China – Burberry has launched a social retail shopping concept in Shenzhen, developed in collaboration with WeChat.

The phygital experiment integrates gaming, social media and e-commerce into a bricks-and-mortar environment. Combined for use in the physical store space, these elements allow customers to book fitting rooms, virtually pre-select clothes to try on, and make appointments with stylists.

To encourage engagement, the WeChat program also includes a rewards system based on use and visits to the store, which earns users social currency to unlock content such as custom Burberry outfits for their digital avatars.

‘Social media is an increasingly important part of the customer journey and the interaction between social media and physical surroundings is ever more seamless,’ explains Mark Morris, senior vice president of digital at Burberry. ‘Our social retail store in Shenzhen is our response to this. It is a space where the social and physical worlds merge, taking interactions from social media and bringing them into the physical retail environment.’

Retailers are increasingly digitising physical stores to create more seamless, curated and often playful connections with customers.

Margate, UK – The beauty and wellness brand has launched zero-waste eye masks that are grown to order.

The formula for the Bio Restore Membrane eye masks is derived from the ocean to help plump and hydrate the skin surface around the eyes. To create the product, Haeckels cultivates agar in-house, extracting this from the cell walls of seaweed to make the membrane’s material.

Once ordered, the agar is grown over three weeks and infused with aloe vera, hyaluronic acid, witch hazel and cucumber – a process that customers can track via weekly email updates from the team. Once grown and cut to shape, customers add water to the eye masks at home to activate the ingredients, placing them under each eye for a 10-minute treatment. The result is an entirely compostable, zero-waste product that naturally biodegrades.

With the beauty industry increasingly scrutinised for wasteful packaging and production methods, brands such as Haeckels show how the tenets of Bio-positive Beauty can be implemented across company strategies.

The majority of Americans are not only seeing the impacts of climate change on their own communities but believe the federal government could do more in its efforts to reduce these environmental impacts, according to a new study by Pew Research Center.

The analysis found that about two-thirds (65%) of American people say the federal government is doing too little to reduce the effects of climate change, which 60% believe is a major threat to the collective wellbeing of the US – the highest share in any Pew Research survey dating back to 2009.

According to the study, Americans are particularly passionate about green energy, with 79% stating that the priority for the country’s energy supply should be developing alternative sources, such as wind and solar.

With US citizens demanding that institutions take action to address the climate emergency, one way brands can step up is by investing in the Renewable Energy Market.