Why Retailers Should Watch the Snap-Amazon PartnershipSnap’s reportedly working on a new visual search feature that surfaces products from Amazon’s marketplace. Here’s why it matters.

[Collection]In a rather Pinterest-esque move, Snap Inc. appears to be joining forces with Amazon on a new visual search feature, with product results powered by the e-commerce giant’s marketplace. The feature, tipped in the code of an upcoming Android Snapchat update reported by TechCrunch earlier this week, presumably works when Snapchatters use their camera to search products or scan barcodes. Users see a pop-up with verbiage stating, “Press and hold to identify an object, song, barcode, and more! This works by sending data to Amazon, Shazam, and other partners.” The company’s music relationship with Shazam is common knowledge, but the Amazon tidbit is new and intriguing. If the Amazon-linked search works like the music search, then users could see product info pop up onscreen, layered over their camera’s view of the real world — a computer vision meets augmented reality mashup. Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a WWD request, and Snap Inc. declined to comment. For Patrick Reinhart, senior director of digital strategies at marketing firm Conductor, such a partnership would be “a great example of the convergence of search and AR, and the dominance of Amazon.” He’s particularly excited about the prospect of the tech, which enjoyed a brief jolt from Pokémon Go, reaching

Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

Read More...https://wwd.com/business-news/technology/why-retailers-should-watch-the-snap-amazon-partnership-1202756663/