Luxury Retail 2.0 - From AR Mirrors for D&G to NFC Beauty Stickers and AI Influencers with FFFACE.ME Founder Dmytro Kornilov🤳🏼
Dmytro Kornilov shares how he built and scaled his tech company, the lessons learned from working with big luxury brands, and the magic glue that connects tech and culture.
Hello Tech Powered Luxury reader!
🎙️ This week, we’re diving deep into augmented reality (AR), magic mirrors, virtual-try-ons and phygital fashion with Dmytro Kornilov, founder of award-winning innovation company FFFACE.ME.
🌟 Are you new here? Welcome to our amazing community - keep reading to discover everything about Tech Powered Luxury, our Community Rewards and how this newsletter came to life.
💎 I’m Laoise O’Connell and I’m very excited to welcome you to this week’s edition!
👀 TL;DR
FFFACE.ME is leading the way in blending AR and retail by integrating AR mirrors, phygital clothes and virtual try-ons into offline and online shopping experience.
Dmytro shares how his introduction to AR wasn’t exactly love at first sight - but how, over time, he discovered its true potential and developed powerful use cases for the luxury fashion and beauty industries.
Dmytro emphasises the need to adapt marketing strategies to the cultural and psychological needs of the next generation, rather than chasing every new technology trend.
The main takeaway from this episode is that brands need to balance heritage with thoughtful innovation that add value, boost brand awareness, and drive sales.
💡 Our exclusive question:
Who’s your most unexpected mentor, and what did they teach you?
“I'm unsure if this is unexpected, but I learn from everyone daily. I’ve learned a lot from my grandfather, who taught me to be curious and to unleash creativity in any form I choose. My children mentor me to see the world without the limitations of adulthood. My wife teaches me to be strong, and God is my mentor, guiding me to cherish love in my heart.”
🛸 Fendi, Filters, and the Future: Dmytro’s Vision for AR and What Luxury Marketers Should Avoid
🎤 Dmytro’s journey into the AR world started as a product manager, experimenting with AR apps. But his real “aha” moment came when platforms like Snap democratized AR tools, making it easy for creators to design and distribute filters. (The OGs will remember our two incredible episodes with Snap’s Geoffrey Perez and Julie Bogaert).
From there, Dmytro launched his first business venture, a small agency creating Instagram filters for Ukrainian brands. It quickly took off, landing Pepsi as its first client (yes, first client!) and soon dominated the local market in Ukraine.
In 2022, the war in Ukraine forced FFFACE.ME to pivot and scale internationally, as 90% of its revenue had come from Ukrainian brands. Despite the challenges, the company thrived, collaborating with all of the top global brands we know and love, including Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana, Marc Jacobs and Prada.
Dmytro believes AR's real power lies in its ability to engage audiences, not just sell products. We are seeing a massive shift in brands' focus on connecting with their audiences, with many putting TikTok at the heart of their strategy. AR is perfectly positioned to enhance and amplify this approach, as it is highly audience-focused, interactive, and fosters participation and sharing.
🚀 Check out FFFACE.ME's viral ‘Fenty Beauty by Rihanna’ filter below and let us know, '"Which Riri Are You?"
While AR try-ons haven’t quite revolutionised e-commerce for fashion (the technology still struggles to capture the gravity, quality and fit of the fabric), it’s thriving in other areas. For beauty, AR solves a genuine pain point, allowing users to virtually test products and eliminating the hassle of applying and removing makeup, as seen by Sephora's success.
🎯 Brands need to approach technology with intention. Instead of jumping on trends like the Metaverse (which saw many brands overspend with minimal results), successful campaigns should start by identifying their core goals - whether it’s brand awareness, engagement, or sales conversion (I see all of you marketers nodding your head too all three!). It’s about creating value for the brand and for the audience.
"What I noticed is that a lot of brands and also creators focus on innovations, they focus on technologies, and when some new technology appears, they try to squeeze it into the marketing mix by any means.
What we should actually focus on is how the cultural context changes, how the behavior and psychological needs of the new generation are different from the previous generation, and we should adapt our marketing communication means to these changes.”
💡 The lesson? It’s not just about the technology - it’s about understanding why and how to use it. Tools like AR filters can be a game-changer, but only when applied with the audience’s needs and behaviors in mind.
Dmytro sees the future of AR in retail as a bridge between technology and culture. While AR try-ons might not replace traditional shopping, innovations like AI body scans could make the experience more personalised. For now, the focus should be on enhancing customer interactions, whether through engaging AR filters or creative in-store experiences with AR mirrors.
✨ Beyond technology, Dmytro is deeply passionate about the need to reshape education to better equip younger generations for the changes of the modern world. He questions the relevance of the education the next generation is receiving, observing little to no evolution over the past few decades, with kids still only learning about tools like Google Search!
So, what does the future of AR look like? Let’s be honest with ourselves: as Dmytro highlights, even the most tech-savvy marketers, eager to bring innovation to their brands, are we actually using AR filters to try on clothes?
"When we talk about technologies, fashion, and beauty—more specifically, the future of fashion and beauty—we need to consider what people are actually doing."
The key is to identify real use cases that solve genuine problems, deliver value, and transform the customer experience. Luckily, we've found the right person for the job! From AR mirrors to phygital clothing and beyond, FFFACE.ME is redefining the way we experience fashion and beauty.
And for those lucky enough to attend our event in Abu Dhabi next month—don’t miss out! We’ll be showcasing one of the AR mirrors, and we can’t wait!
🫶🏽 Our Partner This Season: Azure Communications
This season’s sponsor of the Tech Powered Luxury podcast is Azure Communications, and we’re thrilled to continue our partnership with them. For quite some time now, Azure has been our go-to provider for all things print and marketing. Whether it’s branded materials for our content, from print and direct mail to event invitations, they’ve been behind the scenes making it all happen.
If you’re looking for top-tier branded collateral, print services, or marketing support, we highly recommend checking them out.
You can visit them at www.azurecomm.ie or follow them on Instagram at @AzureCommunications.
📲 Technology and the Evolution of Luxury Brands
The way luxury brands engage with technology is undergoing a transformation, and Dmytro highlights these evolving dynamics.
Luxury brands evolved from craftsman to wholesaler, retailer, and eventually online retailer. Each transition came with challenges in maintaining close customer relationships. AR represents a new frontier in this evolution, allowing brands to merge online and offline experiences.
👗 Virtual try-ons, while popular, have not become a necessity for consumers. They are often considered a “nice-to-have” rather than a must-have, highlighting the importance of better use cases such as the retail-tainment solutions (businesses integrating engaging activities, events, or experiences into their retail spaces) like those provided by FFFACE.ME. These are better aligned with the evolving demands of luxury consumers.
🤳🏼 Many luxury brands are still experimenting with AR but not seeing a transformative impact. Many are innovating simply for the sake of innovation and so we are seeing more and more brands try AR once or twice without making it a regular part of their strategy. This suggests they don’t yet see a strong return on investment.
Luxury brands are still focused on "offer-driven" business models (creating products without asking consumers for input), which makes them less adept at adopting customer-centric technologies that deliver value in a personalised way.
As a result, they need to really focus on the question at hand: is this new innovation driving clear value for the consumer and for the brand, whether through increased engagement, sales conversion, or enhanced brand perception? The most successful brands will be those that manage to build on their heritage while innovating judiciously in a way that will add value, promote positive brand awareness and drive sales.
Have you had the chance to experience AR in-store yet? Let us know!
Thank you for reading.
Until next week,
Laoise 🖤
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💫 Who are we and what led us here today?
🎙️ Launched as a podcast on November 1st 2022 by Ashley McDonnell, Tech Powered Luxury has since nurtured a vibrant community of experts passionate about the evolving synergy between technology and luxury. We have reached over 20 million people through the podcast, social platforms and media, and have hit +500K downloads.
🪄 This season, our weekly newsletter will be curated by Laoise O’Connell, a luxury marketeer with experience in client relations and communications at fashion houses and global brands Chanel and Givenchy in Paris. Laoise has been a proud contributor to Tech Powered Luxury since Season 1 and we are excited to have her guide our content for the newsletter this season and look forward to the insights she will bring. 💎
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