Apps

There’s an app for everything these days, and as sensible fashion and beauty lovers, we feel obligated to learn everything about those that serve us best in that department. Here are three retail-related apps that have the potential to save you oodles and oodles of cash.

SuperDuper

Everyone loves a good dupe (beauty-speak for identical products), especially when that means you can save heaps of money at the end of the day. One area of the beauty world where price doesn’t always correlate with quality is nail polish, where prices for a single polish can be as much as $50 a pop. And seriously, if Essie and Bourjois polishes were good enough for Princess Kate’s wedding day, drugstore polish is good enough for the rest of us.

Enter new app “SuperDuper”, available on iOS for free, which reveals the best, most accurate dupes for high end polishes. It reveals the best, under $10, “dupes” for luxe designer nail polishes from Chanel, MAC, Christian Louboutin, Dior, NARS, Tom Ford, and YSL. Skeptical at first, we tested SuperDuper’s dupe for Christian Louboutin’s limited edition Scarabée II that comes with a heart-wrenching $50 price tag. The winning dupe? Covergirl’s Teal on Fire, which costs $45 less was an exact match.

We appreciate that the SuperDuper team tests every potential match on nails that take a typical beating and only accept true color and quality matches. You’ll find many more dupes on the app, and with fall officially here, we can’t wait to check out their subs for Tom Ford Plum Noir, the classic Dior Rouge, and the ever-popular Chanel Particuliere.

Pretty In My Pocket (PRIMP)

Let’s say you’re standing in the drugstore aisle, or you’re salivating over the products at Sephora or Ulta. Maybe you’re torn between two different items, or maybe you’re trying to determine if a splurge is worth it. The Pretty In My Pocket app is here to help.

Simple take the product, or products, up for potential purchase and scan their barcode. You’ll instantly see loads of product reviews and even swatches from other app users, which includes some notable beauty bloggers. From there, you can read the pros and cons and determine whether the product is a slam dunk or a womp womp.

You’ll save money on products that would have left you wanting. And hey, that’s money you can spend on products that’ll actually serve you well. We can totally get behind that.

Slice

One of the worst feelings in the world is finally throwing your cash down on an item you’ve been watching, only to check back days or weeks later to see that it went on sale. Insert angry fists shaking at the sky. Or what about those products you buy that get recalled. In those cases, you may not even realize there was a recall, causing you to use either a subpar product and/or lose out on a refund.

The Slice app aims to calm your mind. It creates a protected database of all your receipts and product purchases. First, the app tracks your purchases as they’re shipped to your door, sending you notifications. Most importantly, though, they send you friendly, informative alerts if a recent purchase has undergone a price adjustment or was recalled. The best part is that you don’t have to do anything — the app does the “haggling” with the retailer for you. This, of course, means savings for you, and all without requiring an extra mental energy.

Other things the app does: streamlines returns, frees up your inbox and tracks your spending (we could all use a little bit of this).

By Wendy Rose Gould

It’s time to delete all those apps on your phone that you haven’t opened up in forever. You know — the ones you can’t remember downloading and that have collected virtual e-dust while taking up precious space on your device.

Once you’ve done a full sweep and nixed your neglected apps, you’ll have plenty of room to download and play with some of the latest and greatest style apps to hit the market. Below are six of our favorites.

Style Thief

For: iOs, (coming soon to Android)
Cost: Free

Miss Kate Bosworth launched her Style Thief app in July 2014 with co-founder Samantha Russ and we’re in L-O-V-E love. “Everyone has fashion envy,” Bosworth told Vogue Magazine. “Everyone can relate to that feeling of looking at an editorial, for example — or a friend, or the runway, for that matter — wanting to steal something exactly as you’re seeing it, or something similar.” The app allows you to search for, find and buy any garment or accessory you see. Genius!

StyleTag

For: iOS, Android, PC
Cost: Free

StyleTag serves as a social networking, curation and discovery platform that’s focused 100% on fashion. It’s used by top bloggers and style icons around the globe and helps users stay up to date on the latest trends. In addition to discovering new looks, you can also share your own finds for others to comment on. The app has a streamlined, gorgeous interface and is easy to use.

GoodShop

For: iOS
Cost: Free

Saving money is always a good thing, and the GoodShop app helps make that even easier for shoppers-on-the-go. It’s loaded with over 200k coupons, deals and promo codes for thousands of popular retailers, including Macy’s, Target, Nordstrom and Amazon. Plus, every time you use the app, 3% of your purchase goes toward a charity of your choice for no extra cost.

StyleBook

For: iOS
Cost: $3.99

If you’re the type who struggles with what to keep and what to donate or sell, this is the app for you. Stylebook tracks how often you wear things, which gives you some fancy pants data-based insight into whether or not a piece is worth keeping around. It also helps you keep track of how much you spend on clothing and allows you to share pictures with others to get their input on whether you should keep it or toss it.

Tradesy

For: iOS, PC
Cost: Free

After you’ve decided what you want to toss, head on over to Tradesy (available on iOS and your PC) to make a little cash. If you’re not interested in selling, you can shop for gently used goods from others trying to make a little dough. This app is great because it’s super style-centered and features everything from rare designer handbags to wedding dresses to vintage accessories to designer ready-to-wear.

Stylicious

For: iOS, Android
Cost: Free

Consider Stylicious a virtual closet organizer; it’s kind of like an updated version of Cher’s e-closet in the movie Clueless. We love this app because it allows you to organize all of your garments and accessories in one space, making it easier to plan and visualize your outfits from head to toe. All you do is snap pictures of your tops, bottoms, dresses, jewelry, shoes and bags, then store them within the app. From there, you can mix and match items to create the perfect look. Stylicious also allows you to get inspiration from the app’s stylists, and it features a shopping portal.

By Wendy Rose Gould

We live in an interesting time.

The same thing was also said amidst the boom of print media, especially when haute couture glossies first hit the market and the whole fashion industry became more of an “event” as opposed to a utilitarian means to an end (read: being clothed).

I’d argue that when online blogging hit the scene roughly 15 years ago — the late ’90s — fashion underwent a notable shift. Once “the people” received a megaphone (in this case, the Internet), their amplified voices slowly began competing with the opinions of fashion designers and magazines across the globe. Don’t get me wrong, to this day designers and glossies certainly have a huge say regarding what we wear, but the whole social aspect of the Internet indubitably turned the style world on its head.

Fast forward another five-ish years or so — into the early 2000s — when “all about me” social media websites such as MySpace were at their height. The early 2000s also marked the dawn of the Facebook era, a website which has a bigger influence on the world than most even realize. It was also around this time when deep and thought provoking online diaries shared between close friends (hello, LiveJournal) lost their luster and lifestyle blogs gained momentum.

Today, you can’t go anywhere on the web without running into a blogger or a niche website that focuses specifically on fashion/style or beauty. And with the prevalence of smart phones and Apps (fashion-focused and otherwise, including Instagram), we can’t even pick up the phone without seeing what other people are wearing or buying.

This social media/Internet whirlwind frenzy makes me wonder: Are we better dressed now compared to 10 years ago?

The Stylish City’s own founder, Mirela, says: “Everybody — stores, bloggers, fashion magazines, etc — has “looks” to draw inspiration from. There are literally thousands of bloggers, personal stylists, celebrities and reality shows we are exposed to every day.”

This undoubtedly affects our decisions when we walk into a store or peer into our closet. With the potential for more people to see how we’re dressed, are many of us less apt to throw on scroungy sweats even while sauntering around the house? And do we make better fashion choices now as a result of being exposed to the more fashionable who want to put themselves out there for the world to see?

Another question I have, in regard to the Internet/social media influence:  Do we approach fashion on a more “individual” level these days? Or does the influx of online/media inspiration cause us to all sort of look like each other?

Personally, I think cities such as NYC, where there a lot of people coming from all walks of life, are more likely to dress individually, but there’s still this “NYC vibe” that permeates all fashion in the city.

Perhaps the boom of social media has made us dress better as a collective whole, but with that have we lost a sense of individuality when it comes to fashion choices?

What do you think? Have your wardrobe decisions changed over the past 10 to 15 years as a direct result of the Internet and social media? Has it gotten worse? Or have you sort of shrugged your shoulders and not changed much at all? Share your comments below!

By Wendy Rose Gould

The marriage of shopping and technology was a long time coming; they didn’t keep their relationship under wraps, although they tried. Marriage has been a bumpy ride for these two, as they attempted to keep their physical retail counterparts happy and content, while profiting from the “dot com boom.” Now stronger than ever, with new innovations being unveiled daily, shopping and technology go hand and hand, and the only way for the physical store to survive is to accept its solo demise and join in on the established union.

“The Future of Shopping,” a recent article published in the Harvard Business Review, penned by retail consultant Darrell Rigby, details the ups and downs and soaring opportunities for ecommerce. With more than 9% of all retail sales happening online (a 5% increase from last year), he pinpoints that we are far past the “dot com” shopping era, and are now fully involved in “Omnichannel retailing,” which includes websites, stores, kiosks, catalogs, call centers, social media, mobile devises, gamming consoles, televisions, networked appliances, and home services, to name a few (kidding). This Omnichannel binds every shopping counterpart together, causing all to work together to excel the exposure, accessibility, and profit of a given brand or product, under the roof of digital technology, which Rigby defines precisely:

“Digital technology—in the form of tablets, for example—can also give sales associates nearly infinite information about customers, describing the way they like to be treated and creating precise models of their homes or body types that enable perfect choices. It can change pricing and promotions accurately and instantaneously. It can provide customized recommendations. Virtual mirrors accelerate and enliven the dressing room experience by connecting customers with trusted friends. Technology can eliminate checkout lines, capture transaction receipts, file rebate claims, and speed returns. It can give a call center operator full access to a customer’s purchase and complaint history.”

The best advice for all shoppers out there, is to become savvy with apps that offer everything from shopping tips, perks, coupons, and advise. Amazon.com, the leading innovator of online shopping, putting several companies out of business every day, has taken further steps to give themselves an almost unfair advantage. Amazon’s Price Check App will allow you to take cell phone photos of an item you want to purchase inside any physical store, and submit them to receive a 5% discount offer off that very product on their site. Apps such as Amazon’s, can easily demolish the small business in due time.

According to the Harvard Business Review’s calculations, by 2014 every cell phone user will own a smartphone. Because of these truths, displayed urgently during this year’s Holiday shopping splurge, The Vogue City will unveil a ‘Technology’ tab, offering shopper’s insights and suggestions on what application to download, what website to visit, and essentially the latest technology that will benefit your wallet.

Returning to Rigby’s insights, he insists there is hope for the physical store. Shoppers enjoy being able to touch their product prior to purchasing, and like being tended to by salespeople, therefore with the right strategy and integrated technology trends, the physical store will have no problem surviving.  “As a visually-oriented shopper who also values my freedom to browse, I am one who dislikes the targeted marketing approach (“Here is a deal for YOU!”). However, I do think the concept of “filtering” has merit in shopping:  Present me with options in general that I am likely to enjoy  – similar to browsing a department or style within a store – and I am more likely to buy from a position of ownership and economy,” a commenter on the Harvard Business Review’s website explains.

We’ve come to accept that our planet has been swallowed by technology. Understanding and learning one advancement at a time, is the only way to avoid becoming overwhelmed by your innumerable options. With social media, and the overtaking of the “app,” taking advantage of all the options these modernizations have to offer is the only way to save money, diminish shopping stress, and guarantee securing the best possible product for you. Apps such as Foursquare make it fun to save by “checking in” and racking up points in order to beat your friends in a friendly game. With that, and as brands revamp their stores to become interactive and “an experience,” trying to maintain a balance of physical and electronic, shopping can become more entertaining than you could have ever imagined. Keep on top of things and bookmark The Vogue City’s technology tab to remain omniscient on Omnichannel retailing.

By Caitlin Colford