Over 93% of customers consider product images extremely important while making purchase decisions. That means product photos on your e-commerce website can ultimately determine the conversion rates and retention rates of your business.
Your product images represent your product’s perceived quality and value. If the images are high quality and engaging, customers will directly assume that your products are of high quality as well. But if your product images are grainy, unclear, or just not impressive enough, it will only put off potential buyers.
Here are the top tips to improve your eCommerce product photos
1- Use product photos with a white background for clarity
Clean-cut product-only photos with white backgrounds should generally be the default image associated with every product. That way, when customers view products together on your website shop page, they will see a consistent and clean layout.
The shoppers should be able to zoom into pictures to check all the physical details of the product and get a closer look at seams, textures, logos, and other features. According to research, when customers can physically zoom in and manipulate product images, they tend to trust the brand more.
In case you offer a customized version of the same product, you should use product photography to clearly illustrate different versions of your product by switching their style, features, and colors.
2- Use lifestyle photos to give context to your products
Lifestyle photos show how the product is intended to be used and add context to your products. For instance, if you are selling a coat, you can put a picture of how it can be worn by matching it with other clothing elements. In case you are selling a pair of heels, you can add a close up of someone else wearing the heels.
Though it's important to note that not all lifestyle product photography has to include humans in it. You can also put pictures of your products against a complimenting backdrop or other elements.
The main goal of lifestyle photos is to show scale -- To show how products look in real life. While you would obviously share the exact measurement of your products in the description, a clear picture will be much more useful to your customers and lead to less confusion. It will be especially useful for products that come in different sizes.
3- Add reflective shadows to your products
Adding a reflection shadow to your product images can make your products look like they were photographed against a reflective surface like a mirror and in turn make your images look more visually appealing. Though, keep note that all your products should have shadows going in similar directions. Shadows coming from different directions for each product can make your entire feed look inconsistent and fake.
Moreover, adding shadows to 3D images can make your products look life-like and more engaging. Without the right highlights and shadows, your products will only look flat, two-dimensional, and boring. Think about it -- If an object has no shadow, it would essentially look like it is floating in space.
4- Make your images interactive
If you majorly only offer your products online, you have to make sure that your customers are able to get a better understanding of your products and make quick purchase decisions just based on the images.
Adding high-quality images that can be zoomed in and rotated is the easiest way to do that. You can also add an interactive 360-degree view of your products so that your customers can check it from different angles.
5- Offer your customers with a consistent experience
The first step towards creating great e-commerce product photos is maintaining consistency. When you have product images that have been shot from the same angle or the same background, they will give a more professional look to your e-commerce store. They also make it easier for customers to compare products easily and create a cohesive looking feed.
6- Optimize product images for mobile
Over 67% of the world population now owns a mobile and it is expected that by 2021 mobile users will make up for over 72% of the total mobile traffic. That means, if your website has not been optimized for mobile yet, you are essentially losing business every day.
Start by compressing images to make sure they can load easily even on mobile data, without losing quality. After all, more than half of mobile users leave a page if it doesn’t load in three seconds or less. You have only a short duration to entice your mobile visitors and you should make the most of it.
At the same time, the product images should be responsive and adapt to every screen size.
The professionals always know better
With better product photos, you can maximize odds of winning your audience's attention, convert window shoppers into paid customers, and minimize product returns.
But developing and editing e-commerce product photos needs a big chunk of your time which can take you away from running your business and managing your core responsibilities. Moreover, if you are not an expert at this, you may not get the results that you want.
Instead, you can take the help of the expert designers at Prrowess, which offers unlimited graphic design services. That means you can get unlimited product photos created and edited for only a fixed monthly price.