If you take a lot of selfies, why not get paid for it? That’s the message from a new iOS shopping app and social network, Stylinity, which allows you to take selfies, tag fashionable items in it (clothes, beauty products, furniture, etc.), and upload it to the Stylinity marketplace for others to browse and buy. If they buy a brand from your selfie, you get rewarded with points redeemable for cash and clothes. Stylinity calls it, “Shoppable Selfies.”
How does it work? Everything is done through the free app. Say you’re out shopping and trying on some clothes, or you’re modeling some pieces at home that you just purchased. You take selfies (with a timer if you want a rear-camera shot), tag the items in the picture by scanning barcodes with the app, then upload them to both the Stylinity marketplace and the social networks of your choice (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc.). To help you take full-body shots, the company will sell you one of its Selfie Stages, a wall-mountable case for your iPhone. Once on the Stylinity marketplace anyone can click on your selfie, follow the links of your items to their official website, and, if purchased, you get points that are redeemable for either cash, “exclusive experiences,” or “fun products.”
The concept is fashion being modeled by real people, and Stylinity is hoping that your followers could become customers. We can see the app benefiting influential individuals with large followings. But you can also get points if someone buys from someone else’s selfie you shared on your social feed, or even if you yourself buy an item from either your own or someone else’s selfie. You just have to make sure that you buy the items through the Stylinity app while logged in.
Stylinity is not the first attempt to make money off of smartphone pictures. The app Scoopshot allows you to upload any photos taken through the app to their marketplace, where companies can buy either one-time or exclusive rights to your picture (you can list your own price) and you get hard cash from the sale. The app Foap has the same idea.
Check out the Stylinity marketplace to get a clearer idea of how your selfies would be used.
