Over the span of three years, I partnered with SK-II to transform skincare shopping with the launch of Future X Smart Stores by SK-II: the skincare store of the future. In these concept stores, consumers could explore immersive, personalized mixed-media experiences that merged the virtual and physical to create a world that is neither analog nor digital, but something in between. The technology used included facial recognition, smart sensors, robotics, haptics, AR, and computer vision to provide hyper-personalized, next-generation skin-care counseling. These experiences helped consumers learn about their skin in a way never before possible, while simultaneously enabling seamless online purchasing. We collaborated with SK-II to develop a measurement strategy, and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data to determine success against business objectives and pre-defined KPIs. We leveraged shopper behavioral data including sentiment analysis to inform roadmap planning for future activations with each building upon the previous one with added layers of new technology and experiences.

We crafted end-to-end experiences, including concept and physical design of the space itself, content and tech development, industrial design and fabrication oversight as well as measurement and analytics. Components of the experience include:

• Art of You: An interactive art piece powered by machine learning that uses motion and emotion to create a unique work of art for every consumer.

• The Scan: An optimized installation of SK-II’s proprietary scan technology, innovating the experience to give users a personalized analysis of their skin that unlocks digital experiences in the store.

• Results Wall: A digital display embedded with facial recognition technology that immediately recognizes users and serves up personalized scan results alongside rich onscreen visualizations of her score. 

• The Beauty Bar: A makeup counter that wakes up with facial recognition and provides personalized product recommendations based on individual scan results.

• Retail Table: A digital interface that empowers customers to purchase the products they want by simply pointing at them. This gesture automatically adds their selections to a shopping cart, seamlessly bridging the gap between the physical and digital.

Following the initial installation in Tokyo, we launched three additional activations through the end of 2018, continuing to evolve and enhance the experience. The activation in China was locally adapted to reflect the market and included a collaboration with China’s e-commerce giant—JD.com—to invent a special bracelet which allows visitors to connect to their JD.com account and complete an order seamlessly. This experience brought over 15K shoppers to the Shanghai retail pop up, with visitors spending an average of 15 minutes in store and 95% of them engaged with stations. Visitors shared their experience, and the activation garnered 9K organic social media posts.

We again activated these experiences with fresh enhancements at a freestanding popup in Singapore’s busiest shopping district during the holiday shopping season. This time, we built and designed the entire building including exterior experiences to lure passers-by. We exhibited highlights from the 2018 Future X initiative at CES 2019, creating a tailored experience using modular pieces created for the Smart Future X Store.