Wal-Mart's tech lab buys Stylr mobile fashion app

San Bruno, Calif. -- @WalmartLabs, the Silicon Valley-based tech R&D and innovation arm of Wal-Mart Stores, has acquired Stylr, a mobile fashion app that helps shoppers finds clothes in nearby stores. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.



Stylr is @WalmartLabs' 13th acquisition in the past three years.



Stylr will be shut down and removed from the iTunes App Store by the end of the month. Wal-Mart's own mobile app won't run Stylr, but the newly acquired technology will be used to develop future mobile innovations.



"As we continue to integrate digital and physical retail to create new and unique experiences for customers, we’re thrilled to add Stylr to our mobile team," @Walmart Labs wrote in a post on its website. "Over half of Walmart smartphone users have used their device in-store to assist with their shopping, and with 80% of our customers under the age of 35 owning a smartphone, we expect this to grow dramatically. We are excited about the opportunity to serve these customers with indispensable digital tools that bring the convenience of online shopping into our physical stores and integrate our online and offline experiences to enable our customers to shop anytime, anywhere."



The Stylr app offers an experience akin to looking through a rack of clothes on your smartphone. It pulls in inventory from participating local stores, and allows the customer ti reserve it at the store directly from the app’s interface. The company had grown to include thousands of products from a number of well-known retailers.



Stylr was founded by Stanford alumni Eytan Daniyalzade and Berk Atikoglu, and funded by Dreamit Ventures, a New York-based incubator. The founders will will join @WalmartLabs in San Bruno, California.