Why You Need Fashion-Optimized Site Search for Your eCommerce Business

Why You Need Fashion-Optimized Site Search for Your eCommerce Business

Any shopper who has ever searched for a simple top using text search knows that traditional text search falls short in many areas.

Looking for the latest fashion trends? Chances are, a shopper will see “no results found” because there’s missing product information. Unfortunately, retailers don’t have time to manually add every single piece of product information–leaving shoppers with limited text search.

YesPlz AI is revolutionizing the way shoppers search for products with an entirely new approach–a better way to approach text search, and one that was designed with the nuances of fashion in mind.

Curious to hear more? We’ll explain the full details below:

How Traditional Site Search Works

While text search previously relied on keyword or phrase matching using product titles, it can now try to match based on product descriptions or descriptive content about a product. 

Although a worthy improvement, traditional text search (even today’s) still fails to understand shoppers’ natural language and a user’s reach search intent. Traditional text search also can’t understand contextual styling information from a product image or possible styling options–both of which are not specifically written in text. 

Currently, you can't search for an outfit for a romantic dinner date; instead, you'll get brand recommendations like 'D.A.T.E.' because they match the keywords. This isn't the result we want.

YesPlz’s AI Brand New Approach to Text Search: Multi-Modal First

AI-powered: Featuring a fashion-trained LLM and its own fashion AI models

Visual Search: Uses computer vision to gather important product and styling details from product images

Fashion-Specific: Trained to understand the nuances of fashion

Seamless User Experience: Offers features like  popular search suggestions, preview, auto-complete, and image tagging-based filtering options, all integrated for seamless use.  

Fashion AI search works differently by using a fashion-trained LLM and its own fashion AI models, understanding images, text, and styling context from a single image and simple product description. This advanced approach to search creates a richer search experience for shoppers.

Shoppers benefit by:

-Receiving more accurate search results even with complex search queries
-Getting inspired by styling suggestions that fit the vibe
-Generating endless complete outfit looks with a simple prompt or refresh, so shoppers are never left with a dead-end “no results” page

The 2 Key Advantages of Using AI Fashion Search

1. Returns Richer Results with Fashion-Trained Semantic Search and LLM

Other search tools aren’t trained to understand the granular, complex language of fashion–for example, what’s the difference between a cold-shoulder top and an off-the-shoulder top?

Using both text search and semantic search, the search engine returns more accurate results understanding any type of shopper search prompt, even if shoppers use unusual language, misspelled words, or trending fashion styles.

With a Generative AI Search option, shoppers can continue to search using her natural language, looking for specific occasions or the latest fashion looks.

In the example below, we compare Algolia and YesPlz’s search which is hybrid of text, semantic, and LLM results for “glam style outifts for a cocktail party.”

Because Algolia doesn’t offer fashion-domain specific search, the results are limited–the dresses are arguably party appropriate but not particularly “glam” or meant for a cocktail party. The ring product suggestions feels like a random touch, not a cohesive acessory that complements an outfit.

On the other hand, YesPlz’s Fashion Search has been trained for various fashion occasions and its apporpriate styling options. It, therefore, creates a put-together, cohesive glam style looks for a cocktail party–the off-the shoulder dress which is cocktail party appropriate, and the shoes, earrings, and bag complement the color and silhouette of the dress.

Fashion AI Search's results take into account the types of silhouettes and dress styles that would be appropriate for a cocktail event, and finds matching accessories that are equally relevant and fashion-forward. 

Don't get us wrong; we recognize Algolia as a pioneering solution in API-first search from its early days. However, when it comes to fashion search, we excel in understanding fashion styles and searching product details generated from both images and texts with our advanced fashion AI.

Here's direct quote from ChatGPT:

"For fashion eCommerce, the choice between Algolia and YesPlz AI Search depends on specific needs:

• Algolia: Ideal if the priority is high-speed, highly customizable search across a broad range of products and categories.
• YesPlz: Best suited for enhancing the fashion shopping experience with personalized, AI-driven search and discovery features."

2. A Comprehensive Search and Filtering Experience, Powered by Image Tagging

A text search is never just a text search–after a user searches, she wants to filter further, narrowing down results based on her specific preferences.

Perhaps there’s a particular body part she wants to flaunt or a silhouette she wants to avoid. Filtering is the fastest way to get from Point A to Point B–and users want to quickly filter, which requires accurately tagged products.

YesPlz AI’s filtering is powered by auto (AI) product tagging that automatically offers different filtering options based on your catalog, such as neckline, skirt length, fashion vibe, and more.

Pro Tip: YesPlz’s filtering is retailer-friendly because it’s customizable–it configures to retailer’s custom field options like price, size, and shipping information

How YesPlz AI Fashion Search is Built

We’ve spent years training our AI models to understand the ins and outs of fashion, which is a very unique and specific domain. A general AI model would not be able to provide accurate, rich search results for fashion because of the complexity of fashion–the terminology, trends, and nuances.

We’ve baked our own AI models with millions of fashion data points that we’ve trained our AI with in the past few years.

Our AI is also multi-modal, using image, text, and styling rules to create the most robust search experience.

We also use auto-tagging to enrich the fashion AI, so products are tagged by AI using computer vision, which can accurately determine X amount of product attributes in X seconds–even the most granular ones.

YesPlz is a hybrid search of text, semantic, and our AI Stylist, creating the next evolution of fashion search for shoppers.

Use Case: Finding a Floral Dress with Fashion-Specific Search and Filtering

Step 1: Start with a search query

A simple search query for a “floral dress” returns accurate dresses from a retailer product catalog, with different silhouette options, necklines, colors, and lengths. It’s a great starting point for shoppers first looking to see a general overview of a product. 

Step 2: Easily and quickly filter based on different attributes

Then, the shopper can quickly easily narrow down search results with her preferred style options such such as neckline, sleeve type, and color. All style tags are automatically generated by AI, so retailers don't have to worry about configuring tagging information alongside search results.

Retailer Friendly: YesPlz AI Search Has Pre-Configured Features, So Set-Up Is Ready-to-Go  

YesPlz’s Fashion Search was built with retailer frustrations and struggles in mind–and we know that a great new product is sometimes complex to set up. That’s why we created pre-configured features, so retailers don’t need to waste time setting up new features.

Pre-configured features include:

-Auto-complete
-Popular search
-Product previews
-Filtering with key fashion attributes powered by image-tagging

In this example, you can see that a search for a “sweater” (technically just with the word “sweat”) triggers auto-completes like “sweater”; “sweatshirt”; “striped sweater.” And, shoppers start to see an accurate product preview image even with a a few letters, making the search experience easier to navigate.

Popular search is collected based on the most searched keywords during a certain time period. In the case of W Concept, popular searches from users included “bags,” “dress" "leather jacket”, and “blouse.” Popular search is an ideal way for users to get inspired by the most searched keywords.

A 2x Increase in Search Exit Rates for A YesPlz Client

The results of YesPlz’s multi-modal, AI fashion search speak for themselves. A client switched their search solution to YesPlz AI, and increased their search exit rate by 2 times. A single search exit rate is now 67% higher than the industry average–all thanks to fashion-trained AI search.

We can finally get quality search results for fashion and styling that inspire me with what to wear for my type of romantic dinner date!

What do you think of our fashion AI's search results for 'an outfit for a romantic dinner date?' below?

The Next Evolution of Fashion Search Is Here–Will You Join the Revolution?

As shopper needs have continued to evolve, they’re expecting sophisticated, fashion-optimized search. While traditional text search falls short in meeting shopper expectations, YesPlz AI’s multi-modal approach, powered by a fashion-trained LLM and advanced AI models, offers a revolutionary solution to text search.

By understanding shoppers’ natural language, YesPlz delivers accurate, inspiring, and comprehensive search results. Retailers benefit from pre-configured features and auto-product tagging, ensuring a seamless setup and enhanced user experience.

Are you ready for the next evolution of fashion search?

Get a free POC with your catalog and see how YesPlz search works differently and help shoppers always find something they want. 

Schedule a demo today