Walmart has launched a website that uses visual search to do the shopping for consumers.
The new TrendGetter uses image recognition technology to find the item a shopper is looking for on its website and display the options and prices, Walmart said in a Thursday (Dec. 8) press release.
To use the service, a consumer visits the TrendGetter website and either takes a picture of the item they want or uploads an image from their device. TrendGetter then finds similar items on Walmart’s website and allows the shopper to select and purchase an item, according to the release.
“This holiday season, we know our customers are searching for what they love at can’t-miss prices,” Walmart Vice President of Brand Strategy and Marketing Casey Schlaybaugh said in the release. “Now, whenever you find a product you love, you can easily search for a similar item at Walmart’s everyday low prices and purchase as soon as inspiration strikes.”
This new service uses Google’s Vision image recognition technology, according to an FAQ on the TrendGetter website. It can be used to shop for items in any category, including fashion, tech, toys and décor, according to the site.
With this new offering, Walmart adds a capability similar to that of Honey, the discounting app acquired by PayPal in 2020 and rebranded as PayPal Honey in a mobile Safari extension.
For the consumer, PayPal Honey “means bringing a lot of the incentives and rewards content” Honey is known for to more shoppers, PayPal Vice President and General Manager of Global Shopping told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in an interview posted Aug. 24.
Walmart’s TrendGetter also meets a need similar to that tackled by the virtual try-on (VTO) partnership of Amazon Fashion and Snapchat. Announced Nov. 3, this pact will start with eyewear and will let customers explore, shop and digitally try on thousands of eyewear styles directly on Snapchat and then seamlessly purchase them through the Amazon Fashion store.
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and parent company Alphabet, said in July that artificial intelligence (AI) powering a new wave of growth for Google search.
“AI is helping us create entirely new ways to search,” Pichai said July 26 during an earnings call. “People are using Google ads to do visual searches more than 8 billion times per month.”
As PYMNTS reported in November 2021, as AI has improved, consumers no longer have to figure out the perfect way to describe a particular blazer they saw once, for example, because many retailers are now adopting visual search that uses technology to identify the relevant items a shopper might be seeking.
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