6 Not So Obvious Benefits of Visual Search for eCommerce Businesses

The essentials for eCommerce sites are continuously evolving but one thing remains constant, the need for optimised search options on your site.

Even so, many sites are missing out on conversions and revenue because their search capabilities cannot accurately connect users with the products they are looking for.

This is where visual search comes in.

The benefits of visual search

Since 50% of potential sales are lost due to visitors not being able to find what they’re looking for, visual search engines can provide a product discovery solution that not only boosts engagement but also drives conversions.

Providing customers with the ability to search for visually similar items to the product they are viewing or providing the option to upload an image of their own empowers customers to find the exact item they had in mind.

Giving your customers control of their user experience in this way inspires product interaction and pushes them through the sales funnel faster.

Let’s move on to discussing the not-so-obvious ways solutions such as Visually Similar Search can benefit your eCommerce business.

1. Capitalising on in-stock items

Once an out-of-stock alert interrupts an otherwise seamless product discovery process, customers will be quick to exit the sales funnel.

Resolve this issue before it causes them to click off your site by introducing a visual search button to your product page.

Such icons can redirect visitors to in-stock alternatives to the item they originally searched for.

Encouraging customers to continue their product discovery experiences leads to recovering purchases that may have been lost without the help of a visual search.

Related: Does AI Improve the Product Discovery Experience?

2. Boosting profit margins

Whether you are a well-established business or a start-up, improving profit margins will be important to you.

After all, this indicates your business’s health and capacity for growth.

Utilise the abilities of visual search eCommerce on your site to boost profit margins with minimal effort.

Research shows that private labels yield up to 9% more profit than national labels.

With this figure in mind, begin to direct shoppers toward your own version of branded items when they are on-site by presenting them as a visual search result.

Boost profit margins as the increased interaction with own-brand products will lead to more lucrative purchases for your company.

3. Merging social media and eCommerce

With more than half of the world using social media, consumer expectations are largely dictated by experiences on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook.

Because of this, basic text search is no longer enough in an online space that is driven by visuals.

You can cater to the needs of this large audience with a helping hand from visual search.

Give customers the freedom to discover products the same way they do on social media to increase the user-friendliness of your site.

Once you establish your brand as one that improves the modern customer experience, you will establish yourself as a brand worth returning to.

4. Increasing efficiency and accuracy

Consumers will accept nothing less than fast and accurate search results.

They no longer have the patience to manoeuvre through the guesswork that surrounds text-based searches or to scroll through irrelevant results.

Visual search replaces the need to translate inspiration into words and instead allows customers to directly upload an image or perform a visual search.

Doing so quickly pulls through much more accurate results than what can be found via the traditional search bar.

5. Increasing product interaction

As an eCommerce site, it is more than likely that you have PPC or ads directing consumers to specific web pages.

Now that you’ve successfully got them on-site, entice them to explore other products by embedding visual search on those landing pages.

Subtly guiding your consumers through your site with a genuinely helpful tool that personalises their journey will provide increased engagement and reduced bounce rates.

6. Improve the performance of your other tools

As the cliche goes, ‘teamwork makes the dream work’. Despite being overused, this phrase is relatable, even in the context of conversion rate optimisation solutions.

Our suite of tools has been designed to work alone or alongside our other solutions to improve the customer experience.

When Visually Similar Search is integrated with our Search and Product Recommendations the benefits of each can be increased.

Offering your customer more opportunities to discover their perfect purchase is a win-win.

From a customer’s perspective, they receive an engaging on-site journey and a successful product discovery.

From an eCommerce perspective, you receive a successful purchase and a potential returning customer.

Conclusions

Improving the customer experience, securing purchases and creating the potential for loyal customers seems like a mammoth task.

When you integrate visual search on your site, you can begin to achieve these goals with minimal effort.

Ensure you are consistently meeting the modern consumer’s needs and profiting from the not-so-obvious benefits of visual search.