This 'shopbot' allows you to find out where an outfit is from simply by taking a photo
Fashion lovers, rejoice — recreating the outfits you see on your social media feeds or even on the street is now as easy as taking a picture.
Glamix, a chatbot created by Israeli startup Syte, allows users to snap a photo of an outfit they like, and send the image via Facebook Messenger to Glamix (@glamix.me), the "personal fashion assistant" the company calls "gigi."
The photos generating the search can be taken either directly from the Instagram pages of influencers, online magazines, or can simply be a photo taken by you and stored on your phone.
The AI-bot or "shopbot" platform then uses automatic responses and image recognitions to identify the exact same products or similar (and sometimes cheaper) items that are available to buy online, allowing you to recreate any outfit.
The "visual search engine" has agreements in place with most major retailers in the UK, according to co-founder, CMO, and former City capital markets banker Lihi Pinto Fryman, as well as some in the US and France. She said that at the point of last week's launch, the bot could access around 10 million products.
In the UK, it has access to high street favourites like Topshop, ASOS, H&M, Zara, Mango, as well as department stores House of Fraser, John Lewis, Selfridges, and Harrods, with the company earning a commission on each sale. In the US, it counts Bloomingdales and Macys among its stockists.
To find out where an outfit featured on a fashion blogger's Instagram post came from, firstly, select the photo.
Then, click on the three dots in the top right hand corner, where the drop down will give you the option to "Share to Messenger."
Send the image to Glamix (@glamix.me). The bot replies right away, giving users some categories to choose from. We chose "Bags."
Glamix then comes back with a range of 10 to 20 product options per photo, and users can filter products by price.
"If, for example, you were to send an Instagram photo from the Gucci store, you would probably get the original version, as well as other options, as the machine will recognise the features of the product," Fryman said. "It's fun, instant, and addictive."
Glamix may throw up items from websites in different geographies, but it will only show products that can be shipped to your location, says Fryman. Though, usually that would incur higher delivery costs and longer shipping times.
Fryman told Business Insider that it all began with a red dress.
While living in London, she was surfing the internet one day and came across the perfect dress, but couldn't find it for sale anywhere.
"I asked myself, 'How is it possible in 2014 that I see something I like but I can't just tap and get it? It felt a bit surreal given we have achieved so much in tech, but yet fashion is so behind."
It got Fryman and her tech-minded husband, Ofer, thinking. Along with her brother Idan, the three then founded the company.
Now, in Fryman's opinion, a shopbot like Glamix is more user-friendly than an app. "People are tired of downloading endless apps, but everyone has Instagram and Facebook," she said.
The Glamix Instagram account @glamix.me currently has almost 45,000 followers.
It is targeting millennials, both male and female, and generally keen online shoppers. Eventually, Fryman says the plan is to offer new features, such as user discounts and sale alerts, once it has collected sufficient data about what they like.
"It's advertising in a completely different way — when we want them (brands) we can call them by tapping the image," says Fryman. "We want to change the way retailers interact with consumers, which the market is demanding."
See how the app works in the video below:
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