According to human psychology, people are extremely visual beings. They have the ability to grasp more than 80% of the information visually. This prompts me to point out the importance of visual search. As you know, visual search has been around for several years and is built into several popular search engines and social media platforms.
An example of this are platforms such as Pearltree and Pinterest that are centered around visual discovery.
However, the technology is only now fully catching up with the ambition. And that’s what makes visual search, a relatively unexplored technology, an opportunity for the retail industry to shoot for exponential growth.
In this blog, I am going to get you acquainted with everything about the rising term- visual search, its concept, and its driving impact on the retail industry.
The Concept of Visual Search
Before we move on to visual search, let’s first understand how image search works.
Visual search on the other hand goes way beyond the capabilities of an image search and analyzes the picture provided by the user via cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), etc. to identify and even interpret its contents. Then it searches the web for images that are closest to the product/object and not just generally similar images. Safe to say visual search works wonders when you want to search for something but can’t figure out a way to describe it with text.
Now, with consumer habits rapidly shifting towards online discovery, visual search is a tool that every retail business would benefit from having in its arsenal.
Let me explain with an example of a global retail website. This e-commerce giant leverages the power of visual search coupled with deep retail by letting you upload a screenshot of the outfit that you want to purchase and then presents you with clothing options that are similar to the ones in the screenshot, sometimes even the exact same ones. How’s that for an enhanced end-user experience?
How Can Retail Organizations Benefit from Visual Search?
According to a study by a leading visual search provider, 74% of consumers say that text-based keyword searches are inefficient in helping them find the products they want, while 62% of consumers prefer visual search over any other search method.
And rightfully so, which is why there are several retail businesses in the market that are set to tap into its full potential.
Here’s how visual search can help your organization:
Increase your revenue
A timely investment in visual search can give your business the opportunity to vastly increase its revenues. Recent studies by Gartner reckon that brands investing in visual search for their platforms can expect upto a 30% rise in their revenues. To add to that, the pandemic proved to be a pivotal point for retailers with the number of people switching to online shopping increasing daily.
So, as a retailer, you have the chance to tap into a new customer base and you can do so by launching a visual search or a search by image feature. This feature will prompt your customer to use a camera to scan an object or a barcode. Once the object is scanned, a pop up will appear showing that object as well as a few similar ones with an attractive thumbnail, price tag, reviews, ratings, and more. When they tap on one, they will be redirected to your website to make the purchase. Not only will this help you boost your web traffic but also positively impact your top and bottom line!
Create a connection with new customers
Potential customers will look to make any kind of personal connection with a website. They must trust your website to make a potential purchasing decision. A team of a global image sharing and social media service stated that 90% of users’ purchasing decisions were driven by the information attained through visual search technology.
It is therefore evident that visual discovery allows the consumer to generate a more emotional connection, which translates into less price sensitivity. Visual search is therefore the best way in which you can create connections with customers through image-based content.
Integrate with chatbots
Visual search will make it easier for brand chatbots to utilize conversational AI and deep learning to communicate with end-users. Ideally, as a retailer, you can leverage visual search technology to engage with end consumers and access powerful insights through chatbots. And now with the advent of generative AI models, it is imminent for retailers to get onboard the AI train.
Explore how we harnessed AI to manage compliance requests for a leading European company.
You can encourage your customers to converse with the chatbot and scan a barcode or share a screenshot, following which the chatbot can redirect them to the closest fit to their search. Additionally, if you want to take it up a notch, you can get the chatbot to interpret the picture and provide similar items that the customer might like and increase the organic reach of your online store! Isn’t that a win-win?
Conclusion
Visual search offers organizations new opportunities to expand their market, increase their exposure, and reach new customers.
Don’t let exciting new marketing possibilities turn into big chargeback headaches. Be honest and accurate in how you portray your products and services visually.
At this point, I would like to specify that when it comes to the power of visual search, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are several other applications for visual search such as FaceNet, a system that learns mapping directly from face images onto a compact Euclidean space to identify facial similarities. You can read more about it here.
Reach out to us to learn more about visual search and visit us at Nitor Infotech to know more about our Artificial Engineering & Machine Learning capabilities.
