Fashion apps Pinterize the real world to drive in-store sales

Fashionistas looking online-inspired clothing styles and options to buy more than they ever run out. But some new fashion-focused startups are beginning to use Pinterest as mobile platforms to increase sales offline.

Swirl, a mobile platform that started the stealth mode, on Monday, giving buyers a photo-heavy, social environment, not just about clothes and accessories that fit their style to be found, but are in their immediate vicinity and are sold could. Pulled the Boston-based startup that $ 6 million from Softbank, General Catalyst Partners and other investors on himself, has partnered with over 200 major retailers at 30,000 stores across the country.

As with other platforms such as fantasy and Pinterest, allows users to Swirl "clip" (or record) items, and share them with friends. But there are also users with one-click access to nearby places that sell the product. And while the app was filled with more than 100,000 items and accessories from major retail chains already, the company said that in the future, it can stores and other businesses and products to users of photographs, add "You see, while browsing to added to the database.

As a buyer, use the platform that meets the recommended application of the clothes and brands, and all along the line, Swirl could go beyond fashion to home decor and other lifestyle merchandise stores, the company said.

"It has just amazed that 15 years after the invention of e-commerce and m-commerce, it is still less than 10 percent of the volume of retail sales," said Hilmi Ozguc, founder and CEO of Swirl.

Despite the boom in online shopping, he said, 93 percent of fashion items and accessories are sold in shops. So instead of joining the herd of mode applications and Web sites trying to develop e-commerce sales with Flash, the correction for the user, in person, or testing of subscription models, Swirl see an opportunity to use the smartphone as a vehicle learn the knowledge of consumers and direct purchasers in locations where they can access objects and try to make a purchase.

Snapette allows users to purchase products for people they like to point

Snapette in New York, in August last year, when my colleague Ryan Kim launched base called "Pinterest for the real world," reads one line of a dissertation. First, the user of the application photo and download images of products that they spotted in the wild, to find other users, objects in the vicinity. In June, he updated his proposal that local companies and brands to consumers about the products that they want to alert. Users can still browse to the application and are committed to participate in social activities related to the elements, but makes us can push notifications to users in the vicinity of the recommended products or special offers and discounts. (The counter app posts and filters to ensure that consumers are not overwhelmed and frustrated.)

Similarly, tracking mobile phone zoom Ingo help sales of more than 70,000 local shops, as well as the most popular items on Pinterest consumers to discover and locate products near that fit their styles. Through the application, users can follow other members, you will find the items and products up or down vote. If you get something to buy what they want to find, they can buy through the website or to get to sell the location of the nearest store to a single click. Users can also set alerts to receive when the items they have to remember to Pinterest sale.

Shoptiques, a New York resident and Y Combinator-backed startup that launched earlier this year, will focus primarily on the online shop local shopping experience, and he did not share as much as a priority Pinterest. But, said CEO and founder Olga Vidisheva a mobile application to generate store traffic is on its roadmap.

Foursquare applications extend the buying behavior Yelp

Foursquare and Yelp are conditioning consumers already use their phones as local guides for restaurants and attractions, it is logical that the emerging startups to try to extend this behavior to a fashion category, in which people often want a tactile experience before a final decision. And given the fact, as can be social and visual mode, it is logical that those who are mobile applications Pinterest type environments. This wave of applications is also ideal for spontaneous purchases - traditional commerce sites are great for potential future purchases, but we sometimes need a quick recommendation for a bite to eat, we must sometimes take minutes to help a pair of black ballet shoes.

But if the connection online to offline is a step in the right direction, a potential pitfall could be an over-reliance on the content and brand-seed distributor. It is understandable that these applications are of this kind of inventory - it is much easier to know which elements are present when the record notes in the database. But much of what makes Pinterest and other similar sites such success is the authenticity and the knowledge that users - not registered - are behind the proxy. Consumers can safely interact with the content organized and partly on platforms such as swirl and Snapette, but when applications start to feel, too commercial and the brand-oriented, buyers feel less inclined to get involved and, ultimately, you can buy.

With that in mind, says Peter Chun, CEO and founder of the fashion swag app, app layers in his trade, he agnostic about whether this behavior to promote online or offline. The two months ago, allowed to photograph people and swag to give her clothing label with appropriate markings to show the fashion-savvy users a place, their own style, while driving inspiration and choice of the other mode. Users can enjoy photos on social networks and track members, to whose style it. As he grows, he says, is to drive consumers into the stores a likely possibility, but the most important component is to retain the context created by the user.

"The source of inspiration can be a major driver of the trade may be placed, if they have the option of purchasing online or offline," he said. "As consumers have discovered the object triggers the impulse to buy."