Slyce, the Toronto-based company billed as the Shazam of things, has signed a new deal in the U.S. with clothier Tilly’s.
The deal integrates Slyce’s image-recognition, one-click purchase technology into the Tilly’s website, allowing people to navigate the brand’s catalogue and make purchases by hovering over an image with their smartphone.
Tilly’s wanted to merge the online/offline shopping experience, says Mark Elfenbein, president and CEO of Slyce, bringing on board the tech company to help make the purchasing process easier. Since the majority of the brand’s e-tailing happens through mobile, Tilly’s tasked Slyce with integrating its tech into the existing mobile site, rather than build out a separate app (though Tilly’s can do that as well, Elfenbein says).
While it may seem counterintuitive to have image recognition tech on the website (after all, once a consumer is on the site, can’t they just find the product they want to purchase?), Elfenbein says it’s designed to take a multi-step process (look at image, pull out phone, browse to the website, click on the category, find the product, put the product into a shopping cart, fill out shipping details, purchase) and simplify it. Now, consumers simply have to pull up the Tilly’s site and click a tab that lets them shop with their camera. When they see something in the catalogue they like, they can hover over the item and purchase in a single click.
“It’s eliminating the friction in the purchasing process,” he says.
Though the app currently only works with the catalogue, the next stage for the brand will include any and all Tilly’s products in the world – whether that be in the fashion pages of a magazine or on another person, he adds. “[Soon, you] can think of the whole world as the showroom for Tilly’s.”
Tilly’s is the first retail partner for Slyce, though it has had some deals with third-party retail websites. As we move into the holiday shopping season, Slyce is set to announce a number of major deals with retailers, he adds.