E-commerce product photo: the guide to successful visuals
What is the role and impact of an e-commerce product photo on your potential customers? How to produce, homogenize and innovate internally for visuals of your e-commerce window ? What are the solutions and latest trends to stand out from the competition? Discover all the answers in this e-commerce photo guide. You will find analyses and advice from e-commerce expert Grégory Beyrouti* and those of Laurent Wainberg*, founder and director of PackshotCreator.
The e-commerce visual: the first step towards a relationship of trust
The visual of your products is the first factor that will determine whether or not the user stays on a page. It represents the first and only contact between the potential buyer and your product. “Behind an online store, the Internet user can have many fears related to delivery times, a major error... Offering quality visuals is a first step towards this relationship of trust. Indeed, with an HD visual of the product, the user will be able to realize the details of the product and its quality. This will reassure him and, perhaps, convince him to buy. On the other hand, a non-qualitative image leaves a feeling of amateurism and it will be much more difficult to convert when your competitors are doing better than you.”, explains Grégory Beyrouti (discover his Full interview here).
More and more entrepreneurs present their products online, on their own site (directly or cross-channel) or on an e-commerce platform. And that, regardless of the sector of activity: household appliances, jewelery, tableware, fashion or furniture. It is therefore necessary, today, to find even more new ways to differentiate ourselves.
The latest trends for e-commerce product photography
The emergence of new sources of growth and innovation in online business is constant. Thus, on February 18, Nike experimented with the first flash sale of products on the social network Snapchat. It marketed its Air Jordan III Tinker on the mobile application, which will not be officially released until March 2018. Nike has posted a QR code on the social network. Users of the application could thus flash to access the flash sale. The basketball stock sold out in less than 30 minutes. Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, has just launched Image Search, to allow Internet users to search for products based on photos. Google or even Ebay had done it before him.
“What matters is speed and responsiveness in the creation and distribution of photographic content. That goes for businesses of all sizes. In recent years, social networks and influencers have become indispensable relays for these photographs. Actor of E-commerce product photo for over 15 years, I saw the market evolve. Today, for example, project managers know what a photographic workflow is and what it involves.”, adds Laurent Wainberg.
What are the three rules for successful e-commerce visuals internally?
1. The photographic rendering
To get a good result, you need to create a high quality e-commerce visuals. It is characterized in particular by colors faithful to the object photographed, to the rendering of its details. It is used to avoid returns and especially to inform your visitors: “A picture is worth a thousand words”. On this basis, standardization follows. “A visual disparity in terms of quality, formats or even backgrounds and clipping will directly penalize the credibility of an e-merchant. The homogenization of production, via a software that controls the production of photos and animations, makes it possible to eliminate any disparity and above all to produce visuals on a production line for any type of medium”, details Laurent Wainberg. The same values are therefore used for the entire production chain: background, frame, exposure, lighting, format...
A faithful photographic rendering allows Internet users to zoom in on a photo and discover the texture of leather in detail.
2. Know how to choose the type of visual adapted to the product
Depending on the type of product and the distribution media (website, social networks, catalogs...), the possibilities are multiple. In the case of a product sheet, focus on simplicity and quality. A photograph of your product on a pure white background will allow the user to focus on the essential: the coveted object. To go further, do not hesitate to vary the angles and add a magnifying glass to reveal the smallest details of a household appliance, the material of a textile, the logo on a frame of goggle or even the Stone adorning a ring. For jewelry, technical parts or even optics, macro photography is required. In the case of clothes to be photographed, there are several possibilities.
The most used techniques are shooting on a mannequin ghost to highlight volumes. Flat photographs (flat-lay) are, for their part, ideal for showcasing clothing and accessories on social networks. These are thus visuals that are often popular with influencers on instagram.
To stand out visually, there are many possibilities for an e-commerce product photo: they range from the composition (above) to the 3D model.
3. Be responsive and stand out from the competition
“Producing visuals in-house saves time, Control of the budget and a great reactivity if necessary. Not depending on an external service provider is a considerable advantage. You still need to have the skills in-house...”, specifies Grégory Beyrouti. Based on this observation, the internal shooting gives an unequalled amplitude to stand out.
“There are a lot of photo studios, controlled by software. They allow, even those who are not familiar with photography, to master the production of several types of visuals. Today, more and more of our users are decorating their e-commerce website with multi-angle photos and interactive 360° animations. This is to present their products interactively while giving a maximum of visual information. The use of storyboarding, zooming and annotations are factors that promote not only product ownership, but also the centralization of information on a single visual.”, highlights Laurent Wainberg.
These 360° animations in HTML5 format, adapted to all browsers and operating systems, can also be used on social networks, when they are converted to GIFs and increase engagement on your posts. The use of the 3D product animation is also popular. Photorealistic spherical animations or 3D models can, for example, be integrated into a real environment (augmented reality) or virtual (virtual reality).
What photo equipment should you use internally for your e-commerce products?
Whether you are an e-merchant, beginner or experienced, whether it is a new site or an e-commerce platform... There are adapted photo solutions for each case. “Invest in a nice camera and a mini photo studio. These are investments that will give you real independence, total freedom and that will pay off in the medium term.”, confirms Grégory Beyrouti. On the equipment side, there are two types of studio, to start and be able to produce several types of visuals. The mini photo studio, equipped with a turntable. It has its own lighting system. It is controlled by software.
Some types of photo studios are used to photograph very specific subjects...
In-house photo studios for all types of products
“It is a perfect and versatile alternative. The second solution is to use a turntable with a lighting system and cyclo bottom. This system is more flexible, especially when it comes to photographing products of all sizes, sometimes with significant weight. These Packshot studios also allow you to take still, multi-view photos of 360° animations. Even professional quality 3D. At PackshotCreator, we offer them for different sizes and types of products. Some are designed for jewelry and watches. Others are dedicated to shooting clothing and accessories.”, details Laurent Wainberg. “By 2020, the turnover of online sales is estimated at 4 000 billion euros worldwide. The good thing is that now everyone can get a piece of this pie.”, adds Grégory Beyrouti. In-house product photography is therefore a good way to get the lion's share!
