If you’re reluctant to buy clothing and home decorating products online or in the store because you’re not sure how the color will look when you get home, you’ll love X-Rite’s newest color-matching solution.

Color-Eye® uses a calibration card and smartphone app to help consumers shop for items that match or complement things they already have at home, like a paint color that looks great with the curtains, a handbag and shoes that coordinate with a special occasion dress, or a jacket that will match the pants already hanging in the closet.

Why you can’t trust color in a digital photo or on-screen

Have you ever snapped a picture of something at home with your smartphone and used the digital image in the store to help you decide on color? Or purchased an item online that looked completely different when it arrived on your doorstep? If you answered yes, you’re not alone. A recent Invesp study shows that 22% of online purchases are returned because of product appearance.

The problem is that no camera on its own can accurately determine an object’s color. Lighting, camera sensitivity, angle of view, texture, and gloss of the object all affect how the camera will reproduce color. The same holds true for online purchases. All monitors display color a little differently. This ambiguity can lead to disappointment when your item arrives.

To trust on-screen color – either from your mobile device or computer display – it must be properly calibrated. Unfortunately, most people don’t have color calibration tools at their fingertips.

Bridging the gap to digital color accuracy

Affordable and easy to use as part of shopping apps, Color-Eye brings color measurement accuracy to smartphones so consumers can trust the colors they see on-screen.

It’s based on our popular CAPSUREme solution, which measures skin color to help consumers choose the right shade of foundation for their skin tone. By placing a calibration card on the skin and photographing it with a smartphone, consumers can quickly and easily find the perfect color foundation match. Cosmetic and retail companies have adopted CAPSUREme to improve customer experience, encourage more online sales, and reduce returns.

The technology behind Color-Eye is very similar. Simply place the calibration card on an inspiration object and follow the on-screen instructions to position the device. As the app measures the calibration card and the sample, the flash will turn on and off a few times to create a set of images under different lighting conditions. It will then use this information to apply color corrections for the lighting environment and determine accurate color values for the measured object.

These color readings will communicate with the shopping application and deliver recommendations for matching or harmonizing products.

Why consumers love Color-Eye

Color-Eye will change the way consumers shop for color critical items.

• Buy with color confidence… the color you see is the color you’ll get.
• Spend less time returning items.
• Use the retailer’s color reference catalog to find other coordinating items.

Why retailers love Color-Eye

Color-Eye stands to deliver significant value to brand owners and retailers.

• Build consumer trust and loyalty by enabling greater confidence in online and in-store purchases.
• Reduce the volume of expensive returns due to color issues.
• Boost sales by connecting consumers with additional items.
• Drive consumers to download the retail shopping app for increased interaction with your app and store.
• Collect live demographic color trend data to facilitate future product planning and to gauge the effectiveness of direct consumer marketing. 

Learn more

The ability to accurately match color by capturing it on a mobile device or viewing it online has the potential to reshape how consumers search, match, and purchase goods. It’s affordable, easy-to-use, and – based on early experiences with the similar CAPSUREme calibration cards – will deliver a rapid ROI for brands and retailers.

Watch for Color-Eye to be incorporated into a growing number of retailer and brand shopping apps over the coming months. To learn more about Color-Eye and how it can revolutionize the way you buy or sell products, get in touch.

Color-Eye currently supports iPhone SE, 6S, 6S+, 7, 7+; Android Nexus 5; and Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S7, S7 Edge, and S7 Active. Additional devices will be supported in the future.