You can now find clothes on ASOS by uploading a photo of what you want to buy
AS if ASOS needed to make it any easier for us to part with our hard-earned cash, they've just launched a visual search tool.
It means that shoppers can search its app by uploading a screenshot from Instagram, a picture of a friend or a photo taken in a magazine.
First you need to download the free ASOS app and then tap on the camera icon in the search bar to upload a photo.
It will then search through 85,000 products before displaying the 100 most relevant.
The new visual search technology makes recommendations on similar items.
So, even if the item isn't stocked by ASOS you should, theory, be able to find something you want.
The technology is only available on its iOS app at the moment but ASOS hopes to roll it out to Android phones "very shortly".
The online fashion giant has been quietly testing the technology since June, giving just 10 per cent of customers access.
It also has another feature that even regular shoppers might not know about...personal recommendations.
Hidden in the app and only available to a "random" selection of users, it has a page that suggest products based on previous shopping choices.
The bosses at ASOS are clever and they know their audience. Around 80 per cent of all UK traffic for ASOS comes from mobile device, as do 70 per cent of all UK orders.
It claims that customers spend about 80 minutes per month, on average, using the app.
LOVE SHOPPING AT ASOS? Here are 7 tips to get the best deal, plus a special 15% discount
Rich Jones, head of product and UX at ASOS, told The Sun Online: "It's hugely important for us to be where our customers are.
"We have lots of things in the pipeline that we want to explore. Visual search is just the first step in what we can do to make it easier for customers to find what they are looking for."
Our verdict on ASOS' new visual search
THERE'S a reason why ASOS is successful and it's because they develop tools like its visual search, writes Tara Evans
With a catalogue of 85,000 items, Asos' bosses seems to understand that customers yearn for a way to whittle down options.
I've spent many an hour searching through sub-categories on the app before exiting and not buying a thing.
But if they suggest something to me - either on social media or though recommedations - they get my cash.
So, how easy is it to use? Once I found the little camera icon to tap on the search bar, it worked really well.
I tried it out on a few people in the office, including three of the searches featured above.
On the whole it came back with pretty good matches to the picture.
There was one awkward moment when I snapped a female colleagues khaki shirt and it came back with suggestions for men, but glitches are expected, I suppose.
And I don't think I'll be asking strangers on the tube to take a picture of their shoes, even if they are really lovely. Well, not just yet...
More on ASOS
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Money team? Email us at money@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 78 24516
