Amazon has rolled out five new features that aim to boost its product search capabilities for a faster and more precise shopping experience.

The move comes as the firm recorded a 70 per cent year-on-year increase on visual searches worldwide.

The updates include a ‘Visual Suggestions’ feature that shows customers descriptive image suggestions for items while they are searching for them.

The new technology enables customers to select the image that best describes what they seek to purchase and browse Amazon’s selection of relevant products.

Shoppers are also able to add text to any image they upload to Amazon Lens, an existing feature that allows customers to upload an image, take a photo, or scan a barcode to discover exact matches and similar items in the Amazon Shopping app.

By adding text, shoppers can make their search results more accurate. For example, they can add text to specify a brand, colour, material, or desired dimensions.

As a result, Amazon will show items that look like the original image.

A feature called ‘More Like This’ allows customers to search for any product image in Amazon’s search results to find similar products and speed up their search.

On the Amazon Shopping app for home items, appliances, toys or electronics, customers can also now watch product videos within the search results without clicking on a product.

Additionally, shoppers can isolate an item found in an image and purchase similar options available, by uploading the picture on Amazon Lens and drawing a circle around the item they’d like to purchase.

Amazon has recently been investing in its customer service capabilities, including launch of new AI-powered technology like project Amelia, a generative AI (genAI) assistant that seeks to deliver bespoke selling advice for businesses to boost productivity and drive seller growth.

Project Amelia is developed using a combination of broad world knowledge that informs many genAI solutions, coupled with expertise and specialised knowledge of selling on Amazon, with the aim of providing tailored advice for sellers on its platform.

The retailer recently also rolled out Rufus, a genAI shopping assistant that uses the technology to facilitate customer review highlights and improved product recommendations and descriptions.

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