Getting the perfect product shots for your eCommerce storefront is never as easy as it sounds – namely because eCommerce customers have high expectations when it comes to product photography. And when you think about it, they have the right to maintain these expectations.
As your customers are buying from you online, your photos are all they have to go off, so getting your product photos right is one of the key drivers of sales in eCommerce.
Below, we’ve put together five key steps to producing better product images for your eCommerce venture. By following these five steps, you will be able to get product photos that drive conversions and ensure your business and product range is well-represented online.
- Use the Right Equipment & Editing Software
For eCommerce enterprises, high-quality high-resolution product shots are ultimately a trust signal to consumers. Contrastingly, blurry or low-quality shots may give the impression that your products aren’t high-quality themselves, or that your business is apathetic towards its consumer base. In this aspect an investment in quality photography and editing equipment (and photography skills-building) is an investment in the longevity of your enterprise.
If you don’t have the capital upfront to buy a professional DSLR or mirrorless camera, you may be able to get away with using an iPhone camera paired with some great editing software for launching your site and raking in some preliminary sales. We recommend using a freemium tool like Adobe Express, which comes equipped with a variety of indispensable image editing tools, including an image resizer for social media posting and a background remover for converting .jpg files into high-quality .png files.
Once you do have the capital, however, you’ll want to grab yourself three things: a camera, a tripod, and some lighting. Start by looking for a good camera with a suitable lens for the kind of shots you want to take. A wide-angle lens will suit outdoor photos that include the background, whereas a macro lens is perfect for showing the detail on smaller products.
Next, you will want to consider some kind of stabilisation, so either a gimbal or tripod. Handheld shots can be a little shaky and end up looking unprofessional. Stabilising your camera can help prevent motion blur and keep your shots consistent between products.
Lighting solutions are also worth considering for the best results. Natural light is often the best for most kinds of photography, but it can be temperamental and inconsistent to work with. For this reason, most product photography uses additional light sources to create the perfect light conditions. Simple solutions such as a ring light or light box are often more than enough.
- Experiment With Composition & Angles
The way you choose to present your products online can drastically change how a customer perceives them. The style of photography used to showcase your products can even influence what demographics become interested in your product range. For instance, Gen Z and Millennial consumers are more likely to be drawn in by bold, patterned backdrops and colour palettes over Gen X and older consumers.
But product design and backdrops aside, it’s also important to keep in mind that even the composition and angles of your product shots can create new associations with your products – like shooting Bluetooth speakers in a scintillating splash of water denote that the speakers are waterproof, rugged, and ready for on-the-go partying.
So, think about the composition, framing, and angles of your photos right alongside your set design. Instead of shooting directly in front, try mixing it up with different angles and positioning. Not to mention that presenting your product from different perspectives will also give customers a better idea of its design and features. This is also vital for supporting eCommerce sales, as limited product shots will likely result in consumers looking elsewhere for products that have more information.
- Make Sure your Product Shots Match your Branding
Just as cohesion is vital for developing a solid business brand, so too is cohesion essential for developing a robust library of your product photos. If there’s any discernible disconnect between your product photography and your business branding, then consumers may suspect that your photos have been bootlegged from another source. This is because cybersecurity and scams are a growing concern amongst online shoppers.
So in this cyber-conscious landscape, the benefits of product photos that meld with your business branding isn’t just marketing gains – it’s also in cultivating consumer trust, as we mentioned earlier.
Ensuring your product photos match your branding also demonstrates attention to detail and a level of concern in the perceived legitimacy of your online venture. In some cases, slapping on brand logos on backdrops or overlaying edited brand colours onto product shots can be enough to create this sense of cohesive branding. But if you feel that your product shots could benefit from an industry eye, then don’t hesitate to outsource the job to a professional with experience snapping or editing product photos or even consulting on business branding.
- Web & Mobile Friendly Photography
More consumers are shopping on their phones than ever before, so it stands to reason that you’ll need to make your product shots and product pages both web and mobile-friendly.
To begin, consider the file size before you upload your photos. Larger photos can take longer to load, causing customers to click off your page, so keep the file size small so that the photos can be loaded quickly, even on a slow connection.
The composition and the framing of your images should also suit the kind of device you expect your customers to be using. For desktop and laptop users, a wide-screen landscape image will effectively show the product. However, mobile users will need a vertical portrait of the product. A mixture of both will mean that your images will look great on all devices. And if you want to finetune further, consider conducting some market research into your target demographics to determine what devices they’ll be most likely to use when shopping with you.
Another quick digital-savvy tip to increase web performance is to change the file name to the product name which will make the photo easily searchable using search engines. With Google Shopping becoming more sophisticated, ensuring your product pages and images are crawlable can help increase your chances of making sales via search engine traffic.
- Review & Get Feedback
Finally, it never hurts to do some A/B testing and other forms of formal or informal market testing. Test your photos out on existing customers and feedback groups to find out what kind of reaction you might get when you upload them. Getting feedback from customers and using it to review how you take your product photos will make your product photography a lot better. It will also give you an idea of what your customer’s preferences are and what they respond to.
Most eCommerce platforms will also monitor click-through rates and can tell you where customer engagement goes in your store. Use this to gauge what is working and what isn’t on your website.
Perfecting Your Product Photos for your eCommerce Site
Quality product images are the cornerstone of the success of any eCommerce business. It is the main way a customer evaluates a product online. Following these five steps will help you start taking better product photos, and you can reapply the steps until you have the perfect photos that help boost your sales.
Start by setting yourself up with the right equipment. Experiment with techniques, angles, and lighting to find a style that suits your product and business and edit your photos to make them look more professional and stand out. Optimise your photos to be web-friendly and searchable and, finally, review and test your photos before uploading them to your store.
