Samsung Electronics New Zealand has today announced an innovative new partnership with Trade Me, enabling Kiwis to search for and purchase new products on Trade Me simply by taking a photo on their Samsung smartphone.

Powered by Samsung’s AI assistant Bixby, Trade Me for Bixby Vision offers a glimpse into the future of shopping, bringing together Samsung’s global technical expertise with Trade Me’s iconic online marketplace.

“We know Kiwis are always looking for new ways to make their mobile shopping experiences more convenient and fulfilling,” says Todd Selwyn, Head of Mobile Product for Samsung New Zealand.

“The camera is the most used feature on the smartphone, and by integrating Samsung’s Bixby Vision with Trade Me’s image search function, we’re providing Kiwis with a new way to shop and find inspiration online.”

Trade Me’s Head of Mobile Nick Parfene said so many interactions we have today happen through our smartphone camera so using your camera to shop is a natural evolution. “Each week we see over 20 million searches from Kiwis using Samsung devices and now these users can ‘point and shop’ with their smartphone camera. This is the first step for us and we’re excited to be offering Samsung users a first glimpse into what shopping online will be like in the future.

The new technology translates images on Samsung devices into search results on Trade Me. The image is fed into Trade Me’s image machine learning algorithm to find similar new products, based on the category, keyword and, in some instances, colour. Search results are shown instantly, straight from the camera app, making it easier than ever to shop for everything from fashion to homeware and technology.

“Trade Me is one of the most popular local apps downloaded by our customers and Samsung is always looking for ways to push the boundaries in mobile technology,” said Selwyn.

“This partnership represents a great opportunity for us to demonstrate how we can remove friction from the shopping experience and add more value for our customers and we’re excited by the prospect of developing more applications for our AI-enabled smartphone cameras in the future.”

Trade Me for Bixby Vision is now available to download on Samsung premium smartphones, including the Galaxy Note9, Note8, S9, S9+, S8, S8+, and even the Galaxy Tab S4 and Galaxy Tab 10.5” tablets.

To download, simply launch the camera on your applicable Samsung smartphone, touch the Bixby Vision icon, then scroll through the icon bar to find ‘Downloads’, and select ‘Trade Me’.