A picture paints a thousand words, but it can also sell thousands of products. This is the importance of product photography. In 2019, e-commerce represented 16 percent of the country’s total retail sales, showing how important e-commerce is to both the retail industry and the economy. And for e-commerce retailers to sell, they need excellent product photos.
The Role of Product Photos in E-commerce
Product photography is one of the most powerful tools for online retailers. Since customers cannot touch, smell, taste, or hear your products, all you have are images and descriptions. High-quality photographs help customers see and understand why they should purchase your product or why they should choose yours over your competitors’.
With product photography playing an important part in your e-commerce business’ success, you must be careful not to commit the following mistakes that could cost you your sales:
1. A busy background
One of the most common mistakes when taking photos of products is having a busy background. Instead of the customer’s sole focus being on the item you’re selling, their attention might be diverted to the background. A plain background, on the other hand, ensures that nothing else distracts customers from your products.
Fortunately, you don’t need to take your product photos at a professional studio. As long as you have a blank canvas, you can take photos of your products against it and have a company that offers photo editing services make adjustments so that your photos appear more professional.
2. Poor lighting
Images of your products must be able to help customers visualize how those products would look if they used or wore them. This means that proper lighting is an essential part of product photography. If your photos are too bright, it might wash out the colors of your products. If they’re too dark, your products might appear lackluster.
If you invest in proper studio lighting, you don’t need to buy professional cameras and other equipment. You can take a high-quality photo with your smartphone as long as you have the right lighting.
3. A lack of size reference
As mentioned before, product photos help your customers visualize how products would look once in use. Apart from having the right colors from proper lighting, it helps if they can see size reference.
Not everyone is good at visualizing size just from numbers written in your descriptions, so it’s good to have product photos that show the product in use. If you’re selling wristwatches, for example, try to take not just photos of the watch with a plain background but also ones wherein it’s on a model’s arm.
4. Using other people’s photos
This practice is popular on retail sites such as Amazon and eBay where plenty of merchants are resellers. These people tend to use the same images just because they’re selling the same products from the same brands. But this is not a good practice and makes your e-commerce store look untrustworthy since some resellers sell counterfeit products.
If you’re a reseller, take your own pictures of the products you’re selling. This makes your store stand out from others selling the same things and shows your customers that you’re selling what you’re advertising.
Product photography is relatively easy and straightforward. As long as you avoid doing the things mentioned above, you can have product images that can improve your online store and attract more customers.
