Elizabeth Arden Launches Shoppable Virtual Store to Reach New Generation

Elizbeth Arden has launched a virtual store that enables browsing, gameplaying and shopping.

The Revlon-owned beauty brand created the metaverse shopping experience in partnership with experiential eCommerce platform Obsess and launched it Tuesday (May 16), Elizabeth Arden said in a Wednesday press release.

“We are truly operating as an omnichannel business to evolve our customer experience and engage a whole new generation of shoppers about our products and legacy through digital storytelling,” Revlon Global Chief Marketing Officer Martine Williamson said in the release.

PYMNTS research found that beauty products could be a tough sale online, as customers are used to experiencing the products in person. However, digital technology can bring the experience to consumers’ screens, according to the “Beauty and Wellness Digital Payments Tracker®,” a PYMNTS and American Express collaboration.

Elizabeth Arden’s new virtual store’s interactive features allow visitors to immerse themselves in historical photos that tell the story of the brand and its founder, play games and take quizzes to learn about skin care products and regimens, and collect tokens as they browse through the site to win a prize, according to the press release.

Visitors from the United States can also make purchases in the virtual store, the release said.

“We are honored to work with Elizabeth Arden to bring the brand’s cult products and inspiring heritage to life through an immersive virtual shopping experience for the first time,” Obsess founder and CEO Neha Singh said in the release. “This virtual store experience will delight the brand’s customers with one-of-a-kind interactive content and provide new ways for shoppers to discover, learn about and shop for Elizabeth Arden’s industry-leading skincare, makeup and fragrances.”

As both retailers and consumers seek out seamless experiences between online and stores, the traditional web page with a grid of photos and descriptions may no longer cut it, especially with younger consumers accustomed to interactive and visual experiences with social media and video games, Singh told PYMNTS in an interview posted in August 2021.

The solution is an augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) experience that allows shoppers to feel like they’re browsing in a store, Singh said at the time.

“A lot more people can experience this, even if they can’t be there in person,” Singh said. “It just basically increases the audience for your retail stores.”

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