantage – they are aimed at being used on the service provider’s, rather than the client’s, side. Seeing truthful reviews of specialists’ work or quality of goods is only possible on independent aggregator websites, such as Tripadvisor or Amazon,and only in case when the product manufacturer hasn’t launched a White-PR campaign.
Blockchain changes the very approach to CRM. First of all, all the information in blockchain is accessible to everyone at any time. For instance, you can look up the work schedule, price list, receive a reminder of your beautician visit. Secondly, due to to the essentially non-destructibility of information recorded in the blockchain, you obtain an online customer feedback book, where the complaints can’t be erased, but only responded to in a reasonable manner. Thirdly, all information about the goods offered by the manufacturer, certificate of quality and origin, information on global promo campaigns and offers, as it enters the manufacturer’s blockchain will immediately enter the distributor’s blockchain, and then to the client. Such ease of content delivery will take transparency, product identification and gamification of the process of working with the client to a new, 21-century level.
“During the entire time of its existence, the beauty industry has been searching for ways to be liked by the clients, and the clients – to be liked by their partners. That’s why predominantly marketing, non-specific blockchain technologies will be used,” says Alexey Nasonov, summing up the Worldcore analytics’ report. “This is why technological breakthroughs stemming from technology integration.”
[1] Not merely the transfer of property rights to rights to digital assets, but the very process of evaluation of material and non-material assets.