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Amazon’s StyleSnap uses AI to let you shop looks from magazines, social media, and more


Every wish you could shop the look on Amazon? Soon, you’ll be able to do just that thanks to the Seattle company’s forthcoming StyleSnap feature, which suggests styles from screenshots and pics of magazines, websites, or social media posts.

It launched for select users on iOS and Android in April and will soon be available broadly, Amazon head of worldwide consumer Jeff Wilke said during a keynote presentation at the company’s re:MARS conference in Las Vegas.

Here’s how it works: Within the Amazon app, tapping the camera icon in the upper right corner of the Amazon App surfaces the StyleSnap shortcut. Uploading a photo or screenshot of a fashion look will trigger StyleSnap to present recommendations for similar items that take into account brand, price range, and customer reviews.

“The simplicity of the customer experience belies the complexity of the technology behind it,” said Wilke. ”We are highly innovative and customer-obsessed, and we will continue to create new experiences for customers to discover the products they want and love. We are incredibly excited about StyleSnap and how it enables our customers to shop visually for Fashion on Amazon.”

Behind the scenes, StyleSnap’s algorithms deal with difficult cases like lifestyle images and indoor images with dim lighting. Leveraging computer vision and deep learning, they identify apparel items in photos regardless of setting, and subsequently classifies the items into categories like “fit-and-flair dresses” or “flannel shirts.”

StyleSnap’s debut comes days after Amazon teamed up with L’Oréal to let mobile shoppers on mobile test out different shades of lipstick on live pics and videos of themselves, courtesy the latter’s AI and augmented reality ModiFace platform.

For Amazon, it’s yet another step toward an AI-powered fashion future. Two years ago, the retailer debuted the Echo Look, a connected camera that combines human and machine intelligence to recommend styles, color-filter clothes, compare two outfits, and keep track of what’s in personal wardrobes. The Echo Look ties into Prime Wardrobe, a program akin to those offered by Stitch Fix and Trunk Club that lets users try on clothes and send back what they don’t want to buy.

In a development that’s undoubtedly related, Amazon recently unveiled a collection of makeup products under its in-house apparel label. A 2016 survey published by A.T. Kearny found that 69% of American women who shop online for beauty products start their searches at Amazon, and a report from Edge by Ascential showed that sales of health and personal care items on the platform totaled $1.9 billion in the second quarter of 2018, while sales for beauty products were up 26% at $950 million.



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