When it comes to online shopping, visuals hold far more sway over buying decisions than text descriptions. In fact, 75 percent of online shoppers rely on product photos when deciding on potential purchases.
For eCommerce sites, this makes quality product photos one of the best ways to compensate for customers not being able to see, feel, smell, and try on items IRL.
Below, we go over how product photography can transform your online store.
Drive Sales
By far one of the biggest differences that quality product images can make to your online store is by driving sales.
We’re all wired to refer to visual information first. In fact, we can process images 60,000 times faster than text. This means that eCommerce product photos are a great way to grab a customer’s attention. They can even elicit a strong enough emotional response for them to want to buy that product.
However, this doesn’t mean that snapshots haphazardly taken on your phone will have the same effect.
Everyone brings their A-game to product photography, mostly because their customers demand it of them. For example, 90 percent of Etsy shoppers say that the quality of product photos influences their buying decisions.
Plus, there’s the added complication of meeting specific requirements across different platforms. Therefore, it takes the expertise of a professional photography studio to pull off the kind of magic you need to get your customers to click buy.
Boost Your Brand
High-end product photography doesn’t only increase your chances of driving sales. It also speaks to your core values as a brand.
Sleek shots, close-ups, and consistent commercial photography all help to convey your brand image. That can mean making your site and its visuals feel funky and fresh or chic and considered. Either way, the eCommerce product photographs you use are a key part of your brand identity.
Showcase Your Products
You might know that your products are the best on the market, but how are potential customers meant to have faith in your products if the photos on your site don’t do them justice?
One advantage of selling via an eCommerce site is being able to display both the product itself and aspirational images. These images show how to use the product and create an enhanced emotional response.
For example, if you sell lampshades, product photos with white backgrounds show your customers what they’re buying. However, you should also consider including product photos with your lampshades in the context of different home styles. This can help reach different audiences while also increasing a sense of aspiration among your customers.
Give You a Competitive Edge
How do your customers come across your product photographs in the first place? It’s worth considering this to understand how much of a difference they could make.
Nowadays, your images will often have to compete with those of other similar retailers on search engine shopping feeds. These force online shoppers to scroll through all kinds of images from various retailers before making a final decision.
With that being said, it’s not hard to see how extra-enticing images will give you the competitive edge you need to draw in more customers. However, Google and other shopping feeds have strict rules for the images they show. So, if your product photos don’t meet their standards, you might not appear on these feeds at all.
Increase Customer Satisfaction
Detailed product descriptions and customer reviews can help give customers a better idea of what you’re selling and whether it aligns with what they want. On the other hand, product photos provide the first impression of your products. Quality images are also more persuasive than supporting written information.
With this in mind, a failsafe way to ensure that your customers are happy with the purchases they make is to provide product photos that are as accurate as possible. This avoids any nasty surprises when the items arrive – a big cause of dissatisfaction for online shoppers.
In addition to stand-alone images in good lighting for optimal clarity, advanced product photography ideas can improve the accuracy of eCommerce product photos. These include images of the item in-context to show scale, ghost mannequin shots for clothing, and 360-degree rotating images.
Reduce Returns
Product returns are bad news for your business since they require time, effort, and energy with no final sale to compensate. However, an increase in US-wide online sales always means a rise in return rates, which now account for an average of 16.6 percent of sales.
Having to return items is also a headache for customers. Especially when they must contend with strict return policies and long waits for a refund.
One of our top eCommerce tips to avoid all this is to provide better information for customers to make an informed decision before they buy. Accurate product photographs are a key part of this information. Not least because they provide essential and trustworthy visual details of your eCommerce products as they are, or as close to it as a professional photographer can capture.
Transform Your Online Store With Product Photography
As this guide shows, product photography is an essential tool for transforming your online store.
Quality product photos provide the edge you and your products need to shine. This then drives sales and boosts your brand. Accurate product shots also offer the added advantages of greater customer satisfaction and fewer returns.
Looking for a professional photography studio to help you improve your eCommerce product photos? Feel free to contact us at Pure Design Studio today.
