Macy’s launches app with image search capability

LONDON — Macy's continues to innovate its omnichannel experience with the launch of a new iOS app that incorporates image recognition and visual search software. The tool allows consumers to search through thousands of inventory items by simply using a picture snapped from their iPhone to find similar products available at Macys.com.



The photo search app was designed in the Macy's Idea Labs facility in San Francisco, and the software for the image recognition was developed and supplied by Cortexica, a leader mobile image recognition.




Macy's is the latest retailer to incorporate Cortexica's findSimilar technology to let their users upload wild images and find similar products on macys.com via their mobile app and desktop. App users are able to snap a photo of an item using their smartphones while web users can upload any image, whether from their desktop or anywhere on the web, find similar items, and then purchase immediately.



“When our customers see a look that they like on friends or on a celebrity, they can directly shop for corresponding products from macys.com and buy them without a lengthy search,” said Kent Anderson, president of Macys.com.