The Power of Product Images in Ecommerce

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First of all, let’s make things clear by saying that an ecommerce store that showcases its products with poor quality photography is working at a terrible disadvantage. 

Just take the time to consider how internet users today spend a good amount of time admiring high-quality photos of places and products that they find interesting on social media and in online stores, and the importance of having quality product images has never been more apparent for any online business.

Unlike a traditional brick-and-mortar store, your ecommerce store does not allow your online shoppers to come into physical contact with your products. Instead, shoppers are limited to their visual sense to measure the value, quality, and trustworthiness of a brand and its products. 

Remember that images have the power to delight, attract, and inform your target consumers. The right product images can help you stimulate and drive the agenda of your marketing campaign and help you make more sales from your online store. 

In this article, we are giving you the most pressing reasons why you need to step up your product photography game in order to improve your sales and drive the success of your online store.

Gives you a competitive edge

Your store has competitors, does it not? There are other ecommerce stores out there with a similar theme or idea, selling the same or similar products as you. Naturally, you are doing what you can to stay competitive and one of the best possible things for you to have against your competitors is better quality and more attractive product images.

Human beings are visual creatures, and we have a natural propensity to gravitate towards what looks pleasing and good on the eyes. When shoppers are surfing the net and doing their research for a particular product that they are interested in, they tend to compare products from different stores. When faced with identical products and with identical prices, the majority tend to favor the ecommerce site that has quality, professional product photographs, simply because it looks better.

Quality images improve perceived value

In relation to humans admiring and being attracted to what appeals aesthetically, we tend to dodge products displayed by sellers online who did not put enough thought and effort into their product photos. 

It doesn’t matter what it is you are selling. You could be selling high-value designer jewelry online, but if your images are poorly lit with a terrible background, then no one will be visually attracted to your products, so you can expect your store to suffer from lousy conversion rates.

This is because your customers will reflect the quality of your images upon the value of the products you are selling online. Poor quality images will bring down people’s perceived value of your online store and brand. Great product photography, on the other hand, will only lift people’s perceived value of your brand and its available products.

It’s what your prospective customer notices first

Product images are what captures the eye of your target audience first. Our eyes are naturally drawn to and attracted to images of products we find interesting, even before we check to consider the price tag. Good quality photos have the power to capture the attention and the imagination of your consumers. 

Before most people make a purchase, we imagine to some degree the role that acquiring a certain product may play in our lives. Quality product images can help build upon this process.

Your prospective buyers also have the need to make sure that the products that they are viewing with interest match their expectations. Your images can help you showcase the qualities and specifications that your target consumers may be looking for. For instance, color, size, style, function, and other qualities that will help your consumer determine their final decision. Images show your prospective buyers what you have got to offer them. If your images are great, they might decide to stick around for further product details.

Provides product information

While shopping online is considered wildly convenient for many people out there for a variety of different reasons, one drawback to online shopping is that your customers will not be able to physically handle the product that they want to purchase. Many shoppers go through a process where they consider the product and want to be able to reflect upon the product’s design, color, and observe its other functions before making a purchasing decision. Populating your ecommerce website with high-quality images, will help you fill in the gap for your customers and help them make a decision.

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. You should use your product images as a means of providing necessary information to your consumers, for instance, make sure to include photographs of all the available colors, include pictures of the product from multiple angles, show images of the products being used in real-life situations, and more. When customers get all the information that they need about your products, the more readily they will be to complete a purchase from your store.

Helps you build your brand

High-quality photography is a great medium for building your brand and conveying its unique personality and voice to your consumers. If you aren’t aware of the importance of branding, creating and building a brand is an integral aspect of your business. All successful businesses have their branding at the heart of their business efforts, and owning high-quality images of your brand and products is one of the best ways to build brand persona and brand recognition.

Ideally, your brand and ecommerce store is populated by a consistent and unique visual style that will build recognition in your consumers. Because your brand imbues the personality and voice of your business, your product images must stay true and consistent across all product pages, all social media platforms, and all advertising campaigns. The images you wind up posting and using on your product page should come to represent your brand.

Quality images get shared on social media

Having great quality visual content available throughout your shop and used in your social media marketing campaign will increase the likelihood of people sharing your product images online.

It’s been found that, in our social-media-run world, images are 40 times more likely to be shared. This is because many online shoppers like to talk about their purchases and experiences with brands on social media. Many of them also like to share images—which could potentially be excellent exposure for your brand!

As it were, people who use social media have a high tendency of basing their purchasing decisions on information and products that they come across off of social media and share this information with their friends through stories, link shares, repost, or through pinning images from Pinterest. Having people repost your brand’s images is great free advertising for your brand, so you want to make sure that the images you use are high-quality and represent the personality of your unique online store.

Back to You 

Investing in high-quality product images is a must for any ecommerce shop because quality images do the selling for you. When you are selling online, the photos do a considerable amount of work for your store to get the conversions it needs.

Images are the first thing that people see, not your product descriptions. In fact, most people scroll through content very quickly, stopping only when they find something attractive that catches their interest. Remember, your prospective consumers are most likely to buy from online stores with excellent quality images.

So, now that you know how important high-quality product images can be to the success of your ecommerce business, it’s time to step up your game and beat the competition to the punch with vibrant and informative images.

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At Ecommerce Pro, we help entrepreneurs and business owners build better and more successful ecommerce businesses. Have a question or a project in mind? Get in touch with us today!