Macy’s Latest Showrooming Weapon

Macy’s is launching its own mobile image-recognition app designed to let customers easily search for items on its ecommerce site by submitting a photo of an item from daily life, according to Mobile Commerce Daily.

The Image Search feature, which competes with the visual search that Amazon included in its Fire Phone and with image-recognition shopping apps from Target and other omnichannel retailers, will let customers snap a photo of an item of interest and upload it to the Macys.com website, which will then display similar items and let the customer purchase them.

The feature is currently available only as a standalone iPhone app, but will be incorporated into the primary Macy’s app. Macy’s developed the image-recognition capability in-house, a rarity among retailers.

Macy’s also plans to expand its use of iBeacon messaging and “smart” fitting rooms this fall, and is part of Apple’s rollout of the Apple Pay mobile payment service.

In addition, this fall the retailer will begin piloting a crowdsourced same-day delivery service for both Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s brick-and-mortar stores and websites. Macy’s will initially offer the delivery service in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New Jersey, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle and Washington. Bloomingdale’s will offer it in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose.