Written by Raúl Carrión
Índice
Product photography in an online store is one of the strongest sales arguments. If the product enters through the eyes, the chances of a successful sale are higher.
In this article we will review the points to take into account so that the images of our online store help us to sell more.
Objective of the photographs of an online store
Let’s start at the beginning: What is the purpose of photographs in an online store? The answer is easy: photographs will help us to increase the conversion rate, that is, the number of visitors who end up becoming customers. For this purpose, the images in our online store must meet the following requirements:
Awaken buying interest
Whatever their nature, products must be in optimum condition when photographed. Our job is to make them as desirable as possible at the time of the snapshot.
Reducing the distance between the product and the buyer
Lack of trust due to distance reduces the number of sales in an e-commerce. To avoid this, we will work with photographs that make the product as close as possible. It must appear to be at the customer’s fingertips.
Provide product information
By taking pictures from different points of view we will be able to reach where the lexicon does not. In addition, it is very interesting to photograph the packaging of the product, because a customer is more relaxed when he knows how his order will arrive.
They differentiate us from our competitors
An e-commerce customer tends to go first where more information is provided. Therefore, having our own quality photographs makes the difference between our online store and the competition.
Tips for taking photos for online stores
We already know how important pictures are for our online store, so let’s work on getting the best possible images. We will pay special attention to the following points.
The team
We want to look professional, so we are going to use the most professional equipment possible . This rules out cell phones, even if they are the latest generation.
An SLR camera is perfect. It does not need to be a great equipment: with a basic model we can take good pictures if we take an interest. If we don’t have one, we can borrow one or buy our first SLR for less than 300 euros.
In the case of taking pictures of small or medium sized products, it is advisable to have a light box. It consists of a kind of miniature tent and a couple of spotlights to create the ideal light. On Amazon we can find this type of products from 40 euros and up.
We will also need a tripod to make the images as sharp as possible. For this purpose we should use a high shutter speed.
If the product does not fit inside a light box, we can improvise a photographic studio with a table, a wall and a white sheet. The only thing to do is to fix the sheet to the wall so that it falls on the table and covers it. By working a little with the lighting we will get photographs with a very good result.
Photographs
It’s the moment of truth: we have the product, the team and the perfect setting. Now it’s time to pull the trigger.
My advice is to take many photos, we will always be in time to discard those that do not convince us.
Also try to photograph the product from different angles in order to provide the customer with the necessary visual information to encourage him to buy.
Post-production
In this phase we will edit the images so that they are displayed correctly in our online store because, as in any other Web, the images must have a certain size, proportion and weight.
For this purpose we will use an image editing program. There are paid programs such as the well-known Photoshop, or open source programs, totally free such as Gimp.
With the selected program we will crop the images to the optimal size for our online store. A square ratio is the recommended option in most cases, although there are always exceptions, as in the sale of clothing where a vertical ratio is usually used.
The image size should be at least 800x800px, increasing to 1024x1024px in those cases where detail definition can make a difference.
In addition, with our image editing program we will adjust the resolution to 72 dpi, the format used for the Web, and we will adjust the compression of the image so that it has a good quality / weight ratio.
Upload images to the online store
A quality online store manager must be able to generate a medium-sized version and a small version for each photo uploaded to the system. In this way, the online store does not need to load the large (heavier) image in the product listings in the browser.
From the SEO point of view, it is highly recommended to add an alternative text to each photo that we publish so that Google places our online store in better positions.
Definitive summary of how to take photos for online stores
And for the lazy ones I end the article with a checklist of all the photo tricks for online stores that we have seen:
- Use professional equipment: reflex camera, light box and tripod.
- Take photos from different angles.
- Format the images so that they have the optimal ratio, size and weight.
- Use an online store manager that generates several image versions.
- Complete the image alt text with relevant keywords.
