Why Your eCommerce Product Photography is Killing Your Sales

If you own a brick and mortar retail store, what items do you place in the storefront? You don’t just throw anything up there and hope that people are happy with it. You hand select the products and arrange them so that they attract and entice people to continue into a buying process with you. The same concept needs to be true for your eCommerce site. Whether you are a B2B company selling large machinery or B2C company selling hand made products, the approach is the same. 

The product images that you select need to be so good that they overcome the lack of one very important human sense; touch. When you are selling products online, you are asking someone to give you money for a product that they cannot touch. The first thing we do in a brick and mortar store with merchandise is to go and pick up the product, to examine it, and physically interact with it. Ecommerce retailers have a huge challenge to meet. They need to visually represent their products in a way that people will trust the product and commit to a purchase, without the physically touching the product.

Here are 5 important factors to think about with your eCommerce photography

1)   Bigger is Better

When it comes to images on a category, subcategory or product detail page, bigger is better. Depending on your site traffic this may be something great for you to A/B test and see how people react to larger images on your site. When I say larger images, I am implying that the images need to be of a higher resolution. High-resolution images allow the shopper to see the product with greater detail and will allow most CMS platforms to properly execute a ‘zoom’ functionality.

2)   Add Video

‘A picture tells a thousand words’ NOPE. If you have the means to add to product images with video content, do it. Video allows the shopper to not only see the product in action, but gives perspective of a real person manipulating the product. This does not need to be a high ticket, scripted, studio shot video. With mobile technologies today, I would recommend purchasing some additional audio systems for your smart phone/tablet and start shooting. People trust real people. Put real people in the video handling your product.

3)   Allow Social Sharing

People want to tell friends and family about what they are purchasing or thinking about purchasing. If we are in the B2B space, then chances are the people who are purchasing from your site will have social accounts. Give them the chance to share and with their network and get free exposure to a whole new audience; maybe even some of their partners and competitors who have the same needs.

4)   Keep Updated Photography

Using dated photography will date your site and lower your company perception. Regardless of the industry that you are in, you do not want an old looking site. You may feel that people in your business channel do not care if your site is out of date; they do. In their personal time they are on thousands of other sites and they know what quality looks like. Make the investment.

5)   Mobile Optimization

When you are going through options for your site and the photography/videos that you would like to use, keep in mind that it may be viewed from a mobile device. Resolution, placement, length of video; these are all elements that you need to account for. Trends are indicating that mobile shopping will only continue to rise. Make sure that mobile is a part of your business solutions.

Your eCommerce site is a reflection of who you are. The website is a doorway into the company. If you are not willing to invest in updating and making the doorway attractive, then you are not going to get the right people through the door. Shopping online is about trust and educating people on a product that they cannot physically touch. When it comes to eCommerce photography, always give people the best possible experience.

 Image courtesy of worradmu via FreeDigitalPhotos.net