With the rise of online shopping in recent years, eCommerce businesses have to make sure that the way they do their product photography should be effective enough to make them stand out among the competitors in their industry.
Your eCommerce business will need to have great product photography to be able to properly showcase your products and to convince your customers to buy. Nobody will want to buy a product with blurry, pixelated images.
This article will help inform you of the many reasons why great product photography is crucial for your online business, how it helps your SEO, the different tips for having great product photos, and the different types of product photos you can use.
What is Product Photography?
Product photography is a type of commercial photography where photographers will take shots of a company’s products which will be primarily used for eCommerce websites.
It is important that each product that will be sold on their eCommerce website will have its own product photos which will give an online visitor a good overview of how the product looks.
Having great product photos will be able to enhance the user experience of the website and can be what pushes visitors to eventually decide on making a purchase from you.
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- 5 Reasons Why Your eCommerce Business Needs Professional Product Photography
- 1. Great product photography helps build your company’s brand identity.
- 2. You are able to showcase the different products you are offering to your customers through product photography.
- 3. Great product photos can help you with landing new customers for your business.
- 4. Great product photography integrates your brand and its products into the lifestyle of your customers.
- 5. You can also use these product photos as part of your marketing efforts.
- 5 Expert Tips on How to Have Great Product Photos
- 1. Keep the product photos as simple as possible.
- 2. Make sure to cover alternate views of your products.
- 3. Keep all your product photos consistent with each other.
- 4. Use the unique and original photos from your photoshoot.
- 5. Hire a professional photography studio that can create great product photos for you.
- How to Optimize Your Product Photos to Help Your SEO Performance
- The Most Common Types of Product Photography That You Can Use
5 Reasons Why Your eCommerce Business Needs Professional Product Photography
Now that you have a better understanding of what product photography is, here are five reasons why it is important to your eCommerce business:
1. Great product photography helps build your company’s brand identity.
Whether you are a small, medium, or large business, building your brand identity is one of the most important things for your company.
Having an established brand identity will make it easier for consumers to understand what your business is about and what it does. It is how you can stand out among your competitors in your industry.
To flesh out your brand identity, you need to have a consistent look throughout your logos, designs, and colors. Having consistency in these visual areas will help consumers notice you immediately.
You are also able to build on your brand identity with product photography. This is because it allows you to capture your products in a way that is aligned with the visual identity of your brand.
2. You are able to showcase the different products you are offering to your customers through product photography.
Product photography is one of the best ways to achieve your eCommerce success because it helps you showcase all the different products that you are offering to consumers.
Since the goal of your eCommerce website is to generate conversions and sales, product photography can help this goal by making your products look as great as they can be.
You have to make sure that these product photos turn out well and are able to show all the important parts of your product because consumers will want to see everything about it before purchasing it.
To ensure yourself of great photos that can grab people’s attention, you will need to hire professional photographers who have experience in doing product photography. They possess the required equipment and experience to make your products and photos look the best they can be so that they can stand out online.
3. Great product photos can help you with landing new customers for your business.
Product photos can help you attract new customers and build relationships with them.
Since people pay more attention towards visuals and photos that they find interesting and appealing, you should be able to satisfy those with the product photos you will have.
These visually impressive photos can display your products in a creative and unique way so that they can stand out among the rest and win over new consumers.
To get the full benefits of these, you will need to make sure that these photos are visually appealing and well-made.
4. Great product photography integrates your brand and its products into the lifestyle of your customers.
While product photography is effective in showing what your products are, it can also be a creative way to demonstrate what it does and how consumers can use them.
Lifestyle photography, which is a type of product photography, lets you integrate your brand and your products into the lifestyles of consumers.
Lifestyle photography gets to show your brand being used by your consumers in typical daily lifestyle applications.
For example, if your products are backpacks, you can have a photo of someone using it on the street. Another example, if you are selling beverages, you can show off people drinking them with their friends.
By incorporating your brand and its products into your consumers, you are able to give them a better idea of how your products should be used and how they can be an important part of the lives of your customers.
5. You can also use these product photos as part of your marketing efforts.
With product photography, you will primarily be using these photos for your eCommerce platforms which can include your eCommerce website, Google, Amazon, Facebook or others.
However, since these photos are of great quality, you can also use a lot of them as part of your all around marketing efforts.
You can use your photos on your own website, all your different social media accounts, email campaigns, advertisements, and other ways of reaching out to customers.
These photos can be able to tell the story of your business, especially if it is accompanied by engaging copy and convincing call to action prompts.
5 Expert Tips on How to Have Great Product Photos
Now that you know why having product photography is important to your eCommerce business, here are our best tips to make sure that you get the best product photos possible:
1. Keep the product photos as simple as possible.
According to a Weebly research, 22% of online product returns are because people said that their ordered items look different than the photos used on the website. This means that you should always focus on the authenticity of your product photos.
Putting too many other visual elements in a product photo will just distract people from the main focus which should be your product. To emphasize your product, you should have solid backgrounds of white, gray or another light color.
This can be an example of a complicated product photo due to the background and the lights which can distract people from the product itself:
When it comes to retouching the photos, there should not be a lot of editing for the product itself. You can remove shadows and brighten backgrounds, but you must avoid heavily editing your product because they should look the same as they are in real life.
Here is an example of a simple product photo which has a white background and can clearly show the details of the phone case:
You should also consider minimizing elements on your eCommerce website which could distract your visitor’s attention away from your product photos.
2. Make sure to cover alternate views of your products.
You would want your product photos to be as helpful and as valuable as possible to your consumers. This means providing consumers with multiple angles of your products so that they can get a full look at them.
This helps provide them with even more visual information that they will need so that they can be more willing to buy your product.
Even Google is recommending businesses to include back views and close up photos. You can use these as supporting photos for a product.
Shopify’s studies have also shown that 33.16% of consumers want to see multiple product photos and 60% prefer seeing photos that can enable them to have a 360º view of the product.
3. Keep all your product photos consistent with each other.
All your product photos should maintain a consistent look all throughout your eCommerce website. You should plan out for this consistency even before the beginning of the shoot for your products.
To plan it out properly, you should know and communicate what you want all your photos to look like, from the backgrounds that will be used to the lighting setup, editing and the templates that can be used.
This prior planning before the shoot will make sure that every product will be shot in the same way and conditions to get that uniformed and consistent look you will need.
When all your product photos look similar, your website visitors will have an easier time navigating through your pages and pick out a product that they would want to buy.
4. Use the unique and original photos from your photoshoot.
When eCommerce websites feature unoriginal photos that may be found somewhere else, consumers may end up on different websites that feature the same products.
This is why you will need to have original photos to properly rank and optimize your photos.
When you use unique photos, like those that you will obtain from your product shoots, they can help separate yourself among your competitors.
Having your own unique photos can give a better visual experience for your website visitors as they can see how your products actually look like coming from you.
5. Hire a professional photography studio that can create great product photos for you.
Having high quality product photos can prove to your customers that you are serious in your business. This provides them with more assurance and security in buying products from you.
To make sure you are able to have high quality photos, you should seriously consider investing in a top photography studio so that they can help you out.
Hiring a professional photography team may look expensive initially, but this is an investment which can actually save you more money in the long run.
Professional photographers will know what to do during the whole photoshoot process and have the best photography and editing equipment to make all your products look the best they can be.
Check out our photography services here.
How to Optimize Your Product Photos to Help Your SEO Performance
While you have previously read about how much great product photography can help improve your eCommerce business, there is also another way it can help you and that is with your SEO performance. Here are some ways you can optimize your product photos to boost your SEO:
1. Make sure to have a relevant and accurate image file name for your photos.
Generic photo file names like “photo01.jpg” will not help Google or consumers. When naming your photos, you should use words that can describe the image clearly.
However, you should also avoid using file names that are too long just because you want to fit in many keywords. This tactic could have a negative impact on your SEO rankings.
2. Add alt text on your photos.
Alt text is shown when an image file cannot load and also helps search engines in interpreting what your photo is to visually impaired users.
Adding this alt text helps search engines and other impaired users by informing them of what your product photo is without it being displayed. This alt text will also describe images to search engines like Google so that they can understand your photo files better.
3. Use the most efficient and appropriate photo sizes and types for your photos.
JPG files are the most frequently used file types for eCommerce businesses because these files allow for high quality photo previews but in smaller file sizes.
It is important to have smaller file sizes for your photos because this can play a role in increasing your website’s load speed. Quicker load times can lead to more people staying on your website and eventually buying from you as well.
The Most Common Types of Product Photography That You Can Use
These are the most common types of product photography that you can use for the products on your eCommerce website:
1. Product Only Photography
Your product only photos are the most important type of product photography that your eCommerce business will need. These are the visuals that you will use to persuade people to buy from you.
They are one of the most vital elements of your eCommerce website because it gives your website visitors a good visual representation of what they are buying.
Great product only photos are high quality images that have a clean and crisp look to highlight all the important parts of your products. They are usually on a white background as this is required for a lot of eCommerce platforms.
While there is a trend developing where other stores are using bright color displays, the benefit of shooting your product only photos on a white background is that it makes editing the photos a lot easier.
2. Lifestyle Photography
Lifestyle product photos are another important type that you will need. These photos allow you to tell a story and speak directly to your target audience.
These photos allow consumers to visualize how you want your products to be incorporated into the lifestyle of your target audience by showing your products being used.
Lifestyle photos can also help you demonstrate scale, show off the features and fit when being worn or used, and can also boost your brand’s image.
While they can be primarily used for your eCommerce website in addition to your product only photos, you can also use these lifestyle photos for social media posts and even digital ad campaigns as well.
3. Social Media Product Photography
While the two previous product photography types can be mainly used for your eCommerce website, you can also have product photos for your social media accounts. Since social media allows you more creative freedom, it allows you to express your products in a different way.
This is where you can be more creative with backgrounds, lifestyle photos, and more ways to show your product and its important features. However, you should also know how to optimize your photos to each specific social media platform because they have their own specific audiences and preferences.
Here is how you can optimize your product photos for two of the most popular social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram:
When it comes to posting photos on Facebook, you should make sure that they are impactful and can stand out immediately.
Your images will be competing not just with brands but also personal posts from people. This means that you would still need to incorporate your brand’s styling to your photos so that people can easily recognize you in their feed.
Some reminders for photos on Facebook: you have to be aware of new trends and image formats that you should use, try doing A/B test photos to see what your audience would prefer, and use lifestyle photography or colored backgrounds to stand out.
With Instagram, it is much more important to be able to tell your story almost entirely on your visuals. From posts on the Instagram feed to Instagram Stories, you should be able to visually attract consumers without the help of text.
This is unlike Facebook wherein people will tend to also read the included captions of photos to learn more about them.
Here are some tips and reminders you will need for your photos in Instagram: make sure to have colorful photos that pop, include eye-catching lifestyle photos, avoid too much text in posts and Stories, and keep your feed photos consistent with your brand’s identity and look.
4. Product Photography for Digital Ads
The next type of product photos you will need is for your digital advertising campaigns online. Each marketing channel has its own specific requirements that you have to follow so that your campaigns can be approved and also be effective.
Here are the important details you need to know when doing digital ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram:
Facebook Campaigns
For all Facebook campaigns, you need to be sure that if you use text, it should cover less than 20% of your photos. In Facebook, you can switch between using product only photos or lifestyle photos depending on what specific Facebook ad you want to use.
- Facebook Image ads – Facebook image ads should have 1080 x 1080 pixels. You would want to use lifestyle photos that can immediately grab people’s attention because you only have a few seconds to make an impact with your ad.
- Facebook Story ads – Facebook story ads should have 1080 x 1920 pixels. With Facebook stories, you should be able to tell a story in an engaging way through lifestyle photos.
- Facebook Carousel ads – Facebook carousel ads should have 1080 x 1080 pixels. Carousel ads allow you to include numerous photos, so you can either have a lot of product only photos that show various angles or show lifestyle photos that show your product in different situations.
Instagram Campaigns
Instagram ads should just be like your typical Instagram posts in that they should remain impactful, minimalist, and stylish. Here are some suggestions on what photo specs you should use to optimize your Instagram ads.
- Instagram Image ads – Instagram image ads should have 1200 x 628 pixels. You can use lifestyle photos or product only photos that have a more colorful and impactful background instead of the traditional white.
- Instagram Story ads – Instagram story ads should have 1080 x 1920 pixels just like Facebook stories. With only a few seconds to get engagement, you should have captivating photos that make your product stand out and even some clever text to call them to action.
- Instagram Carousel ads – Instagram carousel ads should have 1080 x 1080 pixels. Just like Facebook, you can have more than one photo and you should place a strong lifestyle photo at the start followed by product only shots that showcase the product’s important features.
5. Website Homepage and Product Category Photos
Lastly, you can also use your product photos for your eCommerce landing page and product category pages. These photos can include both lifestyle photos and product only photos.
Having these high quality photos can give your website visitors an immediate look at what your products look like and how people can use or wear them in their daily lives.
If you want to be assured of great product photography for your eCommerce website, you will need the help of a professional photography studio. Lucky for you, our team at fewStones is always ready to help.
With fewStones, you will have access to professional photographers that are experts in different kinds of photography, including product photography. Our photographers will make sure that your products will stand out when you post their photos on your eCommerce websites and social media accounts.
You can visit our website if you want to learn more about our services and other services that we offer like video production. You can also get a free instant quote of our photography services on our website.
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