Deborah Kendrick
I’ve been shopping online for so many years that I can’t even pinpoint when I started, but I can tell you that it used to be fun and easy. You could enter a search term, get results, and blithely arrow through them, reading detailed descriptions, prices, and other relevant details. Twenty or more years ago, with absolute confidence, I bought a wedding dress, a leather couch, loads of shoes and shirts, and more random items than I could possibly remember — with just a computer keyboard and my speech or braille output. Early online shopping, in other words, was shopping without the confusion and difficulty that would ultimately accompany the practice for blind and low vision consumers.
As time and technology progressed, the online environment increased in its complexity. Unfortunately for blind people, this evolution meant an increase in the number of undecipherable graphical images and fewer words. Where once flowery descriptions of dresses and backpacks and gadgets prevailed, now a few cryptic words might leave the blind shopper hoping, with a fair measure of uncertainty, that they were ordering the desired item.
Every website is unique, of course — some offering better navigation and communication than others — but the whole business of shopping online has grown to be akin to mountain climbing for many of us who can’t see the pictures.
Enter Innosearch
Early last year, I heard about a new site called Innosearch. Its promise was to make shopping online more approachable for blind computer users, and I decided, with no small amount of skepticism, to take a look. The journey has been an interesting one and is still evolving.
On my first visit to Innosearch, I saw two links near the top, offering me Shopping or Flights. Since airline websites have been a particular nightmare for me for several years, I boldly tried the Flights option first. Proceeding with a search was admittedly simpler than the experience offered by most airline sites, but still didn’t get the job done. There simply wasn’t adequate information provided to prompt an actual purchase. I switched to the link labeled Shopping and immediately felt more confident.
For my first exploration, I put in something like “women’s jeans petite” and was pleasantly surprised when close to 200 results populated my screen. Each entry offered a link, words telling me the name of the product, the price, its originating store, and then a choice below it offering the opportunity to chat with Innosearch. I was able to arrow down through the list without much interruption, seeing one product after another. On this first exploration, I did run into trouble getting back to the list of results when I wandered off to have a chat with Innosearch. I might find out the available sizes, colors, etc., of a product and get a picture description, but then, when I wanted to return to the results list, I had to initiate the search all over again.
Eventually, I made a choice, ordered jeans, and waited. That first experience did not provide a tracking number. This was resolved shortly, however, so that subsequent orders did indeed generate tracking information.
When that first order arrived, the jeans turned out to be the wrong size (my error). I braced myself for what is sometimes an arduous process. I was, however, soon very happily proven wrong. I wrote to Innosearch support asking for instructions for initiating a return. They sent me a return label to print out, told me to go to the nearest Whole Foods (which is basically across the street), and when I arrived there, I was thrilled at the speed with which the task was accomplished. Without much fanfare, the person behind the counter took my package, gave me a receipt, and I was done. Better still, within hours, I had an email from Innosearch telling me that the return was complete and that money would soon be refunded to me — as indeed it was.
I waited a few weeks and took another run at the site. This time, I was shopping for sheets. Individual sheets of varying sizes from twin to king are possible, so I typed “sheet sets full” or “sheet sets queen” in the search box and waited for results. There were still a few hundred of them, ranging wildly in price, color, fabric, and more. Each result told me the size, fabric, price, and retailer, with an option to chat with Innosearch to learn more. For the chat, there are questions to jumpstart your imagination as well as a text field for you to enter your own specific inquiry. You can read reviews, have a chat (via typing or dictating) with Innosearch to learn more, or go back to the list of results. This time, I was happy to see that Innosearch had addressed that particular issue and that it is now possible to go back to the list of original results.
Another improvement over my first experience is that this time, I was sent typical tracking information with a link to check for updates until my package arrived. In case I wasn’t checking, Innosearch sent an email to alert me that the package had been delivered.
Ongoing Growth and Improvements
Innosearch AI is decidedly a work in progress. I’ve been exploring and experimenting with it for about five months now, and with each return visit, I find tiny tweaks that have improved the site. Still, there are sometimes problems. Sometimes, I find an item but can’t find the choices necessary before purchasing. The chat with AI might tell me, for example, that a shirt is available in several sizes and colors, but then get stuck on size small in blue without instructions for changing to another option. When that happened to me and I couldn’t find my way around it, I again wrote to Innosearch Support. Again, I received a timely reply, giving me suggestions for how to find the options I was seeking, and I was soon placing another order.
If you want to know what a product looks like, what the pictures reveal, or if it is available in other colors, sizes, formats, etc., just ask Innosearch and you will usually get an immediate and appropriate answer. Sometimes, you will be told there is not sufficient information, but if you go back and modify the search phrase a bit, you might get better results.
Flights
While I have not yet booked a flight through Innosearch, I can vouch for that aspect of the service also steadily improving. The process has been streamlined to make searching with a screen reader a straightforward business, so that you can enter prospective flights, dates, and times simply by using your tab and arrow keys strategically, and will be presented with a list of resulting flights that can be explored without much complication. Again, I have not actually booked a flight with Innosearch yet, but feel confident that doing so will be manageable.
Calling Shop GPT
The most recent addition to Innosearch’s offerings has been the option to place a phone call and shop using your voice, interacting with ChatGPT. It’s both impressive and daunting. If you have shopped on Innosearch previously, when you call for the first time, your phone number links immediately to your name, address, and payment information. You can hold a conversation, search for items, ask for descriptions, prices, colors, sizes, etc. When I called after a period of a few weeks, I discovered that items from my last exploration were still in my cart. More troubling, they were not items I intended to buy, but rather had simply been browsing. That said, once you find an item in your cart, you can change the color, the quantity, the size, and so on, as long as you have the patience to continue the conversation. If you grow weary of the process, just disconnect and call again later. Your cart will still be there, ready for more shopping and tweaking. There’s no money spent until you say “Proceed to checkout,” and even then, Innosearch talks you through one confirmation after another to be sure you mean to buy this stuff. I have experimented quite a bit with the phone service, but have not actually placed an order. Be sure to listen carefully, because changes seem to be made somewhat randomly at times, so take time to confirm that all aspects of your order are as you intended before confirming your payment.
Conclusion
Innosearch AI is far from perfect, but the company has made impressive strides toward making the experience of online shopping a truly enjoyable and accessible one for people using screen readers and other access technology. Best of all, the company seems truly interested in hearing customer feedback and is quick to respond to questions or requests for assistance. They boast offering hundreds of thousands of products from a plethora of merchants, so whether you are shopping for protein shakes, sneakers, or lampshades, chances are excellent you can find and order what you need independently by using your computer or phone.
To explore for yourself, visit: Innosearch.ai or have a conversation with an AI bot by calling (855) SHOP-GPT (855-746-7478).
