Cosmetics in a Capsule: Will vending machines catch on Japan with PRENO’s new purchasing experiences?
Cosmetics vending machines have come to be found across various regions around the world, acting as a sales promotion and marketing tool for big-name brands and, especially, Chinese brands. Japanese beauty startup PRENO has developed its cosmetics vending machine with the built-in OS, and it’s set to usher in all-new ways to purchase cosmetics.
PRENO Inc. has developed its own cosmetics vending machine, also named “PRENO”. Development was based on the concepts of giving users “the smallest cosmetics store in the world” and allowing brands to “interweave users’ experiences with OMO (Online Merges with Offline)”.
A conference to announce the product’s launch was scheduled for April 15 but was canceled due to COVID-19. Currently, PRENO is talking with multiplex shopping spaces, sports gym chains, major brands, and real estate development companies, and in the initial stages will be releasing vending machines with a product lineup that mainly features a selection of South Korean cosmetics.
The reason why the company became interested in vending machines in the first place was the “rise of the client’s needs”, says PRENO Inc. CEO Yoshiaki Koinuma.
Although they develop their own cosmetics brands, PRENO’s main business is acquiring licenses for cosmetics lineups from overseas and cosmetics by apparel brands and handling their coordination, manufacturing, and sales in Japan. In doing this, they’ve keenly discovered the limitations of real brick-and-mortar stores as sales channels, with the intense competition to get on stores’ shelves, and that experiences that lead customers to make a purchase are very important. Koinuma says he “wanted to create a structure and ecosystem that their industrial relations and users could get excited about and so decided to simultaneously develop business for vending machines that only sold cosmetics.”
PRENO makes a clear distinction between their vending machines and traditional vending machines in Japan, where dummy products are arranged on display inside the machine. With PRENO, selecting products and paying for them are all done via a large touch screen, and the machines themselves appear like a giant smartphone or tablet attached to a vending machine. Multiple purchases and selections are also possible, similar to online shopping.
One vending machine can hold around 400 products, and they can also be refrigerated or kept frozen inside. Payment is also entirely cashless, with popular options in Japan PayPay and LINE Pay supported, as well as around 15 other QR payment services from overseas, including WeChat Pay.
A high-definition camera is also installed and is anticipated to be used in the future for collecting a variety of data on users for analysis. This could be a user’s physique, style, amount of interest, and behavior, and would contribute to improving product development and user targeting.
Heat mapping can also be applied at the backend, which can help visualize in real-time such factors as what products are selling and how much and which are drawing interest. The positioning and layout of products shown on the touch screen can also be easily modified based on that data. The PRENO machine, as a whole, is more akin to an IoT vending machine system.
As well as selling products, PRENO shines in its variety of other uses. These include taking samples, surveys, and even streaming ads.
Koinuma hints at the device’s potential uses in PR and research: “We can have users answer surveys with an associated app and if they scan in a QR code they get afterward, they can receive a sample. Technically 100% of surveys can be collected back. The touch screen can also be used as digital signage, allowing us to build an ad revenue model to complement the vending machine’s regular functions.”
PRENO is currently planning two revenue models. One is a revenue-sharing model where a machine is set up in a client’s space and the profits are split. The other is a model where machines are leased or sold to space-owning clients (from US$32,700).
These ‘owners’ or adopting companies to whom the machines will be leased or sold to are expected to include not only department stores and shopping malls, but also property owners, retail stores, and even individuals, such as influencers.
For the time being, PRENO plans for the several dozens of vending machines they currently own to specialize in South Korean cosmetics and for them to be operated in shop spaces of partnering brands and be monetized through ad revenue.
Koinuma says that they’re “already discussing with brands about usages where the brand ‘hijacks’ a permanent space, setting up a vending machine instead of a popup store. For example, we could show ads at a 24-hour sports gym over many hours and sell other goods that customers need besides cosmetics. We’re also thinking about showing video ads or other content across several PRENO vending machines that are connected together, which could be effective in promoting goods by artists or famous people in a unique way.”
Koinuma also revealed that they’re currently in discussions to install the machines in an unmanned airport in Malaysia.
Although physical stores in areas that have experienced COVID-19 may remain conscious of person-to-person contact even after the virus goes away, nevertheless a trend is anticipated where stores will conjure richer shopping experiences for visitors. OMO experiences created through these vending machines could possibly provide hints for that development.
Text: Ching Li Tor
Original text (Japanese): Jonggi HA
