Member Article

ASOS has launched its visual search function on iOS today

UK clothing giant ASOS has today (Thursday) introduced a new feature which allows users of its iOS app to search its product database using their phone camera.

The London-headquartered retailer has followed in the footsteps of John Lewis and Net-a-Porter in introducing the tech to its app, which allows users to search over 85,000 of the retailer’s product lines using just a photo accesible from the camera icon in the app’s search bar.

ASOS has said it will be adding 5,000 items a week to the new service, which can provide fashion inspiration from anything from an Instagram post to someone walking the street.

The new feature comes as the clothing giant, which recently announced a massive new distribution centre in the US, ramps up its innovation and tech efforts with plans to add a further 200 employees to its 900-strong tech team over the next 12 months.

Digital product director at ASOS, Andy Berks, believes that innovation has been at the heart of the fashion retailer’s offering since its foundation back in 2000, but argues that this has always been with the customer in mind, rather than just introducing snazzy tech for the sake of it.

He continued: “Our latest tech, Visual Search, is a case in point: inspiration can strike you anywhere and at any time – whether it’s a photo in a magazine, scrolling through an Instagram feed or even on a local street corner.

“Now, with just a couple of taps of their mobile device, ASOS customers can capture that fleeting moment and instantly search our 85,000 product lines to find the item that’s inspired them – or similar - at just the right time.”