I did a little online shopping via the Spree app last night. I have no idea how I survived last winter as I have nothing warm to wear! And Cape Town is cold. I ordered a poncho, chunky jersey and a scarf. Fingers crossed that everything fits! At least I’m safe with the scarf.
I placed my order just before 20:00 last night, and I received a sms this morning that my order will be delivered today. Today!! I am really impressed.
Then I received the below press release this morning. Wow. I just have to share this with you.
PS. This post is in no way sponsored by Spree; this is just too cool to keep to myself.
Spree announces first image search shopping feature in Africa
Have you ever seen a fashion item you absolutely had to have, but didn’t know how to find it online to make it yours? Now, thanks to Spree and their newly launched image search and similar style shopping app features, you can find all those coveted items online and make them your own. Spree is the first online fashion retailer in Africa to offer this innovative technology that identifies clothing or footwear seen in photos and images and finds you something similar in their app.
Within the existing search functionality, the Spree app now features a camera icon, which allows shoppers to take a live photo or upload an image from the smartphone photo library, and it’ll return visually similar items in seconds. And when you find something you like, you can quickly make it yours with the app’s easy checkout process. Finding similar styles while browsing is now also easier: shoppers can tap and hold any product image in a Category or Search results view and the feature will highlight items that are visually similar.
Adopting a mobile-app-first approach, Spree has initially launched the image search and similar styles shopping feature on the Spree iOS app, with a roll out plan to the Android app and the website scheduled for the next couple of months.
“Our goal at Spree is to make the shopping experience for our customers as easy and intuitive as possible, and with our new image recognition capabilities and similar style shopping feature, we think we have come closer to achieving this. Searching for items with photos and images saves consumers from having to type keyword combinations, which is especially challenging on mobile devices.
In a world where words are commonly replaced by emojis and images, it makes sense that our shopping habits follow the same path and we’re very proud to be the first online retailer in Africa to lead this visual trend.” says Sven Schoof, Spree’s Head of Customer Experience.
Taking advantage of the latest Artifical Intelligence (AI) technologies available, Spree’s similar style shopping feature bases its suggestions on silhouette, colour, pattern and texture, and customers can filter seamlessly by gender.
With AI tech being ranked in the top 5 trends driving change and growth in retail in the next few years1, the launch of Spree’s image search feature certainly sets the bar in shaping the fashion landscape in Africa.
The new image search feature works across phone and tablet devices, and is available in the Spree iOS app via the existing Search feature.
Happy shopping!
xoxo