Background
Object recognition technology uses machine learning and pattern recognition to detect and categorize specific objects within an image. The ability to identify specific objects in video or images opens up a myriad of opportunities for businesses, with potential uses ranging from purchasing, image classification, security and manufacturing production to self-driving cars and more.
Opportunity
96% of Americans now own smartphones, while 79% of smartphone owners have used their mobile to make an online purchase. Over the past several years, the increasing use of cameras on smartphones, tablets and other handheld devices in our everyday lives has changed how we interact both with the world around us and with the products we use. The act of photographing nearly every activity and product we consume has become ubiquitous. This has created an opportunity to disrupt the traditional customer purchasing experience and evolve to a new process by taking advantage of an activity most customers already do daily: snapping a picture.
Solution
Concentrix Catalyst built a Proof of Concept that demonstrates how object recognition technology and artificial intelligence can enhance the customer experience by enabling visual search using a smartphone or tablet camera. The “image-to-cart” technology used in the solution allows users to take a picture of an object, match it to a product for sale and then add it to their shopping cart or purchase it automatically.
By training the solution on a vast database of existing object images using convolutional neural networks, a machine can recognize objects within a photo taken by a customer and match it to the database. The solution then advances the customer to the designated next step of the purchasing process – adding it to the shopper’s cart or fully completing the purchase, for example.
With the global cart abandonment rate hovering around 88%, removing several steps from the digital purchasing process has the potential to increase product sales by facilitating instant purchase. The Catalyst solution demonstrates how the purchasing process can be simplified for those who do not know the name of an item, do not have time to search for the correct product or must rely on images from employees in the field to determine which part to purchase. As the purchasing process becomes increasingly digital, Catalyst’s solution offers the opportunity for organizations to harness a common activity – taking a picture – to increase sales opportunities.
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