The ongoing pandemic has forced many fashion brands to reassess how to reach customers during difficult times to avoid drastic losses. Brands like ZARA, Burberry, Adidas, and Gucci have launched AR apps to help customers have a contactless shopping experience. Joining the trend is one of the world’s widely known makeup and fragrance companies, Coty. Recently, the company announced its digitally-enabled Coty’s touch-less fragrance testers for a contactless perfume sampling. 

Coty’s touchless fragrance testers will dispense a drop of perfume on the customer’s arm or a bottler so the customers can experience the true essence of the fragrance. Unlike traditional perfume testing, with these touch-less testers, no perfume is wasted as it is delivered directly onto the customer’s skin rather than the air. The process also improves customer’s experience with perfume testing.

Coty worked with Êverie, a French beauty-tech startup that is known for its smart devices, diffusion technologies, and microdosing. The device does not require any charging for weeks and works seamlessly with all of Coty’s fragrance testers. This is one of the world’s first sustainable and easy-to-maintain fragrance testing devices that the company hopes to launch in Key European markets this month. The planned trial for Asia is in the works.

Coty’s current portfolio includes brands like Chloe, Burberry, Gucci, Marc Jacobs, and Calvin Klien. The touch-less testers will be rolled out for all of Coty’s portfolio brands, and will hopefully help the company win back sales it lost during the pandemic. The new device will be ready to use at Coty’s retailers within the next 12 months.

The company’s Vice President of Retail Experience issued a statement about the perfume-tester launch saying:

“Coty’s touch-less fragrance testers are a breakthrough innovation developed in partnership with Êverie. With the return of in-person shopping, the health and safety of our consumers are always at the forefront of our minds. Deploying a single drop of liquid to the skin with the same restitution as traditional testers, this new technology eliminates unnecessary waste and offers a safe, contact-free alternative for testing.”

The future with digitally-enabled retail 

According to a study, over 78% of shoppers have switched to contactless payment methods [source]. Research conducted by Mckinsey shows an increase in frictionless shopping experiences where customers need to find what they are looking for quickly. With H&M’s smart mirrors, Sephora’s 3D AR mirror, L’Oréal ’s Style My Hair App, and now Coty’s digital-enabled perfume testers, we are quickly moving to a contactless shopping experience.