The Importance of Good Photography in Your Online Store (2 minute read)
The Importance of Good Photography in Your Online Store (2 min read)
People are inherently visual beings, in fact, 90% of the information processed by the brain is visual. And even more astoundingly, our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text, making it pretty clear that we are inherently biased towards visual content.
Not only is our ability to process visual content higher, but so is our ability to recall it, 80% of people are able to recall visual content over written content.
What does this mean for you and your business?
When considering your online store, there are two important audiences to remember:
Your customer
Google / Bing and other relevant search engines
Your customer is most likely to be influenced by how your site and content looks, through both the overall look and feel of your website alongside the visual representations of your products.
Google on the other hand is going to be interested in the textual representation of your content and products. This is because Google can’t ‘see’ your images. It can read any text associated with those images, for instance alt tags, however it won’t be swayed but what your images look like.
These two points are key as in order for your customer to find your website, Google needs to be able to read valuable and relevant content. Once the customer has been served your site by Google, it then becomes the job of your visual content to convince them to purchase your product.
So what should your images look like?
There are many factors that can be considered when creating visual content for your products. To keep things simple we have outlined the three factors we feel will make the most impact for your business.
(1) 90% of online buyers say that photo quality is the most important factor in an online sale.
Quality imagery is important to consumers, this means high resolution imagery, well clear cut when relevant and ideally photographed by a professional product photographer to capture the correct angles, lighting and important key aspects of the product.
Clear cutting images help to best showcase the image. It's easier to digest and looks better.
Good lighting on the right better represents the product and makes it more appealing.
(2) 78% of online shoppers want photographs to bring products to life.
Alongside really good quality product shots, it’s a good idea to incorporate in situ or action shots. Shots that show the product in use or in a or within a contextual setting, sometimes called lifestyle shots.
Insitu images showing the use of the product in action below bring more emotion to the product. This allows the user to imagine themself using the product.
(3) Secondary imagery - showcasing additional product information
Many products come with variations, e.g. colour, size, style etc. Using secondary images to display these variations is a great way to help users ‘visualise’ the different variations or use scenarios.
Final thoughts
Good photography not only helps to sell your product to your customer, but can also provide a point of difference over your competition. It can be hard to find an edge in ecommerce when there are a number of providers selling similar products to you. If you’re able to provide well produced, emotive imagery, this can definitely provide an edge over competitors who aren’t.