by Tom Shackleton
Fantastic product photography is an essential part of any eCommerce site. However, taking great photos is only the first step, there are plenty of factors to consider when implementing product photography into your eCommerce website - whether on your product pages, on your About Us page or throughout your social media activity.
Fantastic product photography is an essential part of any eCommerce site. However, taking great photos is only the first step, there are plenty of factors to consider when implementing product photography into your eCommerce website - whether on your product pages, on your About Us page or throughout your social media activity.
Make sure you follow these 6 steps to make the most of your product photography and increase your sales as a result:
Show The Product in Action
Whilst detailed, simple product photography is essential, showing your product in action can be a very powerful tool for selling on your online store. Be sure to include photos that show the product in its natural environment and actually in use. Using these types of images allows the customer to envisage themselves using the product and see how it would fit into their daily lives.
Bang & Olufsen are experts at using this particular technique. They show their products in high end, aspirational settings that match the quality of their speakers. As a visitor, its difficult to resist.
Action photos can also be fantastic for explaining product features to the customer, without the need for a large block of text. Actually demonstrating your product’s benefits can be more convincing than trying to describe them.
Use Product Variations
Without the ability to physically touch the product, giving the customer the best possible idea of what they are actually buying is very important. If your product is available in various different colours, sizes or models, be sure to include photography of each of them rather than just one variation.
Show Detail
Again, to counteract the fact that customers can’t physically hold your product, let visitors view your products in as much detail as possible. Detailed images should minimise the chance of a customer buying from your online store and then returning the product because it wasn’t what they were expecting.
You’ve worked hard to get great products and then taken the time to produce fantastic photographs, so show them off in their full glory. Use photography from various different angles or even 360 interactive images to cover every view of your product.
Using zoom and lightbox features for your product images is another brilliant way to show them in greater detail. Let visitors focus in on minute details like stitching, fabric or finish. Made.com use this to great effect, letting visitors to their site inspect products in detail, even with their more close up images. That way, visitors can be comfortable with a purchase they’ll most likely be living with for many years.
Use Consistent Imagery
Make sure that the way product images are used is consistent across your site. Using varied and detailed images for one product and a single image for another could frustrate visitors. If you are consistent, customers will be much more inclined to see you as professional and trustworthy.
Also, having images with different styles across your site can make your category and search pages look messy (and potentially unreliable). Using similar style photos with similar backgrounds and compositions makes it much easier for visitors to compare your products and makes navigating your site a much more pleasurable experience. Of course, the better experience you offer, the longer visitors are likely to stay and ultimately, the more likely they are to make a purchase. There’s nothing worse than a messy search page that makes it impossible to find what you’re looking for.
Make the Images Shareable
If you have a fantastic product with fantastic photography, customers will want to share it. Including social sharing buttons on your product pages is a great way to encourage sharing that drives additional traffic to your site.
Incorporating product photography into your social media posts is another great way to increase awareness of your products and again, make sure to link back through to your product pages. You could even use your product photography for social media advertising with a call to action button that takes interested viewers directly to your site to buy the product.
Let The Imagery Take Centre Stage
Notice how Apple makes it’s product images front and centre on it’s website. The entire layout of the site is built around their photography with text being used to complement the images rather than the other way around. With so many similar looking product pages out there, standing out from the crowd with an innovative, product focused page design could give you an edge.
Use neutral background colours that complement your products and don’t surround your photos with large blocks of text. Stick to bullet points and short sentences so that your pages don’t look over crowded or cluttered.
Try Your Hand at Video
If you really want to make your product pages immersive and engaging, adding video can really give visitors access to an incredible amount of product detail and information. Why not try adding a product overview video or even an unboxing video to show that your attention to detail extends even as far as the packaging.
In Summary…
Great product photography, used well, really separates average eCommerce sites from great ones. If you aim to use your photography to give visitors the best possible idea of how your product looks, feels and works, you’ll have a site that’s much more engaging and easy to use.
Has great product photography really improved the performance of your eCommerce site? Get in touch with us on Facebook or Twitter and let us know your experience.
