John Lewis has added the ‘Find Similar’ clothing style discovery button to all of the fashion product pages on its iPad shopping app.

John Lewis

John Lewis

John Lewis says 90% of its shoppers said they found the Find Similar tool useful

The department store retailer has added Cortexica’s visual search technology as a permanent feature on its iPad app after a trial of the tool in January.

The retailer originally trialled the technology across its womenswear offer but has now added the ‘Find Similar’ button, which allows shoppers to search for items based on an online John Lewis product’s shape, colour and pattern, to its menswear offer as well.

Since trialling the technology, 90% of John Lewis shoppers have said they found the Find Similar tool useful.

John Lewis is the first UK high-street retailer to trial Cortexica’s technology, whose other retailer partners include Net-a-Porter, Zalando, Shop Direct and Macy’s.

Increase in customer engagement

The department store retailer’s director of online product Sienne Veit said: “Since introducing the Cortexica visual search technology to our iPad app, we have seen customers really engage with the Find Similar tool and use it to easily navigate their way to other products of interest.

“In light of the impressive results from this trial, we are now extending the technology further across men’s and women’s fashion to enable a broader range of our customers to benefit from its functionality to inspire them and enhance their online shopping experience.”

Cortexica chief executive Iain McCready added: “This is the first example of a UK high-street retailer fully embracing the potential of visual search and positions John Lewis at the vanguard of technological innovation designed to improve customer experience.

“As the John Lewis trial has demonstrated, visual search can provide clear return on investment to retailers and we are now rolling out this technology in partnership with a range of customers.”