Ecommerce Product Photography Guidelines to Multiply Conversions and Sales
Any product when photographed just looks incredible. But when it comes to ecommerce product photography, snapping deftly not only portrays it as mind-blowing but also drives conversions and scales up sales. The description of a product isn’t sufficient to catch the attention of buyers as it doesn’t provide a holistic idea of a product. A visitor is likely to pique interest if a product photo is displayed along with its description. An exquisite product photo besides enticing the buyers will also prompt them to take action.
But a common pitfall that shows up in many of the growing ecommerce stores is deploying shoddy product photos. Due to this blunder, they not only fail to enthrall shoppers but also their investment pan out as a tremendous loss. If you are an ecommerce store owner, you have to highly focus on the product images that you leverage for your business. Don’t forget that product photos are the only way that allows customers to pick up what they are actually receiving. So, don’t compromise on using first-rate product photography for your online store.
How Important is Product Photography in Ecommerce?
Product photography is enormously substantial in ecommerce since it is the primary way that consumers can visually evaluate a product before buying it. A high-quality product photo can efficiently communicate the features and benefits of a product and can impact a customer’s purchasing decision.
Here are a few reasons why product photography is so important in ecommerce:
Visual appeal: High-quality product photography can make a product look more appealing to prospective customers. Consumers are more likely to be drawn to products that look visibly alluring and well-presented.
Product details: Product photography can assist customers to see the detailed description of a product, such as its size, shape, color, and texture. This is especially important for products that have unique or intricate features that customers might not be able to see in person.
Trustworthiness: High-quality product photography can make a business appear more reliable and professional. If a business takes the time to present its products in the best possible light, it displays that they care about the customers’ experience and are dedicated to providing high-quality products.
Differentiation: Product photography can help a business to differentiate its products from those of its competitors. By presenting a product in a unique or distinguishing way, a business can make its products stand out and attract more customers.
Product Photography Guidelines for Ecommerce Business
We have assembled some handy ecommerce product photography guidelines for your virtual store. As per our analysis, these are some of the best practices that you can utilize in your business even though your products can be unique. So, gear up to boost your product photography knowledge for your ecommerce store!
Make Use of Peachy Product Images
Ecommerce brands shouldn’t cheap out when it comes to leveraging product images. Top-notch images in online stores are so pivotal that without them, customers don’t get compelled toward the stores. So, you shouldn’t compromise on the quality of product images and deploy enthralling product photos for your online store.
Hire a professional shutterbug, either an in-the-house or a freelancer, and get cracking product photography. If you have a knack in product photography, you can do the job yourself taking advantage of essential photography gear.
Put forth a Consistent Product Line
Consistency in product photography is key to succeeding in the ecommerce business. In order to display your products, you have to choose a default photo angle that you will use to display all your products in the product catalog. Customers fancy when they see identical angles in all the product photos as they can contrast products easily and smoothly. On top of that, maintaining consistency in product photos reflect in-depth understanding and professionalism of a particular online store owner as well.
Showcase Multiple Views
Even though you should choose a default product photo angle to display products, don’t hold back to exhibit multiple views of your products. As you know, in a physical store, customers have the comfort to touch a product, feel it, turn it around, and view multiple aspects of the product. This enables them to make confident purchasing decisions.
Unlike brick-and-mortar stores, you don’t have the luxury to touch, feel, and turn around your preferred products in click-and-mortar stores. This makes it necessary that you enable customers to view product photos from different angles. This will also answer many of their questions besides boosting their confidence to buy products.
Don’t Hesitate to Show Products in Use
Having an ecommerce photography studio provides an extra edge. What can be a confidence booster for customers to buy other than viewing products in use? Shoppers before snapping up products visualize products on how they will suit them or enrich their lives. So, why shouldn’t you fulfill their desire? This will also scale up your sales. No matter what products you sell, you should display them to create emotional attachments in clients with your products.
There are many online stores that are showcasing products giving a real-life vibe to their clients. Think about IKEA which promotes their furniture showing in use in a fully furnished room and attracts plenty of shoppers to their websites. Furniture is showcased in the middle of the store with armchairs, sofas, and beds side-by-side creating a real atmosphere.
Take Advantage of Props
Shooting products in front of a white background is simple and smooth but when you have a context in your product photoshoot, it makes more sense. It provides customers better perception of products. When it comes to props, it can be anything that touches, holds, or even stays closer to the subject and adds to the story and dimension of the image. Say, for example, you want to shoot a laptop, and surely shooting the laptop without placing any other object beside it will portray the shot unflatteringly.
But if you keep a pen, flower vase, or cell phone beside it, the shot will appear to be enchanting and add a story to the shot. Viewers will be lured to the products as well. A flashback to 2008, Steve Jobs launched Macbook Air unwinding the red string of a manila envelope and pulling it out from it. The envelope implied the thin size of the laptop.
Make use of a variety of Product Photography Equipment
The number of product photography gadgets is many. Some like camera, lens, lights, etc. are essential while others like a tripod, light meter, diffuser, reflector, etc. are optional. But even these additional tools help out in executing classic product photography. So, don’t miss out on the opportunity. Additionally, take advantage of a photography studio to capture products exquisitely.
There is no alternative to innovation these days for ecommerce product photography due to the rising competition. So, why not take make use of 360° equipment? The versatility of 360-degree equipment makes it suitable for photographing almost any product in ecommerce photography studios.
Enable the Buyers a way to zoom in any part of the product
When you are selling products online, you must add an image zoom-in feature otherwise you will lag behind your competitors in terms of sales. Customers while buying online always mouse over to blow up their preferred products to spot the details. If they fail to zoom on a particular product, they get displeased with the ecommerce store and don’t revisit the site.
But only adding a zoom-in feature is not sufficient as you have to also make sure that the image quality doesn’t get affected after zooming in. Hence, you have to be meticulous while working on the zoom-in feature. To ensure a better zoom-in feature, also do an analysis of the ecommerce platforms that you intend to take service from.
Hire a Professional Shutterbug or Agency
If you want to nail your ecommerce business, you have no way to compromise on quality. Customers are very particular when it comes to product quality. They make every attempt to pick up whether they are trying to buy quality products. Product photos help them a lot to fathom whether they are making the right decision while buying online.
So, why shouldn’t you go for a professional photographer or agency? When your goal is to satisfy customers with your products, the budget shouldn’t be an issue for you. In the current era, photographers and photography agencies are low-hanging fruit. So, take assistance from a deft and seasoned product photographer or photography agency that can do the job magnificently for you.
Why not Leverage Social Media Content?
Social media, nowadays, is a handy tool for ecommerce businesses to flourish. Billions of people across the globe are making use of various social media platforms. Many are earning thousands of bucks utilizing these social media platforms. Why should you miss the opportunity of deploying it for your online business?
When you have a good reach to your customers, you will surely have many customers sharing your product photography in their timelines and also on various pages. If you have a paid brand ambassador for your company, he can also promote your product photography on his social media pages. Just take the opportunity and publish these product images in your business. No doubt, you will get a massive boost in your business.
Product Image Optimization is Key
Don’t be negligent about your product image optimization. There is a strong link between your page loading and image loading. Both of them have to support each other to yield a fruitful outcome. Surely, your photographer isn’t well-versed in the requirements of the site performance.
He may not know what should be image size and dimension that are ideal to be used on the site. So, you have to bridge the gap in such a way that both your photographer and web developer collaborate with each other and ensure optimized images for your ecommerce website. If the site slows down, you may lose key customers.
Some Common FAQs
How to be successful at product and ecommerce photography?
Done your product photography skills and notch-up experience. Don’t just limit yourself and try to expand your range. Discover yourself thinking outside the box and apply the innovative ways of ecommerce product photography in your works. Success will chase you thereafter!
How to find ecommerce photography clients?
Once you have considerable experience under your belt with polished skills, prepare a portfolio. Then publish it on various platforms online and offline. Don’t forget to incorporate your entire ecommerce photography masterpiece including recent works in your portfolio. Remember, clients will approach you if you can offer something that others can’t. You don’t have to run after clients, rather, clients will find you.
If you wish to fascinate your online store visitors and multiply sales, you have to emphasize highly on classic and creative product photography. Try to portray your products as detailed as possible through imagery. If you can showcase your ecommerce product photography holistically and exquisitely, you will beat your competitors. That’s a guarantee!
What are the Impacts of Photo Editing in Ecommerce Product Photography?
Product photography or any type of photography is human handiwork. However much an ecommerce product photographer is well-versed and circumspect in his work, he is bound to err, more or less due to technical or non-technical issues. That doesn’t mean that his work should go in vain. On top of that, ecommerce product photography requires some extra bit of spice to beguile customers as it doesn’t provide the tactile sensation.
This is where product photo editing comes into play. Due to issues pertaining to exposure, color, blurriness, or anything else, the images can be retouched with various retouching techniques. To add an extra bit of appeal to product photography, you can use different types of shadows below the products. 360° views can be generated, or various other modifications can be applied depending on the requirements of each product.
