Visual search is expected to have a huge impact on eCommerce marketing. It transforms how customers shop and increase their expectations. This article explains what visual search is and why it will impact the way you market your products.
What is Visual Search?
Have you seen a nice object somewhere and you want to search for its name but don’t know how to express it in words? Visual search eliminates that problem. It is a technology powered by artificial intelligence that allows users to conduct an internet search using an image.
This is different from “image search”, in which you type a text-based query into Google and click on the “Images” tab. Visual search starts with a picture and deciphers what is in it. Afterward, you’ll receive the exact object or place being search, or whatever is most similar to it.
90 percent of the information received by our brain is visual. As noted, it is sometimes tough to translate something we see into words. This is the reason why visual search is so powerful and why the world’s biggest companies invest in it.
How Visual Search Will Change Your Market
Even if you don’t work in a visual industry, it will still impact the way you market. Read on to find out how.
Raising digital transformation expectations
It is just astounding how quickly customer expectations change. Remember the time you were shopping online and paid for a great product using a thumbprint? Or perhaps you had experienced checking into your hotel room with your phone as a digital key.
Whatever it was, you remember it. Moreover, it is very likely that you compare that experience with the service that other companies offer. That is exactly how visual search will impact your business, whether you use it or not.
Social influencer optimization
The use of influencers within the retail industry is currently prevalent. A study by Retail Dive showed that 91% of luxury brands reported using influencers. Activewear comes in second with 84%, and beauty brands at 83%. However, influencers have not yet reached their full potential. This is where visual search comes in.
Today, social influencers tend to post about a specific piece they’re wearing and urge users to buy that piece on the retailers’ site. Yet, visual search enables users to scan the picture of the influencer and tag the pieces of their outfit by type. In other words, you could make the influencer’s whole outfit shoppable.
Furthermore, users may also use this technology to get more similar options on the outfit. This opens customers to a much wider array of buying options.
Giving customers what they didn’t know they want
Henry Ford famously said over a hundred years ago, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” This quote is still very relevant in today’s innovative landscape.
Customers are using visual search to look for inspiration. This means that they want others to tell them what they want. You can achieve this by truly analyzing what customers are searching for and using AI to serve up the most similar products.
