Product photography for ecommerce is the ticket to joining the e-commerce market. Doing so is a huge step because it can opens huge new lucrative business opportunities. According to widespread studies, the e-commerce industry is predicted to reach a record of $1 trillion dollars in sales by 2022.
Shooting Table and studio lighting system
If you’re running an e-commerce business, you already know the importance of digital marketing. And you should consider including product photography for e-commerce in your branding and marketing strategies. Ensure you invest in high-quality product photography for your e-commerce business
But what is product photography? And how can it impact your e-commerce business? Read on below to understand more.
What Is Product Photography?
Before considering product photography for your e-commerce business, it’s essential to know what it is. Product photography is the process of taking high-quality pictures for marketing purposes.
A professional photographer will take high-quality photos of a product in the best possible lighting. This ensures that the product looks exactly like it appears to an individual’s naked eye.
It also ensures that the product is attractive to your target customers. You can use product photography for digital marketing campaigns and on social media. Posting the photos on the product pages of your website will also be a great way to attract new customers.
On the other hand, e-commerce product photography describes photography used for e-commerce businesses. Consumers purchasing their products online often don’t have the advantage of seeing the product in person. This is why they rely on the product images to decide whether to make a purchase or not.
Therefore, if you want to make more sales, include photography in your marketing strategy.
Importance of Product Photography for E-commerce
E-commerce product photography is an essential aspect to consider if you want to convince consumers to purchase from you. Today, online shopping is one of the fastest-growing trends, with everyone preferring it to physical shopping. That’s because it saves you time and it’s more convenient than visiting a store.
Another significant aspect of online shopping is that you can find any product and service you need online with a simple Google search. For this reason, it’s hard to ignore the power a high-quality product image will have on your consumer’s purchasing decision.
Hence, if you’re operating an e-commerce store without high-quality photography, you’re less likely to succeed. There are many advantages to using product photography. Some of these include:
It Compensates for the Lack of a Personal Experience
It’s true that most people want to shop online. However, they still miss the in-person experience of physical shopping. Therefore, online shoppers try to know as much information about a product before they make a purchase.
Because they can’t touch, taste, smell, hear or feel a product, all you can offer are high-quality product photos and an extensive description. Good product photography will stand-in for the missing senses of touch, smell, and feeling. This helps shoppers know more about the product they are buying without interacting with it, picking it up, or touching it.
Attractive photos also help convince your target consumers why they should purchase from you. Even better, photography increases customer satisfaction once the item is delivered. Therefore, it helps you reduce returns, curb customer frustrations, and avoid time and money wastage.
It Enhances Product Descriptions and Marketing Copy
Writing a product copy or description is a tedious job for everyone involved. It’s hard on the employees tasked with the job, and it’s also hectic to read an online review of a product as a buyer. However, you can help your clients easily visualize a product by adding pictures to the product description.
You should also use multiple images with a 360-degree view of the product and close-up captions. This will significantly enhance your product description.
According to a survey, 60% of American online shoppers need to see an average of three or four images before making a purchasing decision.
Marketing copy and product photography can complement each other to improve your sales. That’s because together, they provide a comprehensive overview of your product.
For this reason, it’s essential to always include product photography in branding strategies. Take high-quality images of your products and include them on your website.
Photos Make Your Products Look More Attractive
When considering e-commerce photography, the major thing to remember is that you need good photography. Most people don’t know the meaning of the phrase “good photography.” It means high-quality, high-resolution, and colored images of a product.
This includes photos of the product from multiple angles, including close-ups and 360-degree images. Good photography helps you give your customers enough visual information about the product to make up for the lack of touch.
For high-quality e-commerce product photos, it’s best to use a professional photographer. The photographer will use lighting that will bring out the authentic colors of a product. They will also make the product as attractive as possible to entice customers to purchase from you.
During the photoshoot, there are two ways you can shoot the product. You can start the session with a simple white background to help enhance the product’s attractive parts. The background will also remove any distractions from the photo, helping clients see its true essence.
Another method is placing the product in its ideal use setting. This subconsciously helps customers envision the type of lifestyle that comes with the product.
It Improves Your Branding and Increases Your Business’s Authority Online
The quality, type, and the number of images you use to sell your products will help you support your ongoing marketing and branding efforts. A picture creates a perception of a business in consumers’ minds. Therefore, your e-commerce photos will be instrumental in informing your site’s visitors about the type of company you are.
Product photography also increases a brand’s authority in the online retail business. It does this by augmenting the perceived value of a product, helping you stand out from your competitors.
For instance, if you and another business are selling the same products, providing high-resolution images of a product shot from different angles will help you stand out more. Through product images, you can make your version of the product look more attractive and appealing.
It Builds Trust Between Your Brand and Consumers
Human beings are naturally suspicious. This is why it’s very challenging to build trust among your customers. However, once customers trust your brand, it will be easier for them to buy from you over and over again, increasing repeat business.
And trust is harder to gain when selling your products online. That’s because consumers can’t touch, feel, smell, or see the product in person. Therefore, your target audience only has product images and your word to tell them what they need to know.
If your images hide crucial information about the product, it will be easy to lose your customer’s trust. The best way to build trust between your brand and customers is to use imagery to answer all their questions.
Some of these questions include:
- What’s the purpose of this product
- What additional features does it have
- What’s in the box
- What are the benefits of purchasing the product
- What problems will this product help me solve
While most brands use product photography for marketing their products, ensure you also use it to tell a story. Your images should explain more about the products and help consumers answer questions they didn’t even know they had. This helps you to earn their trust, making them come back to purchase more products from you.
Improves Your Conversion Rate
The primary purpose of using product photography is to increase sales. The major challenge of online shopping is that consumers cannot physically touch, hold and feel your products. This is why they heavily rely on photos and other visual cues to help them get the information they need.
Therefore, you can use product photography to showcase your products. They’ll convince consumers that they are missing out if they don’t make a purchase.
You can also use the images to reassure customers that you’re selling them the best available product on the market. This way, you will convert undecided customers and plant an idea in customers who aren’t ready to make a purchase yet.
Increases Your Brand Visibility Online
Did you know that a social media post with an image is ten times more likely to get the desired engagement?
This means that people are more likely to share and engage with your content when accompanied by an image. And the more people share your content on social media, the higher your chances of reaching new customers.
On the other hand, people are less likely to share poor-quality, low-impact images. Therefore, the more impactful the image is, the higher the chances that someone will share it on their feed.
If you want to create content worth sharing, you should start by knowing and understanding your target customers and the market.
This means that your content should represent your brand as well as resonate with your target audience. Your consumers should be able to associate with your photos. This makes them want to share your content on their social media pages.
When consumers are looking for a particular product, they are more likely to start their search on Google Photos. And, Google algorithm already knows this. That’s why it has placed a great emphasis on high-quality imagery with the correct title and relevant product description.
Research shows that 87% of purchasing decisions start with a search done online on Google.
Whenever potential customers look for products like yours online, they are more likely to click on high-quality images. Therefore, having product images that make your brand stand out will help you get noticed by your target audience.
Product Photography for E-commerce Helps You Cut Through the Noise
As an e-commerce retail store, your main commodity is the products you sell.
Your products are the backbone of your business whether you sell online or in a physical store. Fortunately, most companies already know the importance of product photographs to their conversion rates.
The bad news is that the internet is filled with product photos bombarding consumers with too many options. Hence, you will need high-quality product images that speak directly to the consumer to cut through all this noise. Today, more and more consumers are ignoring pictures and videos that don’t grab their attention.
Over 47% of online consumers today consider image quality an essential factor when making a buying decision. Therefore, it’s vital to have high-resolution and good-quality product images that make you stand out from your competitors.
Are You Considering Product Photography for E-commerce?
Product photography for e-commerce will help you make the most out of your marketing and branding strategies. High-quality product images will do more than improve your brand’s visibility and sell your products. They will help you expand your business’s reach and attract new customers to your website.
If you’re looking for the best product photographer in the market, don’t hesitate to contact us at Jules Design for the best product photos. We have high-quality professional photographers who will ensure that your product’s images meet your industry specifications. We offer services ranging from lifestyle photography to food and fashion product photos.
Whichever industry you’re in, we are here to help you make the most of your marketing efforts. Contact us today to book an appointment.