Product Images in E-Commerce: Why a Picture
is Worth a Thousand Words in Online Stores

If you treat your e-commerce shop similar to a brick and mortar store, you will find that getting a closer look and feel of the product you’re interested in is important in driving more sales. That is why product images in e-commerce play a crucial role in your branding, sales and marketing.

Here are the more specific reasons why it is important to have high-quality product images in your online store.

• Provides an alternative for physical inspection. If you’re doing business with tight competition, shoppers are more likely to window-shop first before settling for a particular product. And because online shopping limits physical inspection, having product images in your online store allows them to have a feel of what your products look like.
• Brand ambassadors. Another important role that product images in e-commerce play is being brand ambassadors. How you present your products through your images can make or break your brand. The photos help you achieve the kind of brand of image you want to portray to your customers.
• Ease over competition. Today’s shoppers are more savvy about the decisions they make online and are more conscious about their product options. To get an edge over your competitors, use product images to engage visitors and convert them to customers.

Now that we’ve established that product images are important in customer engagement, it’s time to apply the best practices in presenting such images. These practices will provide your visitors a different shopping experience, one that will convince them to make a purchase.

1. Zoom

The ability to see the product up-close allows visitors a more detailed inspection. It’s like they’ve walked inside your store, picked up a product and held it before their very eyes. It is important that when you use the zoom feature, the photo is still of outstanding clarity.

2. Alternative Views

Provide visitors different ways to view the product so they know how it looks like from different angles. The alternate view feature showcases the product in a variety of ways so visitors get an idea of what exactly they’ll be getting.

3. Image Quality 

Blurry photos taken in bad light and from a bad angle communicate a bad image to your visitors. Use high quality images, taken by a professional photographer to ensure that your product images look polished, detailed and attractive in your e-commerce store. The better your product images look, the more you can engage your visitors.

4. Provide Images of Products in Different Variations. 

If your product comes with different sizes, colors and styles, take a photo of them separately. This helps visitors gauge the size of the product in real life and gives them an idea if they prefer one color or style over the other. Providing options to your customers increases sales potential and reduces returns.

5. Scale Display

One of the biggest challenges of shopping online is gauging the actual size of the product. When photographed in zoom feature, an item can look large but this can be deceiving once you receive the actual item. To help avoid this kind of disappointment, visitors are shown the product’s scale and context, usually by placing the product side by side with another item, such as a mobile phone, a dollar or other everyday standard items.
Running an e-commerce store could be tricky if you don’t know what your customers need. Capitalize in quality photos and rich features that will present your products in the most positive way and you will be able to build a solid baseline, increase sales and boost your brand image.
To get you started with your E-Commerce store and put the right features and product images, reach us at at http://www.i95dev.com/contact/ or give us a call at 301.760.7499.