Pinterest is expanding its reach in ecommerce with Complete the Look, a new feature that leverages rich scene context to recommend visually compatible results to shoppers in both fashion and home decor, according to a blog post by the company.
Complete the Look uses parameters including outfit type, body type, season, indoor vs. outdoor, and in the case of home furnishings, room space and aesthetics, to drive product recommendations across visual search technology.
Pinterest said modeling style compatibility is challenging due to its complexity and subjectivity. Up to now the focus has been on using algorithms to predict compatibility between product images.
“However, these approaches ignore real-world ‘scene’ images, such as a street style Pin, which can bring complexity with variations in lighting and pose, but on the other hand could potentially provide key context (e.g. the user’s body type, or the season) for making more accurate recommendations,” said Pinterest in the blog post.
Complete the Look addresses this challenge by creating a visual complement system that recommends results that go well with a query image. For instance, a shopper on Pinterest can visually search for shoes that go well with a dress. Query results are not bounded by visual similarity but can explore finer distinctions such as stylistic similarity.
MCM Musings: With this news I can’t help but think of the power of brand influencers. While that may or may not be what Pinterest has in mind with Complete the Look, I love how influencers recommend an entire look, including things like the table in the background or the chair they’re sitting on. It’s also easily shoppable with just one swipe. When we as consumers find a certain item we love, we may not necessarily know what goes with it. In the past I haven’t always followed the trends because I wasn’t always sure whether certain pieces would go with others so I ended up not making the purchase. Pinterest seems to have hit upon a technology solution to that dilemma.
