Flipkart rolls out Virtual Try-On feature for beauty products

Flipkart, India’s homegrown e-commerce marketplace, today announced a beauty extension to its augmented reality-led feature on the app - Virtual Try-On. It enables users to virtually try on beauty products such as lipstick, foundation, eyeshadow, kajal, eyeliner, compact, concealer, highlighter, blush and mascara from leading brands including Lakmé, Maybelline, Blue Heaven, Faces Canada and L'Oréal Paris. This new update is poised to play a pivotal role in creating unique immersive experiences for customers and helping them make informed purchases. 

The presence of product visualization is an important factor in enhancing a customer’s online shopping experience, especially in the beauty category. Customers can find the ‘Try On’ feature on the product page at the bottom right corner of the image gallery. After enabling the camera and gallery access, users can opt for a ‘Live’ Try-On or by uploading a selfie to see how a product would look on them virtually, as well as save the image to share across other apps.

While testing out the Virtual Try-On experience for Beauty products across a couple of brands as a pilot, Flipkart observed an increase in conversion with consumers who tried on the make-up virtually on the product page in comparison to those who did not.

Commenting on the launch, Kanchan Mishra, Senior Director, Consumables (FMCG), General Merchandise and Home, Flipkart, said, “The e-commerce landscape in India is changing rapidly with millions of new customers from all geographies looking for richer and customized experiences online. At Flipkart, we aim at being at the forefront in bringing technology-led solutions to our burgeoning registered customer base of 400 million across the country. We are proud to expand our augmented reality(AR)-enabled feature to a category such as beauty, where there are nuanced product differences that customers are acquainted with purchasing offline. This feature will herald a new era for online makeup shoppers enabling easy access to leading brands while driving growth for lakhs of our sellers.”

"Our goal at Flipkart is to ensure that all customers, including those across the farthest reaches of India, have a shopping experience that helps them take the leap from offline to online with confidence. The Virtual Beauty Try-On is one such experience designed and developed by the Flipkart Camera team, part of Flipkart Labs. At Flipkart Labs, we will continue to leverage new technologies and deliver innovations that will enrich the shopping experience for all of our customers," said Naren Ravula, VP of Product Strategy & Deployment BU, which houses Flipkart Labs.

Try On Make-up Products on the Flipkart app by Scanning the QR

Snapshots of the Virtual Try-On feature on the Flipkart App

Flipkart connected with hundreds of beauty shoppers of various age groups from a mix of cities, including metros and tier 2 towns, to understand their challenges and requirements for an enhanced online shopping experience. The insights revealed that there was a significant drop in purchases due to missing shopping assistance tools and a section of shoppers who also conveyed the need to try on a product before purchase. Flipkart expanded the Virtual Try-On feature to beauty, keeping in mind these insights from the survey.