L’Oreal Steps Into Conversational Marketing Through Facebook Messenger By Partnering With Automat

L’Oreal’s digital initiatives are one of its biggest strengths. By now, we are aware of how L’Oreal is the biggest beauty spender in the digital media and how L’Oreal is always on the forefront when it comes to innovative offerings in the beauty arena. In its recently held first quarter sales meeting, L’Oreal’s chief revealed that the company witnessed a 27% y-o-y growth in its digital sales in the quarter with digital sales accounting for 6.8% of the total sales. As a part of its recent digital launch, L’Oreal, along with Automat, an artificial intelligence company, has announced the upcoming launch of several of its beauty services through Facebook’s Messenger application. We believe this conversational marketing approach to provide customized services to its shoppers will help L’Oreal in further attracting beauty users on its platforms. Canada will be the first country to witness the launch of such an initiative with a gifting service bot called Beauty Gifter. This bot will help beauty shoppers find the right type of beauty box (with the right products and brands at suitable price ranges) for their friends by asking questions on the friend’s beauty profile.

The use of artificial intelligence to build a customized relationship with its buyers does seem like a uniquely attractive idea to engage  more beauty buyers. This new conversational marketing initiative is being spearheaded by Automat. L’Oreal, a company that continually tries to connect to customers, be it through its Beauty Squad or its digital hairbrush, felt this was yet another interesting way to draw more shoppers to its platform. In order to further build on its partnership with Automat, L’Oreal is about to open a new AI center for excellence in Montreal.

It is noteworthy to mention that L’Oreal has a good history of associating with startups. Its partnership with Founders Factory last year to support and build startups has recently seen progress with the selection of five startups to further help them with their growth. These include companies helping businesses with social media reach and online campaigns, to companies selling customized skincare and nail art. L’Oreal’s own digital initiatives and innovative product pipeline might receive a boost as a result of these investments and partnerships.

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