Toronto-based Craves is allowing retailers to uniquely harness the power of online shopping with its new visual search engine. The fashion discovery app is hoping to entice retailers and shoppers alike to get on board with their new technology.
Launched in July, the app will generate matching or similar fashion items to an image uploaded by users. Once these results are produced, users have the option to buy the product directly from retailers.
Retailers can partner with Craves by becoming a part of their catalog. This means that their products become visible in search results and are available for direct purchase through the app.
“Craves is known to feature merchants and retailers that offer quality products from trusted retailers that offer great customer experiences,” said co-founder Scott Cormier. “Even if our users don’t recognize the name of the retailer, they’ll know they can trust that they’re in good hands by the nature of the partnership alone.”
Additionally, Cormier explains that partnering with the app gives retailers access to a growing, fashion-minded user base actively looking to purchase items they’re interested in.
Online shopping is a booming industry, and visual search engines like Craves are hoping to simplify the process. There is a substantial market for these apps, which can be attributed to the growing desire for consumer convenience.
“I think apps that address the end to end shopping experience in the most frictionless way will have an edge,” explains Cormier.
In the future, Craves is looking to expand past fashion and scale up the company to implement their technology into other uses.