UK retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) has unveiled a new photo search feature called Style Finder on its mobile site, intended to enhance customers’ online shopping experience.
The launch is part of the company’s digital-first strategy, which it aims to make a third of all Clothing & Home sales to be online by 2022.
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Style Finder allows customers to find similar-looking products available at M&S by uploading an existing photo or taking a new photo of any outfit.
Customers can use any photo such as fashion finds on social media, an outfit in a magazine or a product in-store to use the feature.
The feature is initially made available for product categories such as womenswear and menswear, enabling customers to navigate and filter through a range of M&S fashion ranges.
M&S digital product and UX head Jim Cruickshank said: “We know our customers are busier than ever and are often most inspired when they’re out and about.
“Style Finder helps customers instantly find what they’re looking for, without the need to manually search and filter through our products.
“Enhancing the customer experience is central to our digital transformation journey. This is a brilliant example of how we’re becoming more relevant, more often, to our customers who are increasingly shopping online and in particular using mobile devices.”
Visual search engine Syte has developed the new search technology for M&S, which is currently available on M&S.com using mobile devices.
According to the company, Style Finder tool is powered by artificial intelligence to display results with the closest match.
It also allows customers to add additional filters in order to find the perfect match for the product based on personal preferences such as size, price, and colour.
