When it comes to fashion, apps and technology have made life a lot easier. Rather than spending an entire weekend shopping at the mall, we can now get instant gratification whether it's a personal stylist at our fingertips or an on-demand sale alert so we never have to pay full price again. We rounded up the best 12 fashion apps and style services that are reinventing how consumers are shopping.
1. The Hunt The Hunt is a community powered mobile app that is transforming the way that people shop online by empowering peers to suggest products for each other thus tapping into the personal shopper inside all of us and creating a positive community centered on fashion and individual style. Unlike similar apps, The Hunt does not use image recognition technology to solve users searches instead relying on the community to work with each other and find items. People interact on The Hunt by posting a photo of an item that they’re looking for, along with specific requirements such as budget and size. The Hunt community uses their shopping prowess to suggest products for one another that meet the Hunt criteria. Nowhere else can you get a customized experience quite like this where like minded peers help you search for and find the items you want at the prices and sizes you need. The Hunt also has a great verified program for celebrities, tastemakers and influencers including the likes of Kylie Jenner, Kat Graham, Madison Pettis, Madison Beer and Christina Milian as well as YouTube influencers like Amanda Steele and model Tanner Zagarino.
Tim Weingarten, co-founder and CEO of The Hunt, said the following about future plans for the app:
We are constantly improving our user experience and making The Hunt app even more enjoyable and fulfilling. We are also extremely excited to have launched our Android app which was built with an entirely new design in order to ensure our entire community can get the look they want at the price and fit they need.
2. LIKEtoKNOW.it LIKEtoKNOW.it is a service that allows Instagram users to 'like' photos captioned with www.liketk.itlinks, triggering an email to their inbox with the ‘liked’ photo and its associated ready-to-shop product description and details. LIKEtoKNOW.it empowers Instagram's most popular content creators to provide a personalized styling service to their followers by encoding their Instagram photos with global shopping information. LIKEtoKNOW.it is a service that lives within the Instagram app, leveraging the platform's most used engagement tool, the 'like,' and extending this engagement to the user's inbox and then onto the web. This service not only benefits consumers by giving followers the access to purchase at their source of inspiration, it also benefits the content creators themselves. By providing real-time proprietary engagement analytics, LIKEtoKNOW.it allows premium online publishers to learn what their audience truly responds to, by exposing the relationship between retail sales and Instagram content. In turn, delivering an even better outfit (or selfie!) the next time.
Imagery is the new currency and LIKEtoKNOW.it activated photos are the most valuable kind of image as they never lose its associated product information, as assigned by the creator themselves. LIKEtoKNOW.it was built by a content creator, for content creators. It was the first service of its kind and the LIKEtoKNOW.it team values continued innovation, creativity and excellence. In 2015, the team will introduce new products into the market that will continue to change and shape the digital industry.
3. Keep Keep is revolutionizing the way stylish women discover and shop for trending products across the entire web. Keep's never-been-done-before web-wide shopping cart opens the floodgates of mobile commerce by making it possible for shoppers to buy any product from any store, anywhere, in one seamless and delightful checkout experience: the Keep One Cart.
When Dria Murphy, Style and Communications Director of Keep, was asked about future plans for the app she said:
The future is here! Keep is ready for Holiday ’14, with programs in place to insure that shoppers need no other app than Keep for all their holiday shopping. Exclusive offers with 40+ retailers, Cyber Monday Marathon programming, Implementation of
Apple Pay and more!
4. Pose Pose’s free apps and website allow users to celebrate and shop unique style with a global fashion community. Pose is the only app or website where content and commerce live side-by-side. Home to millions of outfits that have been shared by fashion influencers from around the world, Pose allows women to browse endless fashion inspiration and then to shop their favorite looks through an exclusive peer-to-peer marketplace.
Alisa Gould-Simon, co-founder and co-CEO of Pose, revealed future plans for the app when she said:
We are a mobile-first company so we are always improving our mobile apps with updates like the recent addition of Apple Pay to Pose's iOS apps and
5. Lyst The world of fashion - Lyst partners with the greatest brands and stores to provide shoppers with a personalized way to discover the fashion they love. Lyst offers a bespoke way to browse and shop the world of fashion in one place. Aggregating millions of products from thousands of brands including Barneys, Net-A-Porter, Saks and Selfridges to Alexander McQueen, Burberry, J.Crew and Balenciaga, we then use technology to add a layer of personalization and discovery. By being obsessive about our deep data integration, we ensure our shoppers have the optimal experience with real time stock and price information on the products they want. Lyst launched fashion's first universal shopping cart in the US last year, enabling shoppers to purchase products from multiple retailers in one step on Lyst. This will be launched internationally later this month.
Joanna Christie, Head of Brand and Communications at LYST, said the following about future plans for the app:
We are really excited about the wealth of opportunity for tech innovation in fashion and being at the forefront of it. Specific focuses will be distributive commerce - where we will power fashion commerce for other parties such as social sites or publishers - and the blending of off and online shopping. It is clear the customer will buy fashion on and offline but not clear where the balance will be. By blending the two, specifically with the potential of beacon technology on mobile devices, it will become one experience on Lyst.
6. Tradesy Tradesy is the world's largest buy-and-sell marketplace for authenticated designer fashion. Tradesy is making is simpler and safer than ever before to sell your underutilized fashion, and use your earnings to buy something new and fabulous for up to 90% off. It's free and easy to list unlimited items for sale, and sellers pay a low 9% commission. Tradesy also fully manages the shipping process, sending sellers a prepaid and pre-addressed shipping kit, so you don't even need to leave the house to ship. For buyers, Tradesy offers a friendly return policy and a 100% authenticity guarantee.
When asked about future plans for the app, CEO of Tradesy, Tracy DiNunizo, said:
We plan to make Tradesy a household name in the next 2-3 years, and to make resale a vital component of commerce in general. Tradesy is putting money back into consumers' pockets, and space back into their closets...and who couldn't use that?
7. Whisp Whisp is a messaging app for fashion shoppers. Why should you be able to talk to your friends while shopping in-store, but not have the same experience when you shop online? Whisp solves this problem. Whisp is the first product built at the intersection of private messaging and online shopping. Whisp takes a counter-intuitive approach to social shopping - while many platforms are focused on enabling conversations that are one-to-many, Whisp focuses on one-to-one or small group conversations. Whisp has confirmed through thousands of shopper interviews - that the conversations consumers have when they make a purchase decisions are fundamentally different than those they have when they are browsing. When buying, shoppers typically ask the same two to three people by privately sharing a link or texting a photo. Whisp is the first shopping app to recognize the need for a fun, intimate platform that empowers shoppers to chat when those they trust.
Co-CEOs of Whisp, Moncef Zizi and Karoon Monfared, excitedly shared the following about future plans for the app:
Soon, we will be launching Whisp for iPhone (Whisp is currently available on web and iPad) so shoppers can whisp on the go with ease! And stay tuned early next year for a series of major partnership announcements.
8. Stylebook Stylebook is a virtual closet for the user's real clothes, with features like the calendar and Style Stats to help users develop their personal style. Stylebook encourages users to buy less clothing but choose it carefully - instead of simply trying to sell users lots of clothing they don’t need. When users keep track of what they own with the closet feature and how they use the items with the calendar, they have a tendency to make better shopping choices, use what they own more effectively, and shop less. Stylebook wants people to figure out their personal style so they can love their wardrobe and find items that fit their style and body.
When Jessica Atkins, co-founder of Stylebook, was asked about future plans for the app she said:
We’re always looking for ways to improve our user experience and to find new ways to make getting dressed more interactive and fun!
9. Covet Fashion Covet Fashion connects today's fashionable consumer to top contemporary brands through an interactive mobile experience where users compete for top looks by virtually shopping and styling with the latest collections. By combining fashion, self-expression and reward-based achievement, Covet Fashion provides a one-of-a-kind experience that allows consumers to directly engage with current fashion collections from today's top contemporary brands. Instead of passively scrolling through images, Covet users are pairing this top with that bag, experimenting with how a leather jacket might look over a flirty dress and translating their virtual experience into real world style. Boasting 30 minutes of daily engagement per user, Covet Fashion has proven to be more influential in consumers' discovery and purchase of brands than friends, family and social media.
Blair Ethington, VP Marketing and Brands, shared the following about future plans for Covet Fashion:
Now that Covet Fashion has proven its influence on consumers and its value for brands, we are looking ahead to make the brand to consumer connection even more seamless and efficient. We are adding new features to allow users to connect with friends within the app and continue grow the social experience, as well as looking to shorten the path from virtual discovery to real life purchase. The Fashionable Tech girl is always on the go and we are always finding new ways to stay one step ahead of her - in designer shoes of course!
10. Spring Spring is a mobile marketplace where you can shop directly from the brands you know and love and discover new ones. Spring is changing the way we shop on our phones. By connecting consumers directly with brands all in one app, Spring allows brands to curate, create, and control all product and content in their individual shops, which is different from a traditional retail model. For many brands, Spring is their first and only direct-to-consumer channel.
When Ara Katz, co-founder and CMO of Spring, was asked about future plans for the app she said:
Spring is constantly curating new brands to create the most compelling and unique experience for our customers - this includes more mens' brands, global labels and beauty and lifestyle. We'll also be looking at geographic expansion and other platforms since we are currently only available for the iPhone in the US.
11. ShopStyle ShopStyle is the leading global shopping search engine, giving shoppers access to over 10 million products from the best stores and brands on both the web and mobile. The mobile app makes searching easy for the on the go shopper. It even allows you to favorite items and receive push notifications when these items go on sale. ShopStyle gives consumers access to the best brands and products across the web, all in one place. The filters on ShopStyle make it extremely simple for shoppers to narrow their product search with attributes like size, price, heel height, on-sale, free shipping, and more.
Melissa Davis, Vice President and General Manager of ShopStyle, said the following about future plans for the app:
We are continuing our focus on providing the most personalized shopping experience for consumers. Whether shoppers are browsing or searching for something specific, we want to present a comprehensive shopping experience tailored for each user across all devices.
12. PS Dept. PS Dept. (short for Personal Shoppers Department) is the first app to offer on-demand personal shopping service across all the best stores. Customers can send in a request with a general shopping need (i.e. I'm looking for a great moto boot to wear all winter) or a specific request they want hunted down (i.e. I'm looking for the Mansur Gavriel bucket bag) and they'll be connected to a PS personal shopper who will do the shopping for them. The platform at its core is a customer service dream for those tired of dealing with difficult associates in-store, searching for hours online or waiting on hold to buy if you can't make it into a store. After making a request, you'll be messaging with your shopper who will send back options for you available to purchase right in the message (think access to the most in the know personal shoppers just by sending a text).
Michelle Goad, CEO of PS Dept., shared the following future plans for the app:
Beginning next year we will be launching a subscription service for users that comes with additional perks like getting first dibs on exclusive, impossible-to-get product or access to private sales before anyone else.
