Alibaba voice-powered makeup mirror, Tmall Genie Queen has launched on Tmall following its debut at Alibaba’s annual Tmall Beauty Awards in March.
The Tmall Genie Queen responds to voice commands to offer consumers beauty tips, beauty-routine reminders and branded content. It aims to promote beauty branded goods of La Roche-Posay, Kérastase, Sisley and Johnson & Johnson. This means that as shoppers will be applying their makeup, the mirror will make skin assessment and suggest the brands’ product based on consumers’ skin condition – serving a good sales gimmick to upsell products. Shoppers can also adjust the mirror’s brightness to recreate the effect of the dimly lit party environments or natural sunlight for various makeup looks.
The mirror, which comes at ¥1080 (£7.50) is powered by a voice-assistant akin to Alibaba’s smart-speaker Tmall Genie.
The launch follows the rise of male grooming in China. A generation of young Chinese men has increasingly begun embracing daily makeup routines. In the past, this has been considered a women’s approach. Now, it’s seen as norm with consumers associating the practice with ‘clean,’ ‘refreshing’ and ‘delicate’ ways to look after yourself. This presents more opportunities for merchants specialising in beauty products as the market is slowly expanding to attract a larger pool of consumers.
Alibaba also launched a new product called Tmall Genie CC. It has a seven-inch, built-in monitor offering video content from popular Chinese streaming platforms, such as Youku, Bilibili and Mango TV. The Tmall Genie CC and also functions as a landline for users to make and receive phone and video calls via voice control.
Alibaba also debuted an in-vehicle smart speaker created in collaboration with Amap, Alibaba Group’s navigation-solutions provider. Designed to fit inside a cup holder, the speaker is integrated with the car’s “infotainment” system. Users can pair it with a dashcam for more-refined directions, powered by augmented-reality technologies, such as seeing real-life road images on the dashboard screen with clear, visual reminders on when to make a turn or change lanes.