Google has rolled out its virtual 'Try-On' feature across Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and New Zealand, as the company steps up efforts to make search more immersive and commerce-driven. The first version of the tool was launched in select US cities in July 2023.
The tool enables the upload of full-length photos and visualises how clothing and footwear would look on the user's body. For now, the feature is limited to fashion categories.
“Our goal is to be the best dressing room in the world and the place,” says Dominique M, senior product manager for GenAI for shopping. “Instead of having to walk into seven different shops, you can take all of the things that you love and see them on yourself in one place.”
The feature allows users to browse and compare products across merchants within organic search results, potentially compressing multiple stages of the purchase funnel into a single interface. However, in Asia, several platforms such as Amazon, Lazada and Meitu offer virtual try-on technology on their sites and also during livestreaming. However, with Google, there's a scale advantage. Its Shopping Graph aggregates more than 60 billion product listings across retailers.
For brands, this could drive incremental discovery and traffic outside closed retail platforms. But it also raises questions around control and measurement. While Google says rankings remain unaffected, advertisers have limited influence over how products are rendered in the try-on experience. “Accuracy matters when you’re shopping,” Dominique M said, noting that the system draws on 3D modelling capabilities from Google DeepMind and training data from millions of products within the Shopping Graph.
Google has emphasised safeguards to protect consumer trust. However, questions remain over how brands can effectively measure sentiment and conversion uplift tied to the Try-On feature.
A Google representative stressed that the virtual try-on tool has no impact on product rankings or merchant visibility. “We don't change anything about ranking or decisions,” the representative said. “This is only available on our organic listings. We are just a button on every product that you can use to try things on.”
The rollout follows Google’s push into conversational search, unveiled at its I/O conference in May, where queries are increasingly structured as dialogue rather than keywords. Features such as image uploads and personalised responses are designed to make search more interactive.
