Amazon is opening a beauty salon in London

Amazon is opening a hair salon in London – its latest oddity in new businesses as the epidemic continues to fuel the huge growth of e-commerce.

Amazon Salon, Unveiled at Tuesday’s blog post, Will occupy a two-storey, 1,500-square-foot space in Spitalfields, a fashionable neighborhood in east London that is also home to Amazon’s UK headquarters, which has around 5,000 employees.

In fact, the new salon, which will be open seven days a week, will initially cater only to Amazon workers. Members of the company say that in the “coming weeks” booking, email or going to the salon will be able to make the booking.

“It will be an experiential venue where we showcase new products and technology,” Amazon said in a blog post on Tuesday.

This includes making Amazon’s Fire tablets available at each station, which allows customers to use augmented reality technology to see what they look like with a platinum blonde, brunette, or highlight, the company said.

The salon will also test new “point-and-learn” technology, where customers can point to a product they are interested in on the display shelf and relevant information, including brand video and educational content, will appear on the display screen .

“We designed this salon for customers and experienced some of the best technology, hair care products and stylists in the industry,” Amazon’s UK country manager, John Bomphrey, said in a statement. “We want this unique location 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.”

Amazon tapped Elena Lavagni of Neville Hair & Beauty Salon – a 20-year veteran of the London beauty scene who has provided hair services to oversee beauty services at new salons for Paris Fashion Week and the Cannes Film Festival.

It will be open to the general public in the coming weeks – and comes on the heels of Amazon Professional Beauty, a store aimed at stylists in the UK.

Amazon is rolling out its augmented reality chops with this salon, said Wesbush analyst Dan Ives, who sees the initiative as an opportunity for Amazon to showcase its technology.

“Tech giants Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Google are all battling for consumer mind share on their AR / VR vision,” he said.