Amazon is launching its first high-tech hair salon, as the online retailer makes a surprise move into the beauty sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The salon, in Spitalfields, east London, will have an augmented-reality mirror showing clients different colours and styles before treatments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The venue will also have magazines loaded on to tablets, for browsing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Traditional services including cuts, blow-dries and colour treatments will also be available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will be staffed by hairdressers from independent London salon Neville Hair & Beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Customers will also be able to scan QR codes for hair products and buy them through Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amazon staff will be the first to test the salon, with it opening up to the public \u201cin the coming weeks\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have designed this salon for customers to come and experience some of the best technology, haircare products and stylists in the industry,\u201d UK manager at Amazon John Boumphrey said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe want this unique venue to bring us one step closer to customers and it will be a place where we can collaborate with the industry and test new technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amazon said the venture was “experimental” salon and it had no current plans to expand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Jan Mercan, who runs Hair Therapy in Blackfen, south-east London, said the move could damage small independent salons like hers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Amazon should stick to their online shopping trade,” she told the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Salons have been struggling over the past year and Amazon has made a lot of money in lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It shouldn’t be about faceless technology – getting your hair done is about human interaction.”The news follows the launch of three Amazon Fresh shops in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amazon Fresh customers scan a smartphone app when entering and their purchases are automatically detected by cameras in the shop and billed to their Amazon account as they leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, in the US, Amazon has expanded its palm-scanning payment system to a Whole Foods supermarket in Seattle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The technology is already in use in some of Amazon\u2019s own shops in America – and the company hopes to expand its scanner to other retailers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amazon is launching its first high-tech hair salon, as the online retailer makes a surprise move into the beauty sector. The salon, in Spitalfields, east London, will have an augmented-reality mirror showing clients different colours and styles before treatments. The venue will also have magazines loaded on to tablets, for browsing. Traditional services including cuts, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n