How great product photos can boost your e-commerce conversion rate

Getting a lot of traffic on your site is fantastic, especially if one of your primary goals is to make sales. As an e-commerce seller, your primary purpose is to focus a lot on conversion, and the traffic that you’re getting on your site.

But how exactly can you achieve the results you want? The key here is to engage people with what they see.

It’s a known fact that images have a way of engaging people. An image communicates a message or an idea more effectively, sometimes even better than words.

That’s why if you want to improve your conversion rate, visuals are an excellent way to do it.

As you know, the key to a successful business is building strong relationships with your customers. Great images have the potential to touch the emotions of customers, and even influence relationships with them. Having the right images are a fundamental aspect of influencing a buyer’s decision.

Why is great product photography important?

Now, we’ll talk about why adding great product photography in your eCommerce website has the power to increase your conversions significantly, and even build strong customer relationships.

1. Consistency improves your branding

For you to build a successful eCommerce product photo, it must have at least two vital components:

• Size
• Resolution

Let’s assume that a potential customer is looking at your store, planning to buy swimwear for their next dream vacation. Once opening your product photos, all they saw were very tiny photos that don’t reveal much about the intricate details on the back. Also, the pictures of the product don’t feature the beautiful hand-made design on the front.

Keep in mind that it’s crucial, at this point, to have big, high-resolution images that feature your product’s beauty, uniqueness, or practicality. Ideally, make your products at least 1,500 pixels and on the longer side. Doing so allows potential customers to zoom in and out, and see the details comfortably. Also, ensure there’s a zoom function that’s enabled in your online store as well.

2. Images guide your customer

A lot of marketers are using carefully placed images to improve overall conversions. But how exactly do they do that? Usually, they guide a visitor’s eyes to the point of conversion ‒ from the product placement, form, button, and all the way to the navigation option.

All of it is accomplished using a photo of a person, otherwise known as the “hero shot.” It usually involves having a person look at the specific part of the web page that the marketing team wants potential customers to turn their attention to.

3. Shows the product in context

Models get paid huge sums because they showcase clothing products in context, in a flattering way, of course. However, you’d be surprised that there a lot of e-commerce brands who fail to show their products in context. You would often see clothing stores with no models that would feature how their products would look like when worn, or tools that don’t clearly show pictures how their products work.

Photographs can have lasting power, especially in showing the product in context, explaining its features. It does have a psychological benefit of helping customers better visualize themselves using the product themselves. It helps them imagine themselves using the product that will improve their lives in some way.

Therefore, take the opportunity to showcase your product that highlights its best features, in the most flattering way as possible. Take, for example, Apple’s MacBook Air. The company released an advert showing a laptop that’s been slipped from a paper envelope. While it’s not exactly viable to transport a computer that way, Apple has brilliantly made their point. Although the MacBook Air wasn’t as fast and didn’t have the best battery power, it is thin, and that’s the very reason why a customer wants to buy it.

4. Brings in personal touch

Do you want to know what the best prop is for your products? The human touch. When people use your products, it gives potential customers an idea what it’s like to experience it. It also significantly increases your conversion rates, as well.

In one particular case study, 37 Signals found that when they include a happy and satisfied customer on their landing page, it resulted in a staggering 102.5% increase in overall conversions. So there’s no doubt about it ‒ including a person on your product page significantly increases your conversions.

5. It appeals to your customer’s emotions

Many studies back the idea that when consumers buy a product, it is because of an emotional reason. A potential customer doesn’t just want to browse on your site ‒ they also want to experience it. Having the right kind of images keeps your conversion rates up by engaging your audience’s senses. You can use this by using specific techniques and images to help them imagine what it’s like to experience your product.

For example, an e-commerce store which sells various kinds of furniture have a custom feature that allows a customer to change the color of a piece of furniture and helping them imagine better how will the product look like in their living room.

Having the right images to represent your product gives a fantastic experience, and appealing to your customers’ emotions, significantly improving the conversion and your site’s overall engagement as well.

The bottom line

Good product photography can strongly influence and boost your eCommerce store’s overall conversion rates. That’s why, more than ever, you have to capitalize on its power. While most customers can’t experience your products online for themselves, they can experience it through the excellent visuals that you provide for them.

Now that you know how great photography is in boosting your conversion rates and sales, you can now produce better product images that showcase your products and give more information to your customers.

So, it’s time to go out there, apply what you’ve learned into action, and create higher converting product photos!