Amazon introduces new visual search features in shopping app
Amazon is making it easier for customers to use images and videos in their mobile product searches.
The e-tail giant, which says it has seen a 70% increase year-over-year in visual searches worldwide on its app, has added several new features to enhance the mobile visual search experience. These follow its July 2024 release of the Rufus generative AI-based expert shopping assistant in the U.S. version of its shopping app.
When customers search on the Amazon app for an item with a visual description such as "flannel shirt," Amazon now shows descriptive image suggestions while they’re typing. Customers can select the image that best describes what they’re looking for and browse Amazon’s selection of relevant products.
Customers can also now add text to any image they upload to the Amazon Lens tool, which lets app users search for products based on photos from their device’s camera roll.
For example, if they upload an image of a beige three-seat sofa, they can add text to specify a brand, color, material, or desired dimensions. Amazon’s search results will surface items similar to the original image, with the parameters set via text.
Additional new visual search features in the Amazon shopping app include:
- Customers can tap “More Like This” on any product image in the app’s search results to find similar products.
- When searching in the app for home items, appliances, toys, or electronics, customers can now watch product videos within the search results without clicking on a product.
- When customers are looking at an image and spot an item they’re interested in, they can isolate the item and search for it specifically using a circle feature which allows them to draw a circle around the item they would like use to search via Amazon Lens, as well as change the size of the bounding boxes or move the boxes to focus on a different item in the image.
[READ MORE: Amazon enhances online shopping experience with AI, AR]
