The way consumers are discovering, finding, and buying products is changing. With the increasing adoption of smartphones and tablets, more and more are relying on visual interactions to jumpstart and complete their buying journeys.
From using photos to find similar products to shopping directly from videos and social media images, companies must evaluate these present consumer behavior changes in relation to available technologies to both stay competitive and provide what consumers expect.
Gartner’s “Three Best Practices to Optimize Digital Commerce for Visual Experiences” is a comprehensive analysis of the current state of visual experiences. Analysts Christina Klock and Marty Resnick reviewed the key challenges and recommended solutions.
The encompassing challenge is what the retail industry has been working on over the last couple of years. That is, using visual experiences to address the demand of digital savvy shoppers for personalized retail experiences regardless of the channel they choose to engage with companies.
Jumpstarting the shopping journey is visual search which allows consumers to discover and buy visually similar products using an image. Even if the visual search market is still in its infancy, a few groundbreaking providers are already offering retailers the opportunity to enhance their consumers’ shopping experiences.
In particular, Syte was cited in the Gartner report as an example of solutions that not only offer visual search but also augment other technologies. It also included Syte together with other visual search providers that have been proven to help companies with commerce websites that have over 2,000 Stock Keeping Units (SKUs).
The defining feature that sets Syte apart is accuracy. Compared with older visual solutions and benchmarked by some of the largest global companies such as Microsoft and Samsung, Syte has an accuracy of 95%. Leveraging a breakthrough technology in the area of particle physics to enable better customer experience in retail, Syte also delivers an average response time of 500ms and over 15,000 attributes and values for their Deep Tagging solution.
With Syte, retailers such as Farfetch, Boohoo, and Marks & Spencer get 2X conversion rates, more than 43% clickthrough rate, over 12% average order value, and more. Delivering unprecedented customer engagement that boost conversions and sales, Syte ensures a seamless shopping experience both online and offline.
Visual search is only one of the many facets of visual experiences. Across the buying journey, another solution to evaluate is having the option to enhance consumers’ product experiences through augmented or virtual reality. Companies can also look into making visual content instantly shoppable and ensuring that the overall shopping experience from discovery to check out is smooth to increase conversions.
Source: Gartner, Three Best Practices to Optimize Digital Commerce for Visual Experiences, Christina Klock & Marty Resnick, 26 March 2019.