The continued rise of ecommerce has been turbo-charged by the effects of the pandemic. With so many stores closed, and consumers wary of crowded places, previously reluctant online shoppers have been forced to take the plunge into online shopping. At the same time, people who were already fans of ecommerce are buying online more often, and from more categories, than ever before. 

Retailers have always been early adopters of any technology that enables them to provide better services for their customers. Visual AI is the latest exciting tool in their armoury.  

What is visual AI?

Visual AI is a field of computer science that trains machines to make sense of images in much the same way as people do. With the help of computer vision and image-recognition technology, machines don’t just “see”; they are able to assign meaning to images and the objects within them.

Visual AI can “spot” an item within an image and categorise it as a dress a ring, or a lamp by comparing each item to images it has previously seen, just as a person would.  

It works because AI engines are trained by “looking at” hundreds of thousands of categorised and labelled images. The visual AI engine then processes and learns from every pixel, so it can refine and expand its understanding of different objects. This matters because it enables retailers to enrich their product data with additional details that can be used to improve anything from site search to personalisation.

What are the benefits for ecommerce?

Of all the applications for visual AI in ecommerce, perhaps the most critical is its ability to transform the product discovery experience. Visual AI helps consumers and retailers move away from the somewhat clunky experience of text-only search, based on terms like “formal black skirt”. Visual AI enables shoppers to find products that look like items that have caught their eye online or in the real world, without having to find the right words to describe them. 

For the shopper, it’s quick and intuitive, and it provides a new way to discover and buy that provides not just a pain-free experience but an outstanding one – one they want to come back for. And that’s great news for retailers and brands. 

This new study from BAV Group, WPP and visual AI specialists Syte, examines how this one layer of technology can help ecommerce brands and retailers to thrive, despite the current factors affecting the sector. 

The study covers many aspects of visual AI – from how it transforms the product discovery experience, to hyper-personalisation, like changing website colours to align with users’ moods, to massive uplifts in conversion rates and repeat visits. 

For more in-depth insight and analysis download Why Visual AI is the Next Frontier of Ecommerce PDF 19 MB