Visual search has advanced significantly in recent years and continues to grow in 2021. According to Invespcro, over 36% of online shoppers say they have used visual search, and more than half find visual information more helpful than text. In 2021, it’s likely that both large and small companies will enhance their visual search features to capitalize on this trend. Major companies like Amazon and Pinterest have already experienced a rise in visual search popularity over the past year. For example, Pinterest reported over 600 million monthly visual searches in 2018, which is impressive.
Gartner reports that companies that quickly adopt visual search and redesign their websites in 2021 could see a 30% boost in digital revenue. This is definitely enticing. After all, an increase of 30% in revenue is very attractive. Additionally, data shows that 62% of millennials prefer visual search tools over other search methods. Given these striking statistics, it’s essential to start considering the use of visual technology on your ecommerce site. It’s also important to highlight that 74% of online shoppers believe traditional text-based search is not effective for finding the right product. Consequently, almost three-quarters of internet searches in the U.S. are driven by visual search.
If you are selling the following products/services:
- Clothing
- Furniture
- Cars
- Groceries
- Vacations
- Household items
- Electronics
- Wines and spirits
Then visual search technology is a priority in 2021. However, this doesn’t limit visual to the above categories of products/services.
The challenges of Visual Search
Although visual search technology is appealing, it has its own bottlenecks which you have to understand before employing visual search technology. Certainly, visual search is much more complex than traditional text search because the image itself becomes the query. Search engines have been doing tremendous work in trying to understand the components of images. However, sometimes the search results may return irrelevant images. Moreover, visual search technology hasn’t been monetized yet and it is not yet clear how companies will compete with other products relying on text search.
The opportunities
Despite the above obvious challenges, visual search will be embraced by brands in 2021. If you want to increase your revenue and remain competitive, investing in visual search will be prudent. Since 55% of online shopper say visual images contribute to their buying decisions, ecommerce with visual search features are definitely going to benefit.