Can Snap’s Visual Search Partnership With Amazon Help Redefine Shopping?

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Earlier this week Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) announced that it would be rolling out a new visual product search feature, in partnership with Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) that enables users to search for products sold by the e-commerce behemoth right from the Snapchat camera. While the company initially intends to roll out the feature to a limited number of users in the United States, the collaboration could help open the door to more opportunities at a time when social media is seen as playing a larger role in driving purchases among younger shoppers.

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What Does The Partnership Entail? 

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Snapchat users can use the app’s camera feature to snap an object or barcode, and if a product is available on Amazon, a card will pop up providing details of the product, giving users the option of clicking through to Amazon’s website or app. While Snap’s technology determines what users are scanning, Amazon’s machine vision technology will recognize logos, artwork, package covers or other unique visuals to find the product. This partnership is unlikely to cost Snap much up front, as it primarily provides Amazon with access to its user base rather than building all of the related technology in-house.

While Amazon is becoming the de facto destination of sorts for product-related searches on the Internet, the company could benefit from having direct access to Snap’s young and engaged user base which is almost 190 million strong globally (in daily active user terms). While visual search hasn’t really gained significant traction, Snap could help to make the feature more natural and intuitive. For instance, the Snapchat app opens directly into the camera, and users typically spend 30 minutes per day on average using the app, generating over 3 billion snaps per day. Snap users may also be more likely to spend. In the United States, Snapchat users are 20% more likely to have made a mobile purchase than people who don’t use the app and 60% more likely to make impulse purchases for certain products. Social media, in general, is also playing a bigger role in driving e-commerce sales. While companies have used social media marketing for a while now, shopping directly from social apps appears to be gaining traction. For instance, Facebook’s Instagram recently launched Shopping tags in its Stories section and introduced a dedicated Shopping channel in Explore.

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