Online shopping is convenient for its ease and speed, and is becoming more and more popular. And one of the most important factors of online shopping is ecommerce photography. This plays a big role in ecommerce, as a picture is the first thing that a potential buyer pays attention to.

We have created a useful post to tell you about the 5 main reasons to choose high-quality photos for showcasing your products. If you don’t want to lose customers or stand behind your competitors, we recommend checking out this guide.

1. Brand Representation

ecommerce photography example of brand representation

Poor pictures highly affect customers’ choices, scaring them off from low-quality products. Besides, they tarnish the brand’s reputation significantly. When you see low-quality pictures, the first association that comes to your mind is a second-hand shop.

As a rule, most such photos are taken with a mobile camera. Since an online store is at a completely different level, you have to take care of the quality of ecommerce photos.

As a rule, the decision of a buyer largely depends on the images on the site. If you use beautiful pictures, the sales level rises. Since bad product shots demonstrate your unprofessionalism, they raise doubts among buyers and reduce the credibility of your brand.

If a buyer cannot see the desired product on the site, they are unlikely to make a purchase due to a lack of confidence in you and the quality of your products. Keep in mind, all the photos you add to the site make an impression on your clients. You should create quality content in a consistent style if you want to increase customer loyalty and brand awareness.

To get high-quality photos that show all the benefits of your products, we recommend taking photos in good lighting, choosing a single background, and using the same size. A white background is a universal option. To remove unnecessary details and focus customers’ attention on the product, learn how to remove the background of a picture in Photoshop (How to Remove the Background of a Picture in Photoshop Tutorial).

2. Boosting Search Rankings

use photos to boost seacrh rankings

To create a successful website, keep in mind that images influence the search rankings of your online store. For ecommerce photography to work, you need to use the correct metadata and captions, which search engines will index properly.

If you adjust content accurately, your photos will appear on the web and in the image search, which enhances your online presence. As you can see, content search engine optimization helps promote your store and increase conversions by making your photos visible to the audience.

If you use original photos, rather than stock images, you can share them with other sites and blogs as a part of an affiliate program. Affiliates can host your images by linking back to your site. These inbound links also help your online store to rank higher on search engines.

We’ve prepared some tips on ranking options when it comes to image search engine optimization:

  • Naming your image file: Headers like “image01.jpg” will hardly be useful to customers or browsers. We recommend using precise words that describe the product depicted in a photo. Avoid using long titles and keywords as they can lower your site ranking.
  • Alt text on images: Since search engines cannot interpret the image, they focus on the file name and alternative text. We recommend using alternative text to describe ecommerce photos so that search engines can understand them.
  • Image size and types: Typically, online stores use JPEG images for their websites. This format is available for viewing high-quality images with smaller file sizes. Since the size of an image affects the loading speed, the smaller the file, the faster the site. A slow site affects the ranking of the online store and decreases conversion. WordPress users can try using an image optimization plugin to help.

3. Shareability

drive sales through shareability of your images

As the influence of social media grows, it can be a great platform to drive more sales to your website. So, if a user can share your ecommerce photos on their social networks and talk about your brand to followers, you will get new leads for free.

According to research, 74% of consumers pay attention to feedback on social media when making a decision about a product. They study information posted by their friends or bloggers, look at photos and read comments.

But we’re not talking about text posts advertising your products. An excellent platform for the website/product promotion is Instagram, where users can make a post with a beautiful picture. This is a great free variant for your brand. We recommend considering the Visme Social Media Graphics Tool to optimize your photos for well-known sites.

You should make sure that your photos are of decent quality for publication. Although modern smartphones come with a good camera, they can barely compete with professional devices. We recommend using professional photographer’s services to shoot your products or buy/rent a high-end camera for a photoshoot.

A photographer who understands all the intricacies of ecommerce photography and has professional equipment, will definitely provide you with top-notch images. To enhance your shots, we recommend editing them on your own or using product retouching services. If you want to edit your images without help, learn how to batch edit in Lightroom (How to Batch Edit in Lightroom Tutorial) so you can get the task done quickly.

4. Visualization of the Product

product visualization is essential for ecommerce photography

We recommend using clean and attractive images on your website. Keep in mind, your products should correspond to what you show on the site since 22% of returns are related to the discrepancy between the products in reality and the picture on the website. Add zoomable pictures so that the user can see the details, or use a photo gallery to show different product shots.

If you sell cosmetics or household appliances, one photo is enough since the main focus is on the characteristics of the products. However, most categories require more product photos from different angles. Such details help users make decisions faster.

In addition to demonstrating a product, take pictures of how a person can use it. It is worth drawing customers’ attention to the product benefits and features. Such shots have a greater impact on buyers.

Thus, when selling clothes, you can take pictures of the outfit on a model. If your product is a hand cream, shoot it in the usual environment. Keep in mind, photographs with a person’s face are more credible.

5. Solidifying a Sale

use photos to ensure a sale

If you think it’s better to add a detailed description of a product instead of a photo, you’re wrong. For a potential buyer, the visual aspect plays a big role. Thus, 78% refers to the visual perception of the product during shopping. If there is no photo, buyers are likely to choose another online store.

The majority won’t take a risk buying a product without prior evaluation. Since customers can’t touch your product while shopping online, we recommend using high-quality ecommerce photos to grab their attention, increase conversions, and gain loyalty.

Article by Tata Rossi:
Tata Rossi is an experienced photographer and retoucher from Bostom, currently working for a popular photo retouching service FixThePhoto.Tata keeps her readers updated on everything related to photography: helpful tips, creative ideas, gear, poses, props, and much more. She also likes to educate people on how to solve common retouching issues, and produces simple tutorials for Lightroom, Photoshop and other software.