A picture is worth many search terms

Have you ever been in the position where you know what you want, but you don’t know what it is until you see it? It seems online consumers struggle with this dilemma, too, and when search terms fail them, they readily turn to images.

Shoetube and TheBagLady U.S. are American clients of visual search and browse company Pixsta, as are The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan and Handbag in the U.K. Pixsta’s clients currently hail from France, Germany and Greece, too.

Pixsta’s AdImages product allows marketers to present ads as a selection of images. The images, which can be browsed by consumers for product, price and brand information, update with relevant product suggestions when a consumers clicks on an item.

Despite the length of time and engagement that Pixsta AdImages ads offer, no click-through costs are incurred until the consumer clicks on the “shop” button. At this stage the consumer is taken to a product-specific landing page from where the checkout is but a click away.

"Pixsta offers an innovative and highly targeted means of reaching a new customer base,” said Emma Bott, e-commerce manager for fashion store Karen Millen. “The concept of browsing for garments visually, rather than being dependent on keywords or descriptions defined by the retailer, is far closer to the in-store shopping experience."

Tags: ad format, product images, visual search