The widespread adoption of mobile technology has changed how consumers purchase goods and services. An estimated 60% of the globe is connected online via their mobile phones, over 70% of which are smartphones. While the focus so far has mostly been in marketing and product sales and fulfillment, one cosmetics and personal care company is testing the possibilities afforded by our pocket computers to reimagine the shopping experience in-store.

Believing that innovation comes from our enormous environmental challenges, UK-based Lush Cosmetics tasked themselves with creating a waterless, signage and package-free shop. This came to a head while developing their Lush Harajuku bath bomb shop in Japan, and they decided this store would be their first location without any demos or signage indicating price and ingredients. Lush looked towards their tech R&D team (their “Tech Warriors”) to create digital solutions to accomplish this feat with their Lush Labs app. They developed a new feature called Lush Lens that lets customers identify and learn about a product by taking a photo of it.