Model and socialite Kim Kardashian West worked with New York City-based startup Craze to develop an app that helps people find clothes they like based on screenshots of their fashion inspirations. Dubbed the “Shazam for fashion,” ScreenShop helps its users identify shoppable pieces of clothing and accessories in a photo or screenshot. This bold idea has been in the works since last year, and the company released the free app in early November 2017.
“I’ve never seen an app where you can screenshot something and within seconds bring up a whole digital fashion store to be able to pick out from all range prices and sizes of similar things to what you’re wearing,” she explained. “I just knew right away that I wanted to be involved.”
The app works similar to its music counterpart Shazam. In Shazam, you use the app to identify a song currently playing, with much accuracy. In ScreenShop, the company’s world-class technology seamlessly integrates into the user’s phone, detecting any fashion-related items on screenshots.
“ScreenShop is our way of helping consumers actualize the fashion inspiration their social media feeds, providing them with an easy way to immediately shop the styles they see and love,” stated ScreenShop co-creator and co-founder Molly Hurwitz.
Kardashian West helped advise on creating the app since the beginning. “It’s not a secret that I love social media and the notion of being able to shop from my feed is something I could only dream about,” she said. She helped “define the concept and shape the user experience” for ScreenShop since 2016, and said she is very excited for this app to take off.
Co-founders, as well as private equity firms, pooled $4.5 million in funding, even partnering with top brands like Forever 21, ASOS, TopShop, Saks Fifth Avenue, Boohoo.com, and even Kanye West’s Yeezy.
Users simply take a screenshot of something they like, or take a photo of a look that interests them, upload it into the app, and let ScreenShop work its magic. In a few moments, a list of the same or similar products will display. Users can then take a look at those items through thumbnails with brand names and prices listed. Clicking further leads them to the appropriate sites to buy the items they want.
Niche but Inspirational Fashion
For fashion lovers, bloggers, and others who either work in couture or find that fashion plays an important role in their job and daily lives, this app is quite thrilling. Even Kardashian West herself describes the experience as useful and unique.
“I’ve never seen an app where you can screenshot something and within seconds bring up a whole digital fashion store to be able to pick out from all range prices and sizes of similar things to what you’re wearing,” she explained. “I just knew right away that I wanted to be involved.”
Creating the app came from a dilemma Hurwitz herself experienced – browsing through gorgeous fashion Instagram images and not knowing where to shop for such looks. “For me that process of being able to shop on Instagram on people’s looks and look on Google for it, that was extremely cumbersome,” she explained.
While some fashion influencers and celebrities would be kind enough (and are often paid) to manually tag brands they wear in a photo, Hurwitz said many of those would go beyond her budget. “I don’t want to spend $1,800 on a dress, but I do want the inspiration,” she said. “The idea is to be able to take your inspiration from anywhere, from watching a movie or browsing online or a magazine.”
Hurwitz sat down with a team of developers and investors to create an app that helps improve the fashion shopping experience for today’s generation. She, along with chief technology officer Jonathan Caras, Meir Hurwitz, Mark Fishman, Ari Bregin, and fashion adviser Kardashian West, went to work straight away.
“When users are on social media sites, they see products they would like to own, but they are not necessarily in the mindset to interrupt their social browsing to complete a point of sale,” the company explained. Kardashian West seconds that, saying she believes the app meets shoppers’ needs, especially when people prefer visual online shopping.
“I’ll see a photo of someone wearing something and just get inspired and want that,” she said, mirroring the thoughts of many shoppers and fashion lovers like her. With convenience in mind, she added, “…for shopping, I would rather have the technology we have where you just screenshot something and figure out how to emulate that.”
