Streetify Lets You Shop the High Street Virtually
Streetify brings the high street to you when you cannot visit physically. This e-commerce platform connects consumers with local stores to help keep them afloat, becoming extra relevant in the current COVID-19 crisis.
Shoppers can use the Streetify app to create their own, personal ‘high streets’ with the favourite shops of their choice. These can then be shared on social media, while the users can even follow celebrities that give access to their Streetify version of the favourite store. Also, Streetify uses geo-referencing, which means that the shop lights on the app turn on at night and if it’s raining on the street in the real world, it also rains in Streetify.
Although even before the COVID-19 pandemic, new innovative shopping apps and ideas were introduced, Streetify hopes its project will help connect consumers with local stores to help them get through. It also says it supports small business to “save our shopping streets.” Yet, most of the businesses advertised on the platform are well-known corporate chains on the most popular high streets like Oxford Street in London or Fifth Avenue in New York. Nevertheless, Streetify offers free access to retailers during the coronavirus crisis, while its overall mission of visiting virtual storefronts and creating personal shopping streets while allowing retailers to connect via advertisements and messaging, can be a new vision for online shopping.
