“Producing visuals in-house saves time, budget control and reactivity”
The co-founder and CEO of the French e-commerce solution WiziShop is also a serial entrepreneur. He ran a web agency between 2004 and 2010 and founded the startup Guides Shopping at the end of 2016. Grégory Beyrouti answers our questions on the importance of visual in e-commerce. It also presents some new features to set up and optimize your e-commerce.
You give daily advice to e-retailers. How did this idea come about?
Today, I want to share my expertise and my experience with as many people as possible. With my daily advice, sent by email, I am talking about e-commerce, but also about SEO, Webmarketing, Growth Hacking, Copywriting, Entrepreneurship... In addition to the WiziShop e-commerce blog and all the levers already in place to communicate with e-retailers, I now want to offer a new discussion channel to offer even more proximity to my customers and our community. With e-commerce advice sent every morning, beyond the wealth of information and advice provided, it is easier for e-retailers to react and discuss with me by simply returning an email.
What are the latest visual trends in e-commerce?
More than ever, inspiration is at the heart of a visual strategy. In the age of social networks instagram and Pinterest, the challenge for e-retailers is to inspire Internet users. To do this, he must stage his products and offer beautiful images that attract attention and encourage you to click. Beyond that, I can, of course, cite 3D visuals, which are a great innovation. They allow you to clearly understand the details and quality of a product. However, this is still reserved for a certain category of e-retailers.
The visual is the key element in setting up your communication strategy on social networks
What impact do quality visuals have on an e-commerce site?
One of the determining criteria for the act of buying on the Internet remains the trust granted to the merchant. Behind an online store, the Internet user can have many fears related to delivery times, a size error... Offering quality visuals is a first step towards this relationship of trust. In fact, with a HD visual of the product, the user will be able to see 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 do better than you.
Is it possible to reconcile the activity of electronic merchant and photographer?
Absolutely! And I would even add that you can sell online in parallel with any activity. 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.
With WiziShop, we have made online sales accessible to everyone; at 2 levels: technically, it is now very easy to create an online store, even without any technical skills. At WiziShop, we take care of all the technical part, the hosting... The merchant thus focuses on the essential: the sale of his products. The other level is the financial aspect. The creation of an online store now costs only a few euros.
You offer dropshipping, what is it?
Thanks to dropshipping, it is no longer even necessary to create a product or to have stock to sell online. Entrepreneurs have access to a catalog of thousands of products that they can choose to sell on their own online store without having stock. The e-merchant only acts as an intermediary between the supplier and the end customer. This is how, in the coming days, we will release a brand new solution, Dropizi.fr, which allows you to sell by dropshipping.
The idea is to create your own online store, choose the products you want to sell from thousands of references and then sell without worrying about logistics or product delivery. The advantage is that it makes for very nice salary supplements. And online sales are available to everyone: employees, self-employed, unemployed, students, retirees... And, if in addition, you are a good photographer, you have all the assets to highlight the products you sell (whether in a traditional way or by dropshipping) and thus ensure the success of your business.
What are the decisive factors in the mechanism of the online purchase decision?
There are a lot of them and it would be an impossible mission to rank them in order of importance. In bulk, I would therefore quote:
- The quality of the offer
- The rates
- The quality of services (shipping costs, payment facilities, delivery, returns...)
- The ergonomics of the site
- The elements of reinsurance
- The description of the products
- Brand image (impacted by the quality of the visuals)...
- Retailer reviews
- The responsiveness of customer service
What are the advantages of producing visuals in-house for an e-merchant?
Quite naturally, the production of visuals in-house saves time, a 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...Finally, what would you advise a beginner e-merchant to produce their own visuals?
A beginner e-merchant must be trained at all levels. There are a number of resources on the Web to learn on your own, discover and master the challenges of selling online. For the creation of visuals, it's the same. Get trained in photography, learn how to set up and use your camera and how to retouch your photos afterwards. PackshotCreator is an excellent partner to undertake this process. 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. Finally, for your product sheets, choose two types of visuals. The first is to present your product on a white background so that the user can clearly see its details. The second type of visual consists in putting your product in a situation (a piece of clothing on a model or a sofa in your living room, for example...) so that the user can project himself.
