Bing Image-Based Shopping Improves How Consumers Shop Online

Bing introduced image-based product search. It features three new ways for consumers to find your products without having to depend on keywords.

There are three different ways to find products. Bing image-based shopping can drive shopping traffic in an intuitive and non-keyword dependent way.

1. Product Discovery by Images, not Keywords

The first innovation is helping shoppers find products by what the product looks like.

A user can search using a general term like like shoes. Next they click into the shopping section from which they can select an image of a product that looks like what they’re looking for to discover similar products.

Or, a shopper can crop the image to highlight a feature of a product that they like in order to find more products that have the feature that they like.

Here’s how Bing image-based product search:

This is how Bing image-based shopping search works

2. Search by Uploading an Image

With image-based product search a shopper can describe what they’re looking for by using an image.

This new feature allows consumers to upload an image from the web or an image from the store in order to find it at a better price or to find other products that are similar.

All a user has to do is click the camera icon in order to engage with the image up-loader.

It may not be immediately apparent what that icon is for. It seems it might be useful is if an animation or tooltip would briefly show what that’s for, and once dismissed it wouldn’t show again.

This is what the Bing image search image upload icon looks like:

3. Bing Suggests Complementary Products

The third useful way to shop is what Bing calls their “Goes Well With“ feature.

For example, when a shopper is viewing dresses and selects one to view more details, Bing suggests shoes that goes well with the selected dress.

Screenshot of Bing’s Goes Well With feature:

Image-Based Product Search Feels Natural

Bing’s image shopping search evolves away from keyword based search to a way of shopping.

Image-based shopping may  closely approximate the way consumers shop in the real world.

When a consumer enters a physical store, they use their eyes to navigate to the type of product they want and and then scan for styles and colors, all visually.

This kind of online shopping may come closer to how consumers naturally shop in the real world, in a way that is interesting and may lead to more product discovery and sales.

Bing image-based shopping introduces three innovations that encourage consumers to shop in a way they are accustomed to shopping.

Stores with a web presence should appreciate this new way to gain shopping traffic.

Consumers who are actively shopping may find Bing’s image shopping search to be a convenient and interactive way to search for a product.

Read the official Bing announcement here:

Bing Shopping: Introducing New Image-Based Product Search