Will Robots Rejuvenate or Smear Beauty Retailing?

Robots able to apply beauty treatments are arriving at retailers, leading to some speculation about the threats and opportunities they may offer to beauty retailers and the salon space.

Among the experiments at retail:

• Ulta Beauty last fall began testing a manicure robot from 10Beauty that can tackle five core procedures — removing nail polish, filing and shaping nails, brushing away the cuticles, applying new polish, and drying the final product — in 25 to 45 minutes.
• Nordstrom and Ulta last year began testing a robot from LUUM that applies lashes to both eyes simultaneously, with a promise to reduce a full-set appointment to just 33 minutes, — nearly one-third the time of traditional manual methods.
• Walmart has been piloting a paint-mixing robot from Blank Beauty that enables shoppers to upload a photo of a color and have the robot match it in nail polish. The robot is able to create 40,000 shades of nail polish using less than four square feet of space.

Robots are also undergoing development that can see them apply make-up, and lipstick in particular.

Tech-Driven Job Losses in Beauty Retail: Overblown or No?

Many recent articles in the fashion space have focused on the job threats robots may place on technicians providing beauty treatments, as well as whether women will be comfortable enough to receive such services from a robot.

As far as job threats, execs representing beauty robotics companies told Business of Fashion that about half of those trying their robots are customers who don’t regularly get such services — or never have — implying robots will open up a broader revenue opportunity.

Mimicking the broader argument over automation within retail writ large, the robots can also focus on tasks that are repetitive, or those tasks causing musculoskeletal injuries, while allowing  technicians to focus on more intricate work.

At least in the near-term, techs will be standing nearby to guide customers on how to engage with the robots — as well as sanitize the machines and address any mistakes the robots make as they’re fine-tuned. Alexander Shashou, co-CEO of 10Beauty, told WWD, “For most customers, this will be their first time interacting with an autonomous robot — the purpose of the nail tech will be to educate people on what’s happening, make sure they’re comfortable and help them customize the manicure.”

Shashou expects his robots will eventually not require techs, as he hopes to expand 10Beauty’s robots to hotels, airports, and homes.

Customers Expected To Eventually Embrace Beauty Robots

As far as comfort, customers are expected to continually embrace robots providing such services because of the value they provide, with robots also being developed that can manage haircuts, massages, and tattoos. According to Gartner, 90% of humans will engage with smart robots on a daily basis by 2030 (up from less than 10% today) due to rapid advancements in robot intelligence, social interaction capabilities, and human augmentation.

Beyond any technical advantages robots may add to beauty applications, time savings may incentivize some customers to try beauty robots. Speaking on the test of lash-applying robots of at its Manhattan flagship and two California locations, Autumne West, Nordrom’s national beauty director, told BeautyMatter, “Lashes are a key part of many of our customers’ beauty routines, but it’s also a service that is time-intensive.”

The robots may also address labor shortages at beauty counters and salons while lowering costs for such services for consumers. A recent Harvard Business School working paper found that amid concerns over AI-driven job losses, “people say they are willing to let machines take over many tasks, and entire occupations, especially if AI can do the work better, faster, and cheaper.”