L’Oréal, which is already a digital-first company, decided to be the pioneer, champion and leader of Beauty Tech in all its areas of application. Beauty Tech is the seamless fusion of beauty and cutting-edge technology, catalysing innovative changes in the beauty industry and elevating customer engagement thanks to unparalleled and enhanced beauty experiences. By building up state-of-the-art, secure IT, its leadership in Beauty Tech and its expertise in artificial intelligence and data will enable L’Oréal to be a data-driven company for all its activities and functions. The ongoing transformation of Operations towards greater agility is integral to the Group’s ambition to become a world leader in Beauty Tech.
Digital technology is fully integrated in the business, in all brands, jobs and countries. It is based on a solid network of almost 8,000 digital/tech/data experts, and a wealth of in‑house know-how. Digital has boosted L’Oréal’s strengths tenfold and represents a booster of opportunities and growth. It enhances the power of brands and products, enriches the connection with consumers and creates experiences, new services and personalisation.
Artificial intelligence is driving the Beauty Tech transformation in three main areas: deployment of strategic use cases, data governance, and the deployment of a global technological platform to consolidate the Group's data. Services and applications are developed in accordance with the Group's Responsible Framework for Trustworthy AI. Employees are coached in the use of artificial intelligence tools.
E-commerce is an additional source of business, and a growth accelerator because it means we can reach new consumers wherever there is no existing distribution network. The proportion of the Group’s net sales represented by e- commerce multiplied by nearly six between 2015 and 2024 (5% to 28%(1)), with growth in all Zones and Divisions. This means strengthening its industrial flexibility, adapting its supply chain in an "omnichannel" approach and redesigning the downstream value chain immediately.
Beauty Tech will ensure that beauty for all evolves into beauty for each. To achieve this, L’Oréal has a unique strength: being the only company that can combine 115 years of scientific beauty expertise and knowledge of our consumers with cutting-edge digital excellence.
The Group’s human and social project revolves around one vision: to offer its employees an inspiring, inclusive and innovative working environment, which places human beings at the heart of each of its decisions.
All across the globe, the working world has undergone profound changes as a result of the Covid-19 health crisis, particularly with remote working becoming more widespread, a phenomenon that employees now want in their everyday lives, as well as a key factor in the appeal of an employer. In this new "hybrid" working environment, L’Oréal has opted for balanced and flexible solutions between on-site and remote working to preserve and promote opportunities for exchange, cooperation and creativity. Since 2016, L’Oréal has rolled out the Simplicity programme, renewed in early 2023 (Simplicity 2), the aim of which is to transform ways of working to meet new expectations on the part of employees (fulfilment, dialogue, cross-functionality) while adapting to the performance requirements of a constantly changing world and also enabling them to devote time to what matters most.
Furthermore, in a context of accelerated digitalisation of consumption, production, distribution and communication methods, the Group anticipated the global impact these transformations will have on its structure by continuing to develop its employees’ skills in these areas, as well as by recruiting new expertise, particularly in the field of technology. Thanks to its various actions, L’Oréal is eighth in the worldwide ranking of most attractive employers to future business school graduates(2). This makes the Group the best- ranked company in Europe.
In spring 2020, L’Oréal launched an initiative entitled NEXT to simplify its structures with a view to a post-Covid world. This work involves simplifying the organisation by creating internal shared service centres and geographic areas, reviewing the brand portfolio of each Division on an annual basis, and finally, simplifying the number of products in each brand’s catalogue to reduce complex manufacturing and research.
The cosmetics market is driven by supply and innovation. L’Oréal’s success is fed by its permanent obsession for responsible innovation, which feeds into its performance in all its forms.
With more than 4,200 researchers and spending of approximately 3% of net sales, L’Oréal has the top R&I force in the cosmetics industry. This is indisputably a competitive edge, with a level of expertise and a wealth of unique scientific and technical data. The fundamental values that inspire the Group’s lab each day are the performance, efficiency, secure application and use of ingredients, the superior quality of the products and the sincerity of their claims.
