A picture is worth a thousand words, and when it comes to images of your products it may also be worth a thousand sales. Here are a few essential product photo tips that can boost sales on your website and engage your customers.
Use High Resolution
When you take pictures of your products, make sure to use a high-quality camera that can capture images in the highest resolution possible. This not only makes for a better picture when you post it online, but it gives you more flexibility should you need to edit or clean up the picture.
Resize Appropriately
Although you should take your product pictures in high resolution, make sure to resize them to a smaller resolution when you put them online. Images that are too large slow down loading times and become less mobile-friendly. A high resolution gives you a lot of flexibility, but keeping the final image at a smaller size helps your customers use your site with ease.
Optimize Images for SEO
Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is an important way to get search engines to notice your store. To improve the SEO of your images, make sure to rename them to a descriptive file name. Add a description to the image that uses an appropriate keyword, and make sure to include alternate text when you upload the image to your storefront.
Use PNG Format for Transparency
You should use one of two file formats for pictures in your storefront: either JPG or PNG. These formats allow for the easiest loading and the most flexibility. For the most part, they are interchangeable. However, the big difference is that PNG format allows for a transparent background. If you don’t have a white background, PNG format can make sure that your images blend seamlessly into the look of your site.
Use a High-Quality Program for Resizing Needs
While these product photo tips do mention resizing images, you should also keep the risks of resizing in mind. Any time you resize an image, you risk losing quality. This becomes especially true with basic photo manipulation software. Use high-quality photo editing programs that don’t distort images as part of the resizing process. Barring that possibility, use an image optimization plugin to make sure you have the right image size for your site, and to improve loading times.
Provide Multiple Angles
You should strive for clarity when preparing your product images. This means that customers need to know exactly what the product looks like from every angle. By giving multiple viewpoints in your pictures, you give the customers a chance to really analyze the product before making a purchase.
Use a Complimentary Backdrop
Many people opt for a transparent background and should thus use PNG files for their product images. If you use a backdrop, consider the color scheme of your product. Try to choose a backdrop which contrasts with the product’s color while also complementing it.
Provide Context
It’s one thing to show a pair of skis sitting on a display rack, but it’s another thing entirely to give customers an idea of what those skis might look like in action. Adding some context photos for products can make them seem more dynamic and interesting, greatly increasing the chance that you make a sale.
Cut Down on Noise
Noise in a visual sense means anything that takes away from the main focus of a picture. In a product image sense, that means eliminating anything that isn’t essential to the product itself. Avoid putting other items in the image or having an overly elaborate background. The focus should be solely on your product.
Allow Sharing
If appropriate, make sure to provide sharing options with your product images. This allows people to spread word of mouth marketing for you by putting your images up on their social media channels. Through this method, you might find a stream of new customers that previously didn’t know about your online storefront.
Test Your Images Yourself
Just because you put a nice product image online doesn’t mean that it works perfectly for your customers. Make sure to test your images by viewing them yourself, preferably on a few different platforms and devices. This ensures that you know what your customers are seeing.
Using the product photo tips outlined above can help improve the overall look of your online storefront. Even more importantly, it makes the entire shopping experience more useful and pleasant for your customers, allowing both sides of the store to benefit.
