the beauty and personal care bpc segment in india is valued at 26 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach usd 33 bn by 2027 growing at a cagr of 6 as an industry it is booming and has shown resilience during covid period as wellcompared to the fb category bpc products are not impulse category buy being a highinvolvement category with higher asp than foods acquiring new customers has always been challenging for bpc brands it is a category that takes significant effort and investment on awareness generation hence the key question that brands need to discover is what is the best strategy to induce trials what does it take to drive repeat purchases advt a blend of trials and repeatsa funnel view of the category reveals an interesting insight into what newer brands have done to enable a successful movement from consideration to repeat purchases how exactly has this shaped out and what can players in the segment learn from new age playersthe best strategy to induce trialsi one size fits allintroducing small packs has been a traditional trick in the bag to induce trials get consumers to buy small packs and gradually move them up the consumption ladder but many new age brands can be seen taking detours from this philosophy what is driving this decision for one d2c brands can be seen focusing on optimum sku depth to simplify product planning and operations second locking in consumers with large pack sizes helps induce loyalty and trust third the promise of delivering a product that works requires consumers to use the product over a longer durationii virtual reality for real demonstrationwhile the pandemic closed some doors it did open a few more unsafe instore makeup testers were replaced with new digital nocontact solutions with the help of ai and ar technology but why stop at testing today technology is dominating the entire consumer journey focused across parts of the marketing funnel including trialsexperiential shopping experiencear based apps make shopping engaging for consumers through a digital 360degree overlay or 3d rendition of what the product would look like thus replacing the need for a physical visit users can try on all kinds of products like lip colors hair colors nail paints et al without leaving the comfort of their homes advt personalized recommendationbrands are using large data sets to train algorithms to hyperpersonalize ai driven diagnostics can virtually identify common skin concerns such as wrinkles fine lines and create regimes based on individual consumers diagnostic each time a user uploads a photo such platforms can diagnose the skin and suggest recommended products meant especially for their skin typeiii conversational commercetechnology can play an important role in improving a brands ability to connect with consumers conversation commerce can enable this through chatbots messaging apps and voice assistance to assist a consumer through the buying journey the threefold benefit of conversational commerce includeenhance consumer experiencewith the advancing technological development the expectation of buyers for a personalized buying process