Some days ago, I saw a video on Facebook. It showed a girl standing in front of a screen. The screen displayed how her selected dresses would look on her. All she had to do was swipe her hands to give commands to the screen. I loved the idea of such a virtual trial room. So when I heard that an ecommerce website has added a virtual trial room like feature in their app, of course I had to try it out.
Shimply.com, a multi-category online bazaar, has recently added a virtual trial room feature in their app. The app is free, and this virtual trial room is free to use too. With this feature, users can try out how a dress or accessory looks on them. It can also show how a particular painting or showpiece will look in the user's room.
To take advantage of this feature, users just need to click their photo, or their room's photo using the app's inbuilt camera feature. An old photo from the phone's gallery can also be used.
I tried the feature and it was quite fun and easy to use. Actually felt like a dress-up game that I've seen my niece play on her mother's phone. Users can select any product for trial while browsing through the app. This quickly loads up the trial room and user can select to try the product. Alternatively, users can head straight to the trial room and try the products lined up there.
This feature did help me see what would suit me and what not while trying the dresses by showing how the colour and style would look on me. However, the size of the products and the base photos is adjustable. For example, if I want to try a necklace, I can make it as big or small as I want. That makes it harder to see how the product would fit. Similarly, while trying a painting on a wall, I can make the painting as big or small as I want in the trial room. That makes it hard to judge how the actual size of the painting would look on the wall.
However, the trial room feature is fun to use. And it's a very new technology. In fact, its patent is still pending. So we can hope the feature to get better and better in time. It's already pretty good to play around with and see how the colour and style of dresses and accessories would look when worn.
Leaving this new Trial Room feature aside, the rest of the Shimply experience is very nice too. Sure it's an ecoomerce service selling products. But the variety of the products is really interesting. It is very Indian. In fact, the site's tagline says " India ko try karke dekho." The website also declares that it sells authentic products sourced from their state of origin. These products include Kanchipuram silk sarrees, Saharanpur woodcraft products and even Kerala spices and Kashmir spices etc.
The categories of items being sold on Shimply include books, health items, spices, handicraft items, fancy dress material for kids etc. The books being sold include books from National Book Trust of India. I found books that were being sold for as little as 9 rupees!
Anyway, what I liked best about shimply is that it allows the users to browse through products by choosing states of origin. For example, if you are looking for food items from Kerala, just choose the state and browse through the products only from Kerala.
Shimply offers worldwide delivery. The payment options include Cash on Delivery but at an extra charge. Most products also require a shipping fee. And when you see a 60 Rs. Shipping fee on a book that costs only 9 Rs., it does feel odd. However, despite these extra charges, I found most products to be reasonably priced at Shimply.
I found the Shimply Android app very nicely designed. It has simple and clear navigation. It did forceclosed a couple of times though. Also, I did not find any way to filter through the clothes based upon size, length or colour etc. Such filters help save time and make searching out the perfect product easier.
Anyway, the app also gives an option in the product page (clothes) that says Request for Trial. When I clicked on it, it said that I'll be notified when that product is available for trial. So I'm not quite sure whether that is for offline trial or virtual trial only.
The app also mentions a reward scheme. You can earn Rupees 51 by just downloading the app and registering on it. And then, it will give 1 rupee per day of use and Rs. 25 for successful referrals.
Overall, I enjoyed browsing through the Shimply app on my phone. It was fun using the Trial Room feature. And the variety of products I found on Shimply is delightful too. It was good to know that the products were all 100% genuine and sourced from reliable sellers.
So if you are looking for tradiotional dresses, handicraft items, or spices and food items from particular state, Shimply is worth trying out.
