How can you use visual search to grow business? We explain what is behnd this new consumer trend in searching, and how your business can benefit from it.
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Voice Search has become a big trend in recent years. Siri or Alexa help you with any problem and question on command. However, a new technology is now in the starting blocks that could replace previous search engines.
We’re talking about Visual Search. These are not search queries that are made by text or voice. With Visual Search, as the name suggests, everything is visual, and you can use visual search to grow business in the increasinly online sales environment.
Use visual search to grow business
We explain to you exactly how the whole thing works, what benefits this technology brings especially for retailers and marketing managers and how it will revolutionize the search engines.
How to use voice search to grow your business
1. What is Visual Search?
Visual Search is a visual search query on the Internet. This means that users in a search engine not only simply enter a word to search for something, but also get the desired results via an image. So, for example, if you have found a picture of a specific t-shirt and you would like to buy it, but you do not have precise information about where to buy the shirt, you can simply use the picture in the search engine and it will search for everyone matching results.
2. How does the technology behind the term work?
The technology behind Visual Search is actually relatively easy to explain. The visual search is based on machine learning and artificial as well as neural networks. This means that artificial intelligence is created that is constantly evolving and learning by itself. So when we submit an image as a search query, the corresponding platform uses a huge network of images and information. It compares the requested image with all images that the database has saved and displays all matching results.
The search engine also considers which keyword would match the picture. In this way it can establish further connections to other images and display even more results. The more images there are in the database, the more results the search engine can present.
3. What are the advantages of Visual Search for retailers and marketing managers?
Probably the greatest advantage of Visual Search is that it is much easier for the user to find the results they want via an image than to have to describe the information or product they are looking for with texts. The user can simply take a picture of a product himself, make it a search query and thus get all the information about it.
This technical solution is particularly practical for online trading. Many companies in a wide range of industries are therefore already using Visual Search for themselves – for example, the fashion area. Interested customers take a picture of a piece of clothing on the go, do a search with the respective provider and get a lot of suitable offers. Of course, this makes shopping easier. But Visual Search is also very helpful in the field of interior design or art.
Wherever the visual aspect of a product plays an important role, Visual Search can help you find suitable results using a search query.
4. Where is Visual Search already used?
Different companies are already using different technologies for Visual Search. These include, for example, Pinterest, Google, H&M, ASOS, Amazon and Adobe Stock.
Pinterest:
Pinterest got the visual search trend rolling in the first place. Since Pinterest is an image-based portal, the visual search is of course a good match here. There you can upload a self-created image and automatically get matching and similar images.
Google:
Google already offers image search, which can be used, for example, to find out on which pages the image is used everywhere. With the Google Lens app, real objects can now also be photographed and Google shows suitable results.
H&M and ASOS:
In the fashion industry, companies like H&M and ASOS are already using Visual Search. They had the technology implemented to make it easier for their buyers to find products. This means customers no longer have to search for items of clothing that they have seen anywhere before. Simply take a picture of the garment, upload it to the system and there are numerous suitable suggestions.
Amazon:
Online giant Amazon also relies on the functions of Visual Search. Customers can take pictures of an object in the app with the cell phone camera and Amazon searches for suitable results. This works with almost every product.
Adobe Stock:
Marketing is used time and again for various purposes such as websites, newsletters or print products. Anyone looking for new images here will quickly find Adobe Stock. Visual Search is also used here. If you already have an image and would like to find similar or identical images, you can simply upload your image here and Adobe Stock will automatically find similar images.
The companies mentioned above are not the only ones. Gradually more and more companies rely on visual search and develop their own technologies or buy companies that already have such technologies. In the area of marketing, Visual Search will certainly continue to spread widely in the future.
5. What are the disadvantages of the technology?
So far, you can mainly find positive aspects about Visual Search. Only a few negative things circulate about it on the Internet. So of course we ask ourselves, is this kind of search engine really consistently positive? It quickly becomes apparent that visual search has not yet reached the minds of companies and internet users.
Companies are only gradually becoming aware of this and are trying to use Visual Search to break new ground in the online world. There are also some questions. How well has Visual Search worked so far? Are the results really always in line with my requested image? How well does the system recognize the details in my photo? Does it always lead to the results that I imagined? These questions will be answered with further development and optimization.
6. Look into the future
Visual Search is still in its infancy. The databases often lack sufficient references. However, the possibilities are growing day by day. The number of search queries via visual search increases. Even if this looks relatively small in addition to the number of text-based search queries, growth can be seen. As more and more research is carried out into the benefits we can get from Visual Search, more and more technologies are emerging.
So we can assume that Visual Search will still be a big trend, especially for online retail. As already described, Visual Search already offers so many advantages that we can be sure that this topic will mutate into a fixed service.
