Half a decade after first conceiving of an online wardrobe management tool, Debbie Fraser and John Leahy are preparing to beta-test their mobile app that helps people choose clothes.

Leahy owns Bedford-based web development company ImmediaC and has been working with Fraser for the past five years. Together, they came up with the idea as an enterprise-based application for clothing retailers. They launched a separate division of ImmediaC called Imagine That Technologies to develop the product. But they found it hard to land a contract with large companies for various reasons. So they started over to build a consumer app that could tap several revenue streams from individuals and corporate customers.

The product is now a two-dimensional augmented reality-based tool that lets people super-impose pictures of clothes on their own image on their phone. They can swap clothes and accessories around to find the best combination, and they can swap colours to find the one that’s right for them.

“We have an app that is about 95 per cent finished,” said Leahy in his office overlooking the Sackville River. “It’s a shopping app that lets you try on clothes and share them on social media. So it’s a virtual fitting room on your phone.”

Fraser, who joined the conversation via video-link from Phoenix, where she is on a business trip, added that users can view the clothes from their own clothes as well as something they’re thinking about purchasing to see what matches and suits the wearer. For example, a woman thinking of buying a scarf can see what it looks like on herself with clothes she already owns. She could also share the results on social media.

Over the past 18 years, ImmediaC  has built clients more than 2,500 websites — more, Leahy believes, than any other web design company in Canada. But like many service-based companies, they devote resources to the development of products. There are two other products in development that Leahy declined to detail. He simply said that ImmediaC is a bit of an incubator.

They said ImmediaC built the latest version of Imagine That from the ground up, and have been testing it in-house. Now they will test it was about 100 young fashion-conscious individuals in preparation for a full launch this summer. The initial product operates off Apple’s iOS platform, and the intention is for it to be available free in the App store.

“There’s a lot of competition but none of them has all of what we’re doing,” said Leahy. The competitors, he said, don’t allow customers to try on clothes over their own photos and are more limited in the mix-and-match functions.

Clothing brands make photos of their products available developers of such apps, so there is no difficulty in finding merchandise for the app.

There are three ways the app could make money — bringing in retailers to customize their own product; taking a cut if someone buys clothes through the app; and selling premium features on the app to consumers.

Leahy and Fraser hope Imagine That will eventually become a standalone company with its own team. But they added that for the next year or so it will continue to be a division of ImmediaC.