On-demand cost-free personal stylists are now available 24/7 through Instagram. Zappos, an online shoe and clothing retailer based in Las Vegas, offers customised shopping recommendations based on your style. Simply by posting a selfie on Instagram with the hashtag #NextOOTD a real live professional image specialist will analyse your posting history and suggest a product that fits your taste and looks.

The hashtag #ootd is widely spread in the Instagram community and stands for Outfit Of The Day. It is seen in over 25 million of the images uploaded on the platform and it is another way that Zappos enhances its human-to-human customer service. Behind the pilot-phase project it’s the communication innovation arm of Zappos: Zappos Labs. The department is responsible for finding new ways to engage with their customers and facilitate interaction with the brand online. Instead of expecting people to be interested in the brand, forward-thinking marketing is taking advantage of the new selfie-obsessed culture to establish a personal relationship with their customers, offer products that are actually relevant to them and maximise profit.