Screenshot of the ShopStyle iPhone/iPod app

There have always been shopping search engines, but ShopStyle was one of the first to focus on fashion with a sleek design and the ability to create digital mood boards from the products. With Google putting more effort into the space with Boutiques.com, and Polyvore grabbing headlines with their collage focused community, what is ShopStyle doing to solidify their position and build on their success (Google AdPlanner puts ShopStyle’s traffic for January at 3.8 million visitors per month, Boutiques.com is at 2.6 million)?

ShopStyle founder and general manager Andy Moss confirmed our thoughts that mobile plays a big role in growth plans for fashion week and beyond.

You’re revamping the ShopStyle mobile app with show schedules and runway photos for fashion week, will it also take advantage of any location based features like recommendations for physical stores in the area?

Moss: We included essential information for Fashion Week attendees like a guide on Getting to the Lincoln Center and restaurant options around town. At ShopStyle our current focus is on helping our customer find and discover the best brands and designers online so we also added New York Fashion Week designer profiles and a link to ShopStyle mobile for online shopping.

Is the mobile app the start of ShopStyle bridging the online/offline shopping gap in some way?

Moss: Yes, we are looking at how best to bridge the online/offline shopping experience. Itâ€s definitely harder for fashion than hard goods where bar codes can be scanned. But, helping shoppers in-store is absolutely on our roadmap.

Smartphone sales recently overtook computer sales for the first time. What percentage of traffic to ShopStyle comes from mobile browsers? Have you noticed a significant year over year increase?

Moss: Absolutely. Weâ€ve seen a huge increase in mobile visitors, from our iOS apps for iPhone and iPad {iTunes}, for our ShopStyle website, which is optimized for the browser on the iPad, and from our mobile optimized sites which can be accessed through the browser on any smart phone (including Android). In December we reached close to 20% of page views coming from one of the above [mobile devices]. That traffic is split about 50/50 between native apps and access through browser on the device.

ShopStyle is still something of a standard for fashion/shopping search, but the competition in the space keeps getting stiffer with sites like Google’s Boutiques.com . Do you look at mobile as an area to extend what’s worked well online, or a space to try completely new things?

We definitely see mobile as a key differentiator for ShopStyle and have made big investments in providing the best possible experience for the mobile user. So we did not approach mobile as simply a case of moving what we did well online to mobile. We designed and built our mobile apps from the ground up. It is actually very different from the website. ShopStyle continues to grow nicely in the US and we have also expanded internationally to the UK, Germany, France, and now Japan.

We’ve seen strong adoption for our iPhone and iPad apps in Europe and a lot of media coverage regarding “best apps,” etc. for which we’ve often been featured. Japan is interesting as the previous generation of phones from the three main carriers still have a massive installed base and the Japanese love them. While these devices were way ahead of the US five or ten years ago, from ShopStyle’s perspective they are pretty limited compared to the latest iPhone and Android devices, especially in terms of UI and the experience you can create for our fashion apps. The iPhone is growing in popularity – and weâ€ve focused our efforts there – but we are clearly missing a large part of the potential mobile user base and will until smart phones takeover.

The ShopStyle iPad app

]]> http://198.46.88.49/style/fashion/andy-moss-on-shopstyles-fashion-week-mobile-moves/feed 1 http://198.46.88.49/electrotech/social-santa-a-very-2-0-christmas http://198.46.88.49/electrotech/social-santa-a-very-2-0-christmas#respond Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:34:24 +0000 http://198.46.88.49/?p=17399 ‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, impatient kids were tweeting “where is that Santa louse?”

Of course that’s not how the tale goes, but mobile ad network AdZookie imagines what the night before Christmas would be like if Santa took advantage of Twitter, Foursquare and a Naughty/Nice iPhone app to make the job easier. Our favorite part? Santa throwing in the towel on certain houses and sending parents a Groupon. We’re not sure if Mark Zuckerberg would be waiting for Christmas gifts, but there aren’t as many Hanukkah stories to work with so we’ll have fun with the fantasy for now.

If you want to talk to your friend who’s wining and dining in Florence for a semester, there’s good news for you: the Skype 2.0 app is here for the iPhone. Granted that she has her iPhone with Skype 2.0 as well, you can talk to him or her, wherever or whenever — for free, via 3G. And with excellent, “CD” quality.

But hopefully your friend is coming back before August, because that’s when they’re going to start charging a monthly fee to use it. {9to5mac} Does this seem fair to you?

• Yes, if you use Skype via regular phones, there’s a fee. It is long-distance calling, after all. BUT,
• Skype is free. Period. And granted, an iPhone is a phone at the end of the day, but isn’t a data plan fee for 3G coverage enough? Apparently not.

But we wouldn’t scowl at Skype just quite yet. There’s no saying that good ol’ Steve Jobs, one of the few powerful men in this world who can get away with grand decisions with the “because I said so!” excuse, isn’t in charge of this decision.

Or maybe AT&T is just ripping people off. According to Gizmodo, “the folks at Skype are now saying that a Skype app will hit the Android Marketplace later this year and be available to everyone regardless of carrier.” Skype, you’re off the hook.

Whoever’s to blame, take advantage of it while you can! Although, our real question is, when will they enable video calling? With the dual cameras widely expected based on the leaked iPhone deconstruction by Gizmodo, the wait may not be too long.

Well, if you’re like us (and can’t tell your fennel from your celery, let alone whether it’s local or in season), you need some help. First and foremost, scope out your local farmer’s market and snoop around – it’s full of your very own resident experts, so don’t be afraid to quiz them on the subject!

Here are three other easy steps you can take to get your local on.

Step 1: Know Your Seasons

Seasonal Calendars will help you keep track of what's local, when.

First things first, whether you’re an aspiring gardener or just an ignorant consumer, you need to know what’s local when. One of the best ways to keep in the know and ahead of the curve are these fabulous 2010 calendars that feature seasonal produce every month.

From Left to Right: For you Californians, a handy-dandy notebook calendar from KrankPress on Etsy ($20); A free (!) printable calendar from the Cottage Industrialist; A fabulous 2010 calendar ($24) also available as a poster ($20) – and even a tea towel! ($12) – from Claudia G. Pearson on Etsy.

Step 2: Use Technology

As you might have guessed, as there is for seemingly everything these days, there’s an App for being a locavore too. Two of our favorites are the Locavore and  GoodGuide iPhone Apps. Locavore, $2.99 on iTunes, lets you know what’s local in your state, pulls up both Wikipedia links and Epicurious recipes, and alerts you to local Farmers’ Markets. GoodGuide scans the barcode of the object you’re picking up at the grocery store and lets you know its health, environmental, and social performance (in other words, how much  – or little – the earth and its inhabitants were harmed in the making of this product).

If you’ve yet to jump on the iPhone bandwagon, there’s also some handy Web Sites you can check out, like Epicurious’ interactive Seasonal Ingredient Map and Sustainable Table, which has information on Famers’ Markets and Food Co-ops, Shopping Guides, and more.

Step 3: Cook Smart!

For help cooking seasonal, local ingredients, check out these cookbooks.

Of course, most Chefs  wised up to the local food movement way before the average layperson – so why not take some of their excellent advice (and their excellent recipes too)! There are tons of great options out there, but we’re digging these five.

Clockwise from top left: I am almost always hungry by Lora Zarubin, a cookbook with “30 seasonal menus” and “unique insights into the subtleties of seasonal entertaining.” $20.53 on Amazon.com; Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets, by Deborah Madison. $17.16 on Amazon.com; Super Natural Cooking: 5 Delicious Ways to Incorporate Whole and Natural Foods into Your Cooking. $12 on Walmart.com; Clean Food: A Seasonal Guide to Eating Close to the Source, $19.80 on Amazon.com;  Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life, $18 from Barnes & Noble.