Why are there only Some Online Stores that are profitable?

A customer’s first impression is based on the product’s appearance..

The product picture is the first thing that a potential buyer sees on the website. Psychologists say that the first few seconds of interaction with the brand may be crucial for the conversion. The customer has not yet had the time to read your fabulous sales pitch, but they have already formed an impression of your online store.  Why and how have they done so? They have formed their opinion about you based on your product images and what these pictures make them feel and think about your merchandise.

The Comprehensive Modern Consumer Shopping Habits study, which was conducted in 2017 among American online shoppers, generated some fascinating results:

What do you want to see on an online store’s website?

• Product pictures: 78%
• Detailed reviews: 69%
• Product comparisons: 46%
• User reviews: 42%
• Video review (unpacking): 30%
• Online consultant: 22%
• Links to social networks: 9%

Successful  implementation of these elements will bring you impressive benefits and dividends; there is an average annual e-commerce growth of 20-25%! That's why it’s so vital to include professional product photography costs in your budget.

E-commerce product photography contains key information your customers need.

High-quality and carefully picked e-commerce product photographs help the user to get key information about the product without reading the description.
You cannot touch an item online, unlike in a traditional store; therefore, the product picture is the main information resource for the client. Who will buy goods that cannot be viewed well?

In the second part of the results of the mentioned research by Square and BigCommerce, 49% of buyers complain about their inability to see the goods.

What do you dislike about online shopping?

• Payment for delivery: 58%
• Purchase of goods blindly: 49%
• Problems with returns: 34%
• Awaiting delivery: 34%
• The violation of privacy: 29%
• Problems with site navigating: 21%
• Entering payment data: 19%
• Unfruitful or time-consuming searches: 9%

Professional Product Photography for Mobile Shopping

Since mobile shopping is becoming more common globally, the importance of professional product photography is growing rapidly. Do you think that a person with a smartphone will first read each description or look at the photo? A user, in 99% of cases, judges the product not by text but by high-quality photos. That is why clear and attractive images are key to higher sales. Let’s move-on to the next essential issue…

The Best Product Photography

New entrepreneurs, when opening online stores, often think that any photo they wish to feature on their website is the best product photograph. Unprofessional and poorly optimized images can harm an online store, worsen the user experience, and adversely affect search engine optimization and traffic.

Here are three common mistakes:

• The images load slowly.
• The images have no relevant meta descriptions.
• The images are of poor quality.

Criteria for high-quality product pictures:

A product picture should meet simple criteria to exceed consumer expectations and avoid creating problems:

• Professional quality
• Competent search engine optimization
• High uniqueness
• Reasonable size

How to conduct Professional Product Photography

We have already described how to conduct professional product photography in one of our articles ("Professional product photography and when is it needed?"). This is an interesting and exciting but difficult process. To achieve fast and high-quality results, we suggest you use our unique photography machines. We offer the following:

• Live machine for high-quality videos and incredible stills.
• Eclipse machine for the photography and videos of shoes and small products.
• Horizontal machine to create the best product photography for clothing and flat items.
• Alphashot machine for taking unique jewelry photos.

What product pictures attract customers?

The best product picture is a high-quality photograph. But it is also important to present the product from different angles. The buyer will carefully consider the product to imagine a dress on her figure or earrings on her ears. If a product is professionally and interestingly photographed from different angles, it will attract attention of the buyer, who will spend hours in your online store, flipping through one product after another, increasing the SEO ranking of your website, and making orders.

Review any successful online store, and only rarely will you see only one photo of a product. Each product, as a rule, is presented from various angles. This is extremely attractive to a potential buyer, who is often used to meticulously picking things up or trying them on in the fitting room. You can show the goods both on the model and on the shelf.

Different product images show different aspects:

• Long-distance photographs show a product on a model, helping the client to imagine it in various life situations (applications).
• Mid-range photographs emphasize the general appearance of the product.
• Pictures with magnification demonstrate the quality of the product (fabric, sewing).

Proper SEO optimization is another important nuance.

Search Engine Image Optimization for an Online Store

Web images are a fantastic source of organic content to help your merchandise rank highly on Google and attract new customers.

Here are a few things to do before posting pictures to your site:

1. Use informative filenames. The filename is the first piece of information that allows the search engine to understand what your image is about (and who should show it). In this context, the default camera names, which are alphanumeric vinaigrettes, are completely unsuitable. When you come up with a web image filename, fully and accurately describe the displayed content, and try to use dashes instead of spaces between words.
2. Turn on alt images. Alt text is an alternative description of the image. If a person has poor eyesight or a file cannot be downloaded, alt text will appear on the screen. But the value of alt images is also that search engines analyze them for a better understanding of the content; adding relevant alt text is important.
3. Surround the image with content. The relevant environment of the graphic object is necessary for both people and machines. Smart search engine algorithms act like live users, analyzing the text around an image to understand the meaning of the entire page. Product photos in the online store are best surrounded by unique text descriptions that complement the general meaning.
4. Think about size and position. Strive to maximize your user experience:

• Post only high-quality photos.
• Post product photos at the top of the page. Users do not always scroll down, so spectacular images should be in the front and centre.
• Set the height and width of each web image. If the browser knows what size the photo should be, it will arrange the rest of the content while the massive file loads completely. Speed equals sales!