Your shoppers are searching for your products right now. But they're not simply typing into search bars; they're using visuals.

A screenshot of an Instagram post. A snap of someone's outfit on the street. A saved image from TikTok. A celebrity style copy or a complete-the-look request of their own selfie. These visual captures have become the primary way modern shoppers discover and buy products.

For retailers, this shift from text-based search to visual discovery is a fundamental reimagining of how product discovery works.

The stats tell the story:

• Visual content is processed 60,000 times faster than text

• On average, Gen Z spends close to 5 hours daily on visual-first platforms

• 19% of U.S. retailers use visual search now, with 40% planning adoption in the next two years.

If your ecommerce platform still relies primarily on keyword search, you're already losing customers at the discovery stage. And retailers who don't adapt risk becoming invisible to the most digitally native generation in history.

The visual-first mindset of shoppers

The new age of shoppers has been shaped by platforms where visuals reign supreme. Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, and Snapchat have trained them to communicate, discover, and shop through images rather than words. When they encounter a look they love, their instinct isn't to describe it. It's to capture it.

Traditional text-based search feels antiquated to a generation that can't remember a time before smartphone cameras. Why spend minutes crafting the perfect search query ("vintage oversized blazer structured shoulders olive green") when you can simply show a picture and let technology handle the rest?

For Gen Z, the roundabout path from visual spark to product discovery—involving clumsy text translation—is a dealbreaker.

AI as the ultimate personal stylist

What makes this visual revolution truly powerful is Gen Z's remarkable comfort with AI-powered shopping assistants. They're not just searching; they're conversing. They're asking AI to be their personal stylists:

"What would complete this outfit?" "Find me something similar but under $100." "Recreate this look for a winter wedding."

This isn't about exact product matching; it's about contextual intelligence. Gen Z expects AI assistants to understand:

• Their personal style profile: Past purchases, saved items, stated preferences
• The complete aesthetic: Not just the individual piece, but the entire vibe
• Their constraints: Budget limits, occasion requirements, seasonal needs
• Complementary pairings: What accessories, layers, and shoes complete the vision

The AI stylist doesn't just find products; it curates experiences.

Capturing Gen Z’s visual commerce revolution with Netcore Unbxd

To win Gen Z shoppers who browse, search, and shop visually, retailers must evolve beyond traditional product catalogs. Your inventory needs to be visually searchable, contextually intelligent, and AI-accessible.

Netcore Unbxd delivers this transformation through a unified AI-driven discovery platform that combines computer vision, enriched metadata, and recommendation intelligence.

Turn every image into a searchable query

Netcore Unbxd’s visual search capabilities empower retailers to make every image shoppable. Using advanced computer vision and multimodal AI, Netcore Unbxd identifies products based on visual similarity, style, and context, not just keywords.

Image uploads: Let shoppers upload photos from their gallery, screenshots, or social media posts.

Visual AI matching: Recognize not only exact products but also related styles, colors, and patterns.

Cross-category intelligence: Detect multiple items within one image and surface all relevant matches.

Mobile-first design: Deliver seamless experiences optimized for Gen Z’s primary device, the smartphone.

With Netcore Unbxd, a single photo becomes the entry point into your catalog, enabling faster, intent-rich discovery.

Enrich product metadata for AI and style intelligence

Netcore Unbxd’s AI enrichment engine transforms static catalogs into dynamic, contextual product knowledge graphs. It automates attribute generation and adds stylistic, cultural, and behavioral metadata that modern AI agents and shoppers understand.

Style and aesthetic tags: Auto-generate trend and vibe descriptors such as “gorpcore,” “dark academia,” or “minimalist.”

Contextual use cases: Add intent-rich labels like “festival season,” “office appropriate,” or “vacation ready.”

Styling intelligence: Embed compatibility, fit, and pairing insights such as “pairs well with high-waisted denim” or “layering essential.”

This enriched product intelligence enables AI shopping assistants, search engines, and personalization systems to deliver hyper-relevant results and stylistic recommendations powered by Netcore Unbxd.

Enable complete-the-look intelligence

Netcore Unbxd’s AI-powered product recommendations go far beyond “customers also bought.” They understand aesthetic coherence and help shoppers complete their desired look.

Contextual bundling: Automatically suggest complementary products for what’s in the cart.

Outfit visualization: Let shoppers preview how items appear styled together.

Budget-based options: Offer full looks across price tiers to fit different shopper preferences.

Personalized curation: Use behavioral and purchase data to fine-tune styling recommendations.

Netcore Unbxd enables your platform to act like a digital stylist, anticipating what completes a shopper’s vision.

Make your catalog AI-ready and discoverable

With Gen Z increasingly relying on AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other agentic shopping tools, Netcore Unbxd ensures your catalog is AI-accessible and interoperable.

Structured data and schema markup: Netcore Unbxd’s enrichment pipeline adds schema.org-compliant data for easy parsing by AI systems.

Open APIs: Provide real-time, standardized access to catalogs for AI platforms.

Product relationship graphs: Clearly define complements, alternatives, and upgrade paths.

Real-time inventory and pricing: Ensure AI assistants always retrieve current, accurate product data.

Netcore Unbxd positions your brand to surface organically in conversational commerce flows when shoppers ask AI agents, “Where can I find this?”

Feed the visual inspiration loop

Netcore Unbxd helps brands continuously fuel Gen Z’s inspiration ecosystem with AI-linked shoppable content.

Shoppable lookbooks: Every image becomes an instant entry point to purchase.

User-generated content integration: Tag and index real customer photos for reverse-image discovery.

Contextual visuals: Optimize lifestyle imagery for searchability and visual matching.

Every piece of visual content becomes a gateway back to your product catalog with Netcore Unbxd, ensuring a continuous cycle of discovery and engagement.

The result

With Netcore Unbxd, retailers can move from keyword-driven commerce to visual, contextual, and conversational commerce—where every image, tag, and interaction fuels the next purchase.

The bottom line: make your catalog intelligent

Gen Z shops with their eyes and AI assistants. Make your catalog intelligent enough to respond visually, contextually, and instantly.

This requires:

• Visual search as a primary discovery method
• Enriched product metadata for AI comprehension
• Outfit intelligence and complementary product recommendations
• Integration with external AI assistants
• Visual content that feeds the inspiration loop

The retailers who embrace this shift won't just capture Gen Z's spending—they'll define the future of ecommerce itself.

Visual commerce isn't coming. It's here. And Gen Z is already shopping this way.

The question isn't whether to adapt - it's whether you can afford to wait.

Ready to transform your catalog for the visual commerce revolution? Discover how Netcore Unbxd's AI-powered search and recommendations can help you meet Gen Z where they shop.