Visual Search: What It Is and Why It Boosts Online Sales

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Visual search for e-commerce is an increasingly established trend. By using images to perform searches, you optimize the user experience and can attract them to your brand more easily. Find out how to apply and take advantage of this resource!

Rock Content Writer

Nov 7, 21 | 13 min read
visual search
Reading time: 11 minutes
The growth in Internet search volume is a double-edged sword for marketing professionals . At the same time that the phenomenon represents an opportunity to reach consumers through this channel, the competition to attract users' attention is increasing.

Therefore, the search for new media that facilitate the public experience must be incessant . A trend that is gaining strength is visual search, driven by the feeling present among 74% of Internet users that searches in text form are no longer as efficient.

Using this resource can be the solution to improve your e- skype database commerce traffic and, as a result, boost sales . But, to do so, you need to master the concept and know the main techniques related to visual search. And that's why we created this article!

Interested? Then read on!

What is visual search?
How is visual search applied to ecommerce?
How can your ecommerce benefit from visual search?
What are the most relevant visual search tools?
How to apply visual search for ecommerce?
What are the success stories in the use of visual search for ecommerce?
What is visual search?
As you may have already deduced, visual search is an alternative way of searching the Internet. Instead of typing the text and keywords you want to find, this resource allows navigation to be started from an image , which can be a photo taken by the user or even a screenshot.

This is a trend that is gaining strength due to the development of digital transformation in society. Today, a large number of people have advanced cell phones and cameras, which increases the possibilities of using technology.

However, the technology behind visual search is much more complex than these devices. It is machine learning , which is responsible for much of the resources needed for Google's and other search engine algorithms to recognize the elements of an image.

The process of machine learning is similar to that of a human acquiring knowledge . The computer is fed with data that gradually increases in size.

With this, machines learn to distinguish variations between different information standards. To enhance this, Google cross-references data with its own database and allows the computer to connect the pieces of the puzzle and identify what an image represents and what its context is.

How is visual search applied to ecommerce?
You've already understood what visual search is, but what does all this information have to do with your ecommerce? The answer is: absolutely everything . To attract more consumers to your online store, you need to optimize their experience and pave the way for them to find your page, right?

So, you need to adapt to the preferences of the audience, who, by pure human nature, have a much more visual intelligence. After all, 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is in the form of images , which are processed 60 thousand times faster than text, no matter how scannable it is.

Using visual search in your e-commerce therefore means making it easier for customers to find your products. All they have to do is upload photos of the items they want and the search pages will show them visually similar options.

If you already have a strategy related to the use of SEO techniques, you already know the great advantages of optimizing your buyer persona 's search journey .

Below, we will detail the benefits of introducing visual search into your ecommerce operations.

How can your ecommerce benefit from visual search?
What is driving the public to have an increasing interest in online shopping? The answers may vary, but points such as the agility of the process and the practicality of completing the transaction cannot be ignored. That said, competition in the market forces brands to find creative ways to leverage these factors .

The first advantage observed in this search method is therefore the simplification of the consumer's journey. Unlike keyword-focused searches, the use of images allows for much greater precision in the results.

The easier and more accurate it is for consumers to find what they are looking for, the greater their satisfaction will be . As we know, satisfied customers are more likely to convert, which is an important factor in increasing your company's profits and other results.

That's not just an opinion. According to a study by Criteo , stores that invest in this technology are expected to see an increase in their profit margins of up to 30% by 2021.

In addition, a market mapping conducted by Slyce revealed that e-commerce sites that use visual search have:

48% more product views;
75% increase in chances of customer return;
a website dwell rate of 58% higher than normal;
9% growth in the average ticket.
Want to know more details about the benefits of this resource? Keep reading!

Integrating shopping experiences
Omnichannel marketing , carried out across multiple channels, is increasingly crucial to the success of business strategies. The increased connectivity of the public, who can access the Internet from anywhere, means that shopping experiences are becoming more and more integrated.

The trend is easy to see. A Google study that anticipates the novelties of Black Friday 2019, for example, indicates that, for the first time, the volume of purchases made online will equal that of physical purchases . The main reason for this is multi-channel transactions, which should represent 25% of the total.

In other words, consumers want the convenience of online shopping, while also wanting the ease of viewing products in physical stores. With visual search, that's entirely possible. A person can walk into a store, take a photo of an item, and post the image online.

As a result, you will find options for products similar to the one that sparked your interest. If you work well on a strategy in this regard, you will ensure that your online store is among the alternatives in the SERP .

Reducing obstacles
Although the use of keywords and the efficiency of Google's algorithm reduce the number of results in a text search, the sheer volume of content on the Internet can create distractions.

This means that when searching for a particular product, the user may find options that go far beyond the purchase of this item.

Because the visual characteristics of items are more specific than their descriptions, visual search reduces the number of unnecessary results . This optimizes the user experience and significantly increases the chances of your store receiving hits.

Possibility of measurement
A strategy is only truly effective if it can be measured and improved. Since it deals directly with searches performed on engines, an approach that includes visual searches can be measured even without a specific application for the store. All you need to do is use Google Analytics .

With the tool, it is possible to discover information regarding the results that users find most interesting, the brands they like the most and, most importantly, the moment in which the purchase decision was made . This way, you can identify the conditions and product categories that stood out the most.

Google Analytics also generates insights into customer conversion rate and the percentage of users who actually clicked on product pages after viewing the search result. With this data in mind, you can take important actions to optimize your strategy.

What are the most relevant visual search tools?
As always happens when a trend emerges, several companies are already skype database competing for dominance in the visual search market. Facebook, for example, is already working to optimize the use of artificial intelligence in its marketplace .

At the beginning of 2019, the American giant bought a startup focused on this type of development. Other social networks , such as Instagram and Snapchat, have already made available, in some countries, options for their users to buy products on Amazon from photos taken within the application.

Some tools, however, are already getting ahead of this dispute. Below, we have separated information about the main applications that, today, already work with visual search.

Google Lens
Google Lens turns any smart device into a highly efficient visual search tool. Using the program, you can use the images captured on your phone for various purposes. Even photos of text are translated by artificial intelligence and converted into data.

The features go beyond commercial purposes. Users can, for example, take photos of a business card and ask the voice assistant to add the names and numbers on it to their contact list . The same process can be used with Google Translate, which can translate printed text in real time.

In terms of product sales, Google Lens recognizes more than a billion different items. At the end of 2018, the company announced that the application was available for use in regular image searches, carried out on the search engine's main page.