Retailers are rushing to crowdsource their produce shots by harvesting photos from social platforms. This is the biggest trend happening right now.

Each picture is curated in galleries, where they are linked to a page selling the product. The amateur images are also showing up directly on product pages too, next to professionally taken ones. The reason for this: people may trust their peers more than a brand, says Mimi Banks, director of social media at L'Oreal's Lancome brand.

The team at Lancome recently goaded women into posting portraits of themselves sans makeup for a project coded "#bareselfie." which urged women to be "proud of the skin you're in." They also tied in with one of Lancome's latest products: a cosmetic called Dreamtone promising to correct blemishes and weird skin tones without blush and powder.

Other brands like Coach, created a website that collects photos from women wearing its shoes all over the world. The pictures are routed to the company via the hashtag #coachfromabove.

The strategies constitute more than branding, according to Olapic, according to a New York based startup that helps retail companies collect, curate and display social content. These tie-ins increase the odds of a purchase by from 5 percent to 12 percent on average.

And since high quality cameras are a standard in new smartphones, consumers are searching for a sense of authenticity that's lacking in traditional advertising.

Real people, real style? That seems to be the trend that's happening right now.