We’ve come a long way since industrialization and Mr. Ford’s assembly line that made the first affordable automobile giving everyone the opportunity to buy a car in “any color as long as it’s black.” While the reality was that Mr.Ford’s Model T first came in grey, green, and red, his stated “only black” policy finally came into effect in 1913. At the time, he was only concerned with the time and cost to produce each vehicle, and black paint was cheap and durable. Today, the same manufacturing ideals and process are still used but we’ve moved into a world of color and customization.
One of the great examples of color customization is the sneaker. For years it has been possible to apply your favorite colors and design sense to a pair of shoes. This type of flexible manufacturing will continue to develop and we expect to see this kind of customization applied to many other product categories in the future.
Another way to cover your color loving customers is to add a color product search to help them sort through the increasing number of color options. According to Alon Atsmon, the CEO of Picitup, “47% of the top 100 online retailers offer color search, only 26% of those ranked 401-500 deploy it,” but from handmade indie sellers, to sporting goods, to home interiors, many companies have already integrated a color search. And now the color search technology is catching up with this new demand, or at least one company is trying to spread color search to the masses:
Picolor
Picitup process your stream of images, carefully, separates the main object from its background and accurately extracts its color. Later on once a user clicks on the color palette; only products of the selected color would be presented.
Today for inspiration, and consideration for your own implementation of a color search, here are a few sites that allow you to search products by color. If you know of others post the link in the comments below.
ETSY
LIKE
Empora
You can even color coordinate you perfume bottles…
Fragrantica
The color love in this post was sponsored by HP.
