Last Friday, Seventeen Magazine and their personal shopping partners, NearbyNow, launched their new Fashion Finder app on Apple’s iPhone. Now available free from iTunes, the Seventeen Fashion Finder app has a few first-time flaws, but the potential to become a very useful tool.
Features of the Fashion Finder include the ability to shop for products by price, item type, or style. When you create an outfit you like, the app will search for stores near you that carry your chosen items. Somebody will even call the store for you and put the item on reserve in your size. During normal business hours, they’ll check an item’s availability for you in less than ten minutes! This little personal shopper will also alert you with a text or email when they have information about where and from whom you can pick up your reserved products.
Though Seventeen caters toward teenage girls, with more content, the Fashion Finder could be used by anyone. Right now, there aren’t many products in the system yet, but they seem to focus a good amount of attention on shoes and handbags. So, even someone who isn’t interested in the outfits can still find nice accessories.
A comparable iPhone app is ShopStyle Mobile, which has several similar features, except for the nearby retail finder and reserve service. However, both apps have problems for now. Seventeen’s Fashion Finder has a very limited selection, which leaves users frustrated; what’s the use of having great features if you can barely use them? But ShopStyle’s users complain of constant crashes. If either of the apps start to gain momentum and fix their bugs, they could be truly excellent resources for finding the clothes you want, without the hassles of comparative online shopping. ShopStyle, which is also free, would be a more grown-up version of the Fashion Finder, listing more sophisticated styles.
Given that the Fashion Finder is still in its first week of release, I’ll give it a chance to grow into the catalogue of clothes it needs to become. If Seventeen takes this venture seriously, every girl can know what it's like to have their own personal shoppers.