Samplicity aims to make beauty samples enter new era

Since October 11, the samplicity.co platform offers its community cosmetic product samples for free (perfumes, face care products, makeup…). “We target a public interested in beauty and willing to test a perfume, a skincare product, a foundation… before making a quick purchase online,” explains Valérie Jacob, the start-up founder.

Samplicity aims to revolutionize the world of websites specialized in product testing. Far from deceptive e-mail pumps, the platform is designed to offer customers an integral medium for them to create a communication and sampling campaign and give value to direct consumer connection in a secure environment that guarantees brand image and preserves personal data.

Giving new meaning to sampling

“We know that for brands, the world in which their products are distributed is certainly not a trivial matter. The same should go for samples. So, we mainly aim to offer brands a new digital medium dedicated to beauty, where they can communicate with a community that is qualified in their worlds, tell a story about the product, add a tutorial, a video, and create a real experience when customers discover the sample, i.e. the product. We connect the sample with brands’ communication campaigns, whereas apart from press distribution, which is more massive, but anonymous, it was a bit neglected until now, due to the lack of an adequate solution,” explains Valérie Jacob.

Contrary to the solution retailers usually choose, you receive the sample before you make a purchase, so it plays its “testing” role more than its “gift” role. To Valérie Jacob, the idea is to “help brands regain control of sample distribution, as samples do represent a significant cost for them, both in the development and production phases.”

Emotion and traceability

If all studies converge in that they highlight the major role samples play as a means to make consumers buy cosmetics, too many brands struggle to control their distribution, not to mention their use.

Samplicity offers brands a comprehensive, customizable service, from digital campaign creation and management to sample shipment to the members, and from communication and SEO referencing to, of course, campaign return analyses.

But above all, Samplicity is intended to help their partners better understand consumer expectations and motivations. “Samples represent a gateway, a starting point to get to know consumers even better,” emphasizes Valérie Jacob.

Based on the data collected through website connections and product feedback from members, the platform’s sophisticated algorithms decipher consumers’ virtual and real-life behaviours and create a new segmentation based on emotions and motivations. One of the objectives is to go beyond generational communication, because it is too often ill-adapted to new consumption patterns. “The power of emotions is being rediscovered in all sectors. We designed Samplicity as a showcase to draw consumers’ emotional attention and make it possible for them to try beauty freely!” concludes Valérie Jacob.

Samplicity aims to develop in the UK soon and will offer selected profiles beta tests of new products in the long run.