Using Photography to Boost Sales
From large photographs that anchor your homepage to small product shots on site pages, photography is a crucial element to the online success of a brand. Product photography not only tells the story of your brand, it sells it. How do you create beautiful images that speak to consumers? Here are three best practices for using photography to boost your sales:
Pretty vs. Perfect
It's important to strike a balance between creating an image that looks good and editing it to the point of being unrealistic. People want to see an image that's appealing to the eye, but they also want something that appears real. Create an image that's the best and most beautiful version of itself because ultimately, beauty is what will sell.
This is incredibly important when showcasing product photography on your e-commerce site, where the shopper only has the images to rely on. It's the responsibility of photography to convey all the features of a product in order to give consumers an accurate look and feel without actually being in the presence of the product.
Interactivity
Incorporate interactive elements into your photos. While adding elements like video onto your site can entice shoppers, interactive elements like 360-degree product rotations are what sell products because they allow shoppers to experience an emotional connection with the product and have more control over their online shopping experience. The more time you get consumers to spend interacting with a product online, the more likely they are to purchase it.
Soma Intimates is one example of a retailer effectively using 360-degree product views. The cross-channel retailer offers a variety of views of its products on models, and select products on its site offer a 360-degree button where the shopper can view the product from all angles to get an accurate look at the fit of the undergarment.
However, make sure that you also retain some control over how your products are viewed. For example, you can put limits on how much a consumer can zoom in on or enlarge a product. This allows you to still ensure a quality customer experience while providing them with enhanced ways to view your products.
Don’t Ignore Color
Color is extremely important in driving conversion in several ways. First, the more accurate the color, the fewer returns. How many times have you fallen in love with an outfit online only to be heartbroken when it arrives at your doorstep? The color you saw and bought didn't match what arrived, so back to the store it goes.
Smartphones, tablets, PCs and TV all shift color a little, so perfecting it before you distribute is critical. Color never gets more accurate once it's deployed. Also, if a product is offered in multiple colors, make sure to display it in every color on a model — not just a swatch. Consumers want to see all of the colors offered for quick and easy comparisons, as well as the ability to click on individual colors for a full product image.
Finally, be aware of how lighting affects the color and overall look of your photos. For example, your brand might typically use white backgrounds. However, shooting certain products on an all-white background might not work with the color and thus cheapens the look. Explore other options such as a different background or softer lighting to ensure that the final image presents the product in the most desirable manner possible.
Many times consumers will visit a retailer’s website before they ever step foot in one of its brick-and-mortar stores. Therefore it’s important to effectively use photography to put your best image forward. With the right photography you can increase time spent on your site and ultimately use that time to boost sales.
Brad Tuckman is the founder and president of KSC Kreate, a retail and catalog photography business and provider of visual content and software. Brad can be reached at Brad.Tuckman@ksckreate.com.
