Curalate, Moda Operandi partner to test Amazon Pay feature

The path from spotting a Fashion Week sensation on Instagram to its being in your closet became shorter and easier to negotiate on Monday, thanks to a new partnership pooling the resources of the online luxury fashion retailer Moda Operandi, Philadelphia-based marketing technology company Curalate, and the "one-click" purchasing machinery of Amazon Pay.

With its skill at helping brands to identify Instagram posted images featuring their products and then tagging those images for buyers to find, Curalate's discovery-driven commerce platform has already attracted working relationships with more than 800 well-known brands  — from Urban Outfitters to Neiman Marcus — whose product images also pop up on fashion-forward social media outlets such as Facebook and Pinterest. By adding remote checkout through Amazon Pay to the purchase process, it "will remove friction for the consumers," said Luke Butler, strategy and operations manager for Curalate.

"When customers click on an Instagram image, it takes them to the company's own website and Like2Buy gallery. From there they can shop the products they see in the image," said Butler. "We've eliminated the need to hunt around the virtual store for the product. Now, all they have to do is pick the size and color of the garment and hit 'purchase.' If they have an Amazon account, all their shipping and credit card information will already be prepopulated in the system."

As of 2015, the most recent public statistic available from Statista.com, more than 300 million valid Amazon accounts were registered to the online payments processing service in the United States,  France, Germany, Italy, Spain, India, and the U.K.

Moda Operandi bills itself as "the only place to preorder looks straight from the unedited runway collections of the world's top designers months before they are available anywhere else." The online retailer also offers instant delivery of in-season items "from both established and emerging designers," and sells through trunk shows. "We are committed to providing our clients with the best shopping experience possible, no matter how they prefer to shop," said Moda Operandi CTO Keiron McCammon.

Other high-profile Curalate clients are also "testing the waters," watching the Instagram-MO-Amazon Pay marriage with interest, said Butler. "Assuming it goes well, we'll talk with Amazon about how this can be extended."