Key Takeaways:
Artificial intelligence is starting to develop a new sense of smell.
The Estée Lauder Companies recently unveiled a new AI-powered digital tool called the Jo Malone London Scent Advisor, which allows online shoppers to ask questions or respond to pre-written prompts from the brand, and then guides them toward their ideal scent based on natural language responses. The tool uses Google’s Gemini and Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform to interpret shoppers’ preferences and pulls from Jo Malone London’s scent expertise, including human fragrance advisors, and consumer insights to make recommendations. It is only available as an online experience on jomalone.com and jomalone.co.uk.
“We heard repeatedly that shopping for fragrances online is challenging,” Shauna Suhadolnik, Director of Brand Experience and Education at Jo Malone London, told BeautyMatter. “People were nervous to purchase something so personal without smelling it first.”
Suhadolnik said that the new AI tool can help shoppers, especially first-time buyers, learn more about fragrances online and give them a more data-driven recommendation beyond prior technologies that would have relied on simple quizzes with multiple-choice questions. “We are entering a new era of digital scent discovery where AI can bridge the gap between curiosity and confidence,” said Jo Dancey, Global Brand President of Jo Malone London, in a statement.
Quick prompts including “birthday surprise for a friend” or “My new signature scent” can help guide shoppers to different scent discovery journeys. If a user were to click on “seasonal cologne for myself,” then pick for “winter” and “crisp and refreshing” scents, the Jo Malone London Scent Advisor will match those prompts with three scents, including Assam & Grapefruit at the high-end price of $228 and the more affordable Hinoki & Cedarwood for $26. Each match comes with background on the fragrance and a one-sentence explainer as to why the scent matches the shopper’s prompts.
Suhadolnik said that the AI insights aren’t just based on aroma preferences, but also incorporate the TED customer framework—which stands for “Tell, Explain, Describe”—which is utilized by in-store stylists today. Those professionals will ask shoppers questions that evoke an emotion, rather than having to require them to explain fragrances in expert terminology.
“When we’re talking about fragrance, what we’re doing is we’re leading that person through an emotional discovery to really tap into what that core memory is,” Suhadolnik told BeautyMatter. “Our scent advisor is a simulation of what you're going to get in one of our stores.”
Fragrance has been at the center of Estée Lauder‘s turnaround aspirations after a three-year drop in sales, with the category being the strongest growth driver for the beauty giant’s most-recent fiscal first-quarter results for the period ending September 30. Fragrance has been a tailwind for the overall beauty industry and is the most “dynamic” of the four beauty categories that consulting giant BCG tracks, with growth for scents at an accelerated pace above skincare, color, and haircare.
“There’s a huge consumer behavior today where they used to have one or two fragrances, and now, they combine a lot more and actually mix and match,” Pierre Dupreelle, Managing Director and Partner at BCG, told BeautyMatter. He said that American teens have been especially enthusiastic shoppers, spending $1.7 billion on fragrances each year.
Those younger shoppers, along with millennials, are looking to be the earliest adopters of using AI to shop and discover brands online.
“We needed to meet our clients exactly where they are,” said Suhadolnik. For Jo Malone London, AI represents yet another digital extension of the company’s physical stores and presence in major retailers like Sephora and Nordstrom, beyond what the brand has already achieved with online shopping and an increasingly more prominent presence on social media channels like TikTok.
“What if you find yourself outside of those environments? What if you’re new to fragrance and it’s a little intimidating for you?” asks Suhadolnik. “We’re giving you not only a great place to start your individualized journey, but rather than just using a static search bar, we’ve created something that’s deeply interactive, because it’s been trained on the language that Jo Malone London uses, as well as the global fragrance language that exists for master perfumers who are creating these scents.”
