9 Image Hacks for Your E-Commerce Business Products

It’s tough out there for an e-Commerce brand. You’re trying to market your products to customers who are not able to physically see, touch, and experience your services in a sensory manner. In the visual world of online shopping, the product photos you display can make or break your e-Commerce business.

Product images have 13 milliseconds to make a good first impression, so use these 9 hacks and tips to ensure that your e-Commerce store stands out from your competitors.

1. Focus on Image Quality

Use high-resolution and top-quality product images to showcase the best of your catalog. Blurry, dark, or unfocused products will make your e-commerce website look less credible. Products should appear realistic and enticing. You don’t need expensive equipment to do this. Most smartphones today are more than capable of capturing the right quality of photos your e-Commerce brand needs. Product photography should be done by someone who is qualified and experienced in it.

2. Show Your Product in Action

Whether your photography style is product-focused or lifestyle, since the shopper is making a decision based on imagery alone you need to provide them with as much context as possible. This could mean that you feature human hands holding the object, wearing it, or positioning the product next to other items to show its use in real life.

3. Showcase All Angles of Your Product

Take photos at different angles, positions, and distances to see which one works best for your product. Enable 360-degree viewing, short videos, and zoom capabilities if you can. Your customer will need to see the product from every side. More than half of shoppers prefer multiple photos and full angles to be provided.

4. Double Check Your Image Sizes

An increasing number of shoppers now browse e-commerce platforms on mobile devices. From tablets to smartphones, your site needs to load quickly and efficiently on all browsers and gadgets – any time, anywhere. This means looking at the load time, weight, and size of each image too. While desktop browsers can load high-res images, make sure they can adapt to smaller screens and apps too.

5. Make Your Images SEO Friendly

One of the main goals of starting an e-Commerce brand is to sell. So you need to make sure your website is searchable and can be found by the right people. Optimizing your images can help with this. Google has an in-depth guide about image SEO best practices, and you can refer to this to make your business successful. Start by using keywords in the file name and add alt text to boost your SEO ranking.

6. Use Natural or Neutral Backgrounds

Most e-Commerce stores use a plain white or neutral background without distractions and loud colors. You want all the focus to be on your product. Avoid harsh lighting that causes reflections and distortions in color or texture. A clean, simple look in natural light will help with your aesthetics and highlight your product in the way you want it to be showcased.

7. Choose the Right Thumbnail

What’s going to make a user stop their endless scrolling and click on one of your products for more details? The right thumbnail. Select an image that best showcases your product and entices the shopper to want to know more about it.

8. Highlight Various Colors and Style Options

Instead of simply telling the shopper that the shoes you sell also come in red, green, and yellow, show them. Help your users visualize the extent of your catalog. If you say that your backpack is unisex and can be used by people of all ages and lifestyles, display photos that demonstrate this. You never know, this might be the perfect opportunity to cross-sell and up-sell multiple SKUs using just one product.

9. Stay Consistent Across All Your Platforms

Ultimately, no matter what image you post, it needs to reflect your brand’s style and core values. Your customers are smarter than you think, and can quickly find a pattern in all your imagery. You want them to recognize your images no matter where they are spotted. Display the same set of photos across your e-commerce website, social media platforms, email newsletters, and other marketing efforts for consistency, professionalism, and brand loyalty.

Starting an E-Commerce Business in 2022?

These tips and tricks will get your product images to stand out from the crowd. They’ll also enhance the overall user experience and visual aesthetics of your e-commerce store. High-quality product imagery and appropriate usage of these images all work together to make your e-commerce store a success. Drop us a line for more tips and advice on how to improve the searchability and functionality of your e-Commerce brand.

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About the author: Joanne has lived in five countries and is always on the hunt for a new city to explore. After a Masters in English Literature from the University of Leeds, she landed an internship at Google that ignited her passion for all things digital. She has 10 years of experience in content writing, reads 2 books a week, and loves ‘90s pop culture.