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Visual Search: A New Trend in Online Marketing Services

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Oodles Marketing
Visual Search: A New Trend in Online Marketing Services

Digital marketing has come a long way since its origin. Online marketing services have developed significantly over the past decade with the incorporation of artificial intelligence, natural language processing, personalization, and multimedia. Currently, visual search marketing is one of the trends on the rise. Despite its complexity, it is gaining impetus to be one of the most sought after marketing tools by online retailers.   

Visual Search | An Emerging Digital Marketing Trend

Visual search marketing is a new digital marketing service approach that applies the concept of visual search engines.  When a user uploads an image with a device’s camera (such as smartphones or tablets), the visual search performs the processing. Consequently, the search algorithms identify image objects and perform an image search for those objects. For example, if a user uploads a picture of sunglasses as a query, a visual search retrieves images of identical and similar-looking sunglasses.   With time, visual search constantly improves and expands its knowledge base. It can go beyond identifying the objects in photos and returning identical or similar images through its extensive database. It can also carry out actions like suggesting local retailers and providing customer reviews.  

Primary benefits of visual search

 

Targeting the next generation customers

According to a Forbes article, around 62% of the Generation Z population now discovers brands through social applications. The new generation is all about getting things done faster. These customers usually have a clear idea of their wants, but either they don’t want to describe it or fail to do so. Visual search speeds up this process of product search. It improves search efficiency for those who don’t want to invest time looking at hundreds of search results.   

Engage with New Customers

Customers now seek personal connections with the brands. Trust is of utmost importance for encouraging customers towards a potential purchasing decision. Visual discovery generates a higher emotional connection with customers. A higher connection means less price sensitivity for a product or service.  

Target active purchasers

Usually, users who already have made a purchase decision use visual search. Properly optimized content through visual search can enable people to interact with a business website.  It makes products compelling and personal. Visual search is also termed as “spearfishing”. This is because visual search shortens the number of steps and work between a customer searching for an item and then buying it from a website.  

Increase Your Revenue

A visual search tool can increase revenue dramatically. According to research conducted by Gartner, 30% of all online searches are “query less”. This indicates that search will be based more on images and less via texts. In another study by the Report Consultant, the global visual search market is estimated to surpass $14,727m during the forecast period 2018–2023.   Marketers and users can ignore its benefits. It is the reason why many leading brands are indulging in visual search for their online website. Some of the major ones include Marks & Spencer, Sephora, Lifestyle, Asos, Uniqlo, IKEA, Lush, and many more.  

PIONEERS OF VISUAL SEARCH

 

GOOGLE

The company launched Google Lens in October 2017. Google lens equips users to click pictures of an item or upload an existing photo. After this, Google yields relevant information. Google lens has the following features:    

  • Google lens can analyze texts. It can look up popular dishes on a menu, add events to the google calendar from a poster, get directions, and copy/paste long, complicated texts into a device efficiently.
  • The lens explores items being searched and similar items such as shoes, fashion wear, accessories, furniture, and many more products.
  • It can find nearby places and provides relevant information about popular landmarks, displays ratings, hours, and more.
  • Google lens can even scan bar and QR codes, identify plants and animals, and even scan and translate texts. 

 

PINTEREST

Pinterest debuted Lens in February 2017 before Google. The lens is an online/offline visual search tool. In addition, it integrates shopping pins with AI to identify objects and suggests related themes and products. A user can discover endless ideas with the Pinterest camera. Pinterest then returns with relevant results for a user regarding his query. A user can discover recipes or capture someone's outfit to find the items within the Pinterest database.

Conclusion 

Search technology has come a long way from traditional to AI. Business owners must be prepared for the future of selling. As per marketing industry experts, visual search is here to stay in digital marketing. Thus businesses must adapt to the changes and be prepared to embrace them.

 
At Oodles, we assist your business to gain real benefits from visual search marketing. Our experts guide you through all the use of the latest practices in online marketing services and come up with the best ones for your business. Connect with us to get started.
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