Charlotte Tilbury unveils virtual holiday store experience with customisable avatars

Beauty label Charlotte Tilbury has introduced a new virtual shopping experience for the holiday season, developed alongside experiential e-commerce platform Obsess.

It comes as the platform launches its ‘Branded Avatars’ offer, allowing shoppers entering partner brands’ virtual stores to customise the avatar they will use to navigate through the space.

The feature has been incorporated into Charlotte Tilbury’s ‘Charlotte’s Beauty Realm holiday wonderland’, where shoppers can view a range of the brand’s products, as well as view seasonal campaigns and interactive experiences.

On entering the store, Obsess’ avatar selection box will be displayed, providing users with the option to personalise various elements of their avatar, including skin tone, facial features, makeup and clothing.

The new function also allows shoppers to explore the space and attend events together in real time with their friends’ avatars.

In a release, Neha Singh, founder and CEO of Obsess, said: “Innovative brands have been looking to incorporate more personalisation, gamification and social interactivity into their virtual store experiences to make shopping in these environments more engaging, social and fun—essentially more like shopping in real life.

“We’re thrilled to launch this industry-first innovation and to push avatar technology forward for all consumers outside of gaming environments.

"Our platform now enables brands to create their own custom metaverse on their site—where both the environment and avatar style match the brand’s look-and-feel—to give consumers an unforgettable shopping experience.”