remixing fashion and luxury for reality

I was blown away when I first saw this site. The technology introduced on this site will forever change the way we shop for fashion online. I’m really serious!!

www.like.com

I must forwarn the site is still in beta so it’s extremely quirky and often stalls my browser or crashes it completely. I’m sure as time goes on the performance will improve steadily.

In any case it’s worth a look. They have built a system that allows shoppers to pick a product, like a shoe, shirt, or handbag and scour the web for similar looking products. Of course the search is contrained to sites like.com crawls so it’s not everything out there but maybe one day it will.

(click on image to enlarge)

Above is a visual search I conducted on black heels. what’s great is that you can use your cursor to zone in on a specific part of the shoe or product that you like, such as the metal buckle of one of the shoes, or the stilleto heel and the search engine will retrieve all black heels that match that visual element.

I heard that the techonology they are using was originally built for facial recognition software. I’m glad they decided to put it to good use finally! Who cares about faces when you can be saving hours and hours of aimless searching for the perfect black patent leather stilleto??

I had heard about some great site Amazon had created for shoes but how come it’s so hard to find it? Well "Mo" showed me where it was today. Thanks Mo! Apparently they are still in beta but it’s true, you get $5 back if you ship overnight. Have yet to try this out myself and being that I just went a little crazy on Zappos.com (Short and Mid Length Boots: Flattering for the Calves… or just an excuse for my new Frye Boots? )

www.endless.com

Reasons Why I’m loving Endless.com (so far…)

• Get paid to ship overnight.
• The site is pretty to look at.
• They seems to have such a unique selection of shoes I don’t see on the usual suspects.
• They employ the latest and greatest web technologies to enhance the browsing and shopping experience — this does cause delays in the loading of images though, almost unbearable at times. But check out this filtering widget.
  
• Or this zoom thing. You’ve gotta try it for yourself to see how slick it is.
  

It’s so nice to see online retailers finally starting to figure out there are ways to sell more to all the shopaholics out there, those poor hopeless shopaholics.

I noticed while clicking around today that everywhere seems to now be offering free shipping. Was it just me or did this happen overnight? Not that I’m complaining.

A few of my favorites I found tonight on Endless.

Farylrobin Tolka Heeled Boot
Tough but Stylishly Proper.

Tribeca Cross Eye Lace Up Heeled Boot
These are kinda Little House on the Prairie but they’re still hot. Too bad they are sold out right now.

BCBG Max Azria Fias Mary Janes
If these are anything like the Chanels they are super comfy, like walking around in your bedroom slippers. The elastic banding secures the shoe to your foot but is so flexible it doesn’t rub against your skin like leather.

uhhh, there’s just too many to keep looking. goodnight for now.

Keeping an Open Mind
I had sworn off Zappos.com years ago. I was brunching, well more like ravenously porking out, at Cafe De La Presse in San Francisco this weekend, when "Grunchkin", "Friend" (yes that’s really her nickname) and I started discussing our search for the perfect shoes. I started raving on about Piperlime.com which I frequent these days and then Friend said she mostly shops at Zappos.com so I started going off about how much I despised the zappos site. I thought to myself later that night that it had actually been awhile since I tried visiting zappos. Many years back I had bought a pair of shoes from there and was so miserably disappointed with the product and ordering experience I never went back. The site itself is disdainful to look at — that hasn’t changed much… but what has changed is that the zappozians have totally clued into a Shoe Alcoholics behavior and have taken some serious steps forward in improving the online shopping experience.

Free Shipping (both ways) + 365 Day Return Policy + Inventory Alerts!!! + Customer Reviews
I fell out of my chair when I saw this. I have wished for years that online stores would show us how many of an item were in stock. I have fallen into mild depression after finding my perfect shoe to check back the next day to find them sold out. Sometimes a girls got to sit on her buying decision. But this was a brilliant move for zappos. Women are competitive beasts. If we knew there was only 1 left of that shoe, it’s ours.

When I saw zappos actually offers us this functionality I could actually overlook the ugly pages and poor photo quality.

Free shipping both ways. Enough said. No more excuses for not buying shoes online. I bought 2 pairs of boots today. Compare the two and send one back. I feel like I am suddenly a new person.

365 Day Return Policy. What I love about this is that I can buy a shoe and let it sit there for as long as I want, wait for shopper’s high to wear off and send them back after I realize I’ll won’t wear tham more than a few times.

The customer reviews were totally helpful. I passed on a few boots that sounded like they might not be compatible with me after hearing what others had to say. You can tell most of these customers are savvy shoe shoppers as well which is helpful. The ratings are also a good way to quickly assess how comfortable the boots are and what size you should order as sizes tend to vary across designers.

I must add this disclaimer — they clearly have work left to do in improving their Search, product photo quality, and their navigation is challenging at times.

Thanks Friend!
Thanks to Friend for opening my eyes and heart back up to Zappos.

Here’s the boots I ended up getting.

RSVP Rijeca Cognac Nappa Boots
I’ve been searching for some tan boots all winter. It seems this was the best I could find. I’m hoping they have a better color in person. Will keep you posted.

Frye Sunny Short Vintage Boot
I missed ordering another pair of Frye boots in time on Shop Bop last week. I’m still not over it. I’m hoping these ease the pain a little.