How to Turn Selfies (and Puppies) Into High-End Retail Sales

In a world increasingly filtered through Instagram, a carefully crafted photo shoot starts to look dated. That's why retailers are rushing to crowdsource their product shots, harvesting a stream of photos from social platforms to help sell everything from West Elm couches to Coach handbags. The photos are typically curated in galleries, where each picture is linked to a page selling the product. Increasingly, the amateur images are also showing up directly on product pages, next to professionally styled pictures.