The Importance of High Quality Product Photography for Ecommerce

If you're trying to boost sales, high quality photos of your products are essential! Here are a few reasons to invest in product photography for ecommerce.

In the U.S., 76% of adults shop online, and 25% of online shoppers make online purchases at least once per month. Are you trying to capture more of that business? Your product photos could have an impact on your success.

Ecommerce lets you reach a broader customer base without geographical limitations. But you also have to convince people to buy your products without physically seeing them in person.

The virtual shopping component is what makes product photography for ecommerce so crucial to your success. Without quality images, why would anyone purchase your products?

The images on your website are your chance to sell your product, establish your brand, and prove yourself as a professional, trustworthy company. You don't want to shortchange yourself on your product images.

Keep reading to understand why having clear, professional photos on your ecommerce site is so important.

Offer a Professional Presentation

Your website is your storefront for your ecommerce business. You don't get to greet your customers in person to convince them you're an expert. The visuals on your website set the stage to let visitors form opinions about your company.

Avoiding common product photo mistakes ensures your website has a professional look to it. Professional photos show you take your business seriously. Consumers are more likely to want to buy from you if you prove that you know how to run your business professionally.

Build Trust

Imagine you go to an ecommerce site to purchase a product you want. You click the image, only to find it's small, grainy, and low resolution. How does that make you feel about the company?

Clear, quality photos help build trust with your potential customers. When they can see what they're getting, they trust the quality. They know you're not trying to hide something behind the low-quality photos.

Provide Quick Product Information

Written product descriptions give the details, but it's often difficult for someone to visualize the item being described with words only. Images help users fully understand the product information and reconcile what they read with what they see.

A clear, quality picture gives consumers quick information on a product. They can see the color, pattern, style, shape, and quality of the product with a glance. Visually assessing the product lets them soak in the information much faster than reading the details.

Seeing the image helps the customer do an initial check to see if the product is a match for their needs. If someone needs an ultra-modern sink faucet to match a kitchen, a quick glance at an image of a rustic farmhouse-style faucet tells them it's not what they need.

Convey Product Quality

Even if your product fits the basic requirements of your customers, you need to convince them they should add it to their cart and complete the transaction. Your customer needs to see that your product beats the competition.

They want to see that your hand-knitted blanket is ultra-cozy, warm, and cute. Your photos can show them that your iced sugar cookies are adorable and delicious-looking. Pictures let you show how stylish customers will look when they wear your clothing line.

Reinforce Branding

Taking consistent, professional photos of your products helps support your ecommerce branding. The photo shoot lets you get similar shots with consistent lighting, backgrounds, and other elements to make the photos look cohesive.

Professional photos are a way to let you show your company's personality. If you sell pet products, you might show your quirky side with fun furry models in the photos. If you sell clothes for humans, you can dress up your models to fit the vibe of your company.

Establish Realistic Expectations

Sure, you want to move sell as much as possible. But you also want customers to be happy with what they get, or you're going to be dealing with lots of returns. Processing returns takes time, which costs you money in labor costs in addition to the lost money from a sale that didn't happen.

Online purchases result in much higher return rates: 30% of products ordered online get returned, which is much higher than brick-and-mortar stores with 8.89% return rates. Of those returns, 22% happen because the product looks different in person than it did in the photos.

It's better to ensure your customers have realistic expectations about your products so they can buy with confidence. Giving them clear photos from all different angles ensures customers know what they're getting. Those accurate impressions of the product can reduce your return rate, which saves you time and money.

Encourage Sharing

The same images you use on your website also work well for posting on your social media pages. Quality images are particularly good for promoting on Instagram since it focuses so much on the visual. They also work well on Facebook and other platforms.

When you post your product photos on your social media channels, you make them available to your followers to share. This turns your followers into your personal promotion crew. New potential customers may see those photos due to the shares.

You can also offer sharing opportunities directly from your website. Shoppers can share the images of the products they buy to make other people aware of the products.

Consumers won't share low-quality photos. If you want to get those social shares, you need professional-quality, visually appealing images that hook consumers.

Add SEO Potential

Having lots of photos on your ecommerce site introduces more opportunities for search engine optimization. You can use image file names and alt text on your images to incorporate keywords.

Incorporate lots of photos of your products using different angles and a mix of full shots and close-ups of the details. Include specific information about the images in the metadata to support your site's SEO.

Master Product Photography for Ecommerce

Do your website photos make your visitors click "add to cart" or do they come up short. Improving product photography for ecommerce product pages can help you increase your sales and build loyalty with your customers.

If you're not comfortable behind the camera, let us handle your product photos. We can create consistent, quality images that can help improve your sales.