How to Improve Product eCommerce Sales with Excellent Photography

John Davis

Online shoppers have become increasingly cautious today about what they buy. They know that they’re dealing with risks such as spending too much money, or not being as satisfied as anticipated. Thus, trust doesn’t come that easily. So, retailers and brands find it difficult to define their plausibility online.

OnlinePhoto-Shoes

One of the major shortcomings of online sales is the availability of the proper tools to showcase products correctly. With just the screen as the interface, online retailers depend mostly on text and photographs to boost their sales and attract customers. While written work demands extra time and attention of the customers, pictures are the quickest way to go. They are easily noticeable, and send a powerful message whose effects are quickly registered in consumers minds.

Since the shopper is unable to physically touch their buy, the only active sense here is being the sense of sight and [sometimes] sounds. ECommerce consumers rely heavily on the product images. So a lot depends on the way the item is being presented visually online and whether or not it is attractive enough to grab consumers for an appropriate amount of time to make them consider making a purchase.

Save Countless Amounts of Money on Return Processing Through Professional Product Photos

Amazing eCommerce photography will eventually lower customer service inquiry, as they will be satisfied with what they see regarding their buy. Employing elaborate techniques to picture your product by showing various angles of the front, back, and sides of it as well as showing the product zoomed in and out, etc will answer the queries. This gives consumers a strong visual. These examples increase the confidence of the buyers. Hence he or she is less likely to return the item back to the store which they bought it from, saving both their own money and the companies money for the return processing.

Why Poor Quality Photos May Kill Your Sales

Chanel_Poor_QualityPhoto

Low quality photos drown the possibility of a sale way before they’re even being considered as a purchase. If the customer isn’t convinced of the integrity of the product you’re trying sell, they aren’t going to come back to you for the purchase. Also, customer service inquiries grow; questioning the seller’s credibility and much time is wasted to clarify his doubts. An option to make sure that your product photos are as attractive to customers as possible is to get a professional photographer. This may seem a little ridiculous seeing as you’re probably thinking “Why would I hire someone to take a picture of my product when I could just do it myself?” Although it might be a little bit more expensive, it will be worth it in the long run based on the outcome. To win over a buyer, it becomes essential to upload a picture which is in high resolution, good lighting, less distorted, with close-up shots, and attractive enough to engage your target market.

Things You Can Implement to Improve Your Sales via Excellent Product Photography

Low on Budget? Enhance Product Images Based on Importance

If you cannot retrieve much information for your product or if you’re short on money, you can begin by highlighting those products that you deem important. These are usually the products that have received the most attention in the past or the products that have five-star reviews. The importance can be defined by the payback gains, the popularity of the goods, etc. Begin early and see how the changes do, by effectively keep a track on the sales statistics.

Five_Star_Rating

According to BigCommerce, 67% of consumers consider image quality “very important” when making a purchase online. So  if you know you don’t have endless amount of funds, make sure that you utilize other ways in order to differentiate yourself and stand out to your consumers.

Shooting Product Images From Multiple Angles

DIY-apparel-product-photography-dress-every-angle

Taking a picture from multiple angles gives better detailing of the product as the customer can view whichever side he or she wants to, to their satisfaction. Provide close-up shots with a high-resolution camera, and make sure all of this is done in a proper well-lit area. You can clearly see that this shoot was taken with a professional camera. You can see the sharpness, the correct natural lighting, and the simplicity of the background. These are all harder to capture if your just shooting a product somewhere around your house. This aspect of photography is especially important if you are selling your product on a site that has your competitors listed right be side you. If your image is a lesser version of the competing companies your product will not be a consumers first, second, or third choice just because the featured image isn’t up to par.

Show Detailed Views & Zoom Product Images

Mulit-shot_axe

Invest time in coming up with a detailed written descriptions of what you’re showing. This is important because a buyer may be looking for something in particular, so being as specific as possible is better than being vague. It is best to cater to all of the consumer’s requirements as frequently as possible.

As I mentioned up above with the multi-shot example with the “blue dress” being able to provide as much detail and information to the consumer is what will make them most satisfied. Especially with a tool such as an axe it is helpful to be able to see details up close and personal. Provide pictures of a product as it is used in various cases, each enhancing its shown characteristic. For example, if you’re advertising a bag, you can show the colors, designs, and sizes available. You can highlight the utility of a bag by showing a large one with groceries and other eateries denoting it as a shopping bag, or another with a classy petite and compact look for professional use.

Use High-Resolution Images to Attract Consumers

Use high-resolution images to attract consumers

As said before, investing in high resolution product images will definitely leave a long lasting impression in the buyer and will encourage him to go for it. This is the first thing that a potential customer is going to see before they decide to add your product to their digital shopping cart. Experts say that photos must be shot at the highest possible resolution provided by the camera, however while editing them it must be optimized to it maximum size to fit the screen. Higher resolution images take longer to load. Enhance your product by using Photoshop and other editing tools and make sure you adjust the color balance, size and the layout. For the zoomed-in versions, a higher resolution will be required to give out intricate detailing, but it should be checked for maximum efficacy first.

Show & Tell

Show and tell

Often it is seen that a product is best viewed in an environment, which may be outdoor or indoor, like a garden or the interiors of a well set-up studio. These are called lifestyle shots. Lifestyle shots have been shown to provide an emotional response as the buyer imagines him in a similar scenario and feels good. This is because this type of photography lets the consumer imagine themselves in similar situations, or it captures people in everyday situations that are relatable. This applies for clothing, accessories, furniture’s, gadgets, etc.

A model wearing a dress in a sunny garden is more provocative than when the same dress is hung up in a hanger or in a mannequin. By giving the model something to do to keep them entertained as well as capture that candid moment (and smile) can really make it easy for consumers to relate to the image. By having a real life model dance around and pick flowers from a garden instead of a stand still mannequin that can’t move non-existent muscles will help create the mood that the photographer wants to portray through their work.

Other things that can be considered when shooting a lifestyle shot are the materials both used behind the camera and also ones in front of the lens. If you are shooting an ad for a real estate agency, you are going to want to capture the rooms at the best angle at the right time of the day. Meaning, you aren’t going to use a narrow lens when you are trying to display the entire kitchen in one-shot right? You probably also wouldn’t hold a photo shoot at the night… So your best options to have the best outcome are to use a wide angle lensed camera early in the day, or even later in the day when the sun is going down so it captures that gleaming natural light.

White Background Proved to Enhance Product Looks

White background proves to enhance the product look-1

In case of product pages with multiple product pictures, it’s best to place on a simple one-tone background like white or grey. A simple white background works best as it keeps the focus on the product and doesn’t distract the buyer. The very successful website that I visited in order to get a better understanding is Remove background image online. They are able to create amazing photos by just doing simple things such as removing backgrounds, correcting color, resizing, and clipping path and masking.

There are plenty more reasons why a simple white background is good but one of the most popular ones is capturing a multi-colorful image. Noticing above the three coffee [or tea!] mugs displayed in a 3-dimensional horizontal line up… Well say the background choice of the photographer was a light shade of blue. That would throw the entire image off and take away from the main attraction. The blue background would consume the teal cup, oppose the rusty brown cup, and take away from the midnight black cup. The simplicity of this white background makes this photo attractive to a consumers eye  and therefore could potentially end in an online sale.

Avoid Cheesy Stock Photos & Hire a Product Photography Professional

Avoid cheesy stock photos

Although Stock photos are cheap and easily accessible, they may not always be the best option when trying to sell your brand. I say this because selling your brand is personal; one thing that stock photos usually aren’t. These types of photos are easy to spot out. They usually look “fandid” [fake candid], shot with a sharper than usual camera, in a blurred out background setting.

This type of quality will make the customer question the authenticity of the seller. That is the opposite of what the seller wants. Consumers that are putting their money into your company by investing or purchasing your products aren’t looking for false hope. They are looking to see real life circumstances.

Looking at the photo above you can quickly pick out the faultiness based on the description that I had mentioned above.  The male is gazing at a screen as well as the gray haired women, pretending to be engaged. Even though this isn’t a bad picture for say posting in a blog, I wouldn’t be sold on buying that Computer in the image if that is what they were essentially trying to do.

Now lets compare that to this photo:

Meeting

You can clearly tell here that the meeting is being held in real life time with real people and not actors or people being asked to pose. Although here (and in the photo above) aren’t demonstrating eCommerce products at are being sold, the point that I am trying to get across here is the personal aspect of an online photo. I would rather see a real life example of a product rather than a fake photo, which is what stock photos essentially are, so it’s best to avoid them. Invest in professional help if you’re unsure of your photographic skills, or are short of time and elaborate equipment.

To round off, photos are essentially the only way you can communicate with your audience online. You need high-quality photos to make your product stand out and for that you need to get the right angles, the right background color, higher resolutions and professional help. If you can incorporate amazing images into your page that compliment your product, certainly you can expect to drive sales higher.


About the writer:

John Davis is the marketing director at removebackground.com. Remove Background is a professional product photography & image editing service for online retailers, photographers and designers. We offer the best background remover and image enhancement solutions to internet retailers, bloggers, designers, photographers, and webmasters. We help increase sales through beautiful product images.

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