Let’s admit it, we all make snap judgments. Your customers are no different. They walk into your store or showroom, explore your website and get an instant impression that influences how they perceive your brand. Photography and visuals are key to translating that positive impression online, just like high impact store design or merchandising.
Product photography and visual cues are essential in e-commerce, since visitors can’t pick up your products, feel the material or finish, or get a sense of the quality. In fact, it’s estimated you have less than seven seconds to grab a visitor’s attention on your website.
Smart retailers and vendors use high-quality product imagery to evoke customers’ senses and help them visualize using the products or selling them in their store.
Luckily, you can give your website an immediate face lift without embarking on a full overhaul. Make your website a product destination by enhancing imagery, offering interactive visual content and writing compelling descriptions.
High-Quality Product Photography
Photography is an instant way to convey your brand aesthetic and product quality. Choose simple lifestyle and product shots to draw attention without looking too staged or cluttered, and avoid stock images when possible.
Today’s buyers expect more than a single image to make a buying decision. Use a minimum of three to five photos per product to highlight alternative views, such as showing products in use or in-scale. Did you know, 28 percent of all websites fail to provide at least one “in-scale” product image? Don’t risk disappointing customers and increasing complaints and returns.
Get interactive with zoom-on-hover functionality to show off intricate product details. And don’t forget about video. Use it to review products, highlight their use, show complimentary items and further engage with your customers.
Quick Photography Tips
- Avoid stock photography
- Show alternative product views
- Use a contrasting or blank background to keep product focus
- Use white space to reduce webpage clutter and center attention
- Be consistent
- Display material or finish swatches
- Optimize your imagery to reduce load time
It’s All in the Details
Thorough product descriptions create excitement and guide buying decisions. Highlight what makes your product unique using descriptive and targeted keywords and calling out top features. Answer customers’ questions from the get go, or even better, use your customer service data to identify common questions, and answer them in the listing.
In addition to providing a better customer experience, descriptions benefit search engine optimization (SEO), increasing the likelihood your product appears higher in search results.
Your Product Listings Should Include:
- What it looks like
- What brand it is
- Available sizes, colors, materials or finishes
- Price
- Inventory availability
Amp Up Visual Content
Keep your products top of mind by offering multiple ways to engage, outside of photos and copy.
Branded PDFs, tear sheets and shoppable wishlists enable retailers to save products for later or to facilitate an at-market shopping experience. Even better? Share web activity with your sales rep, so they know what interests your retailers.
Integrate social feeds into your website to show products in use and benefit from the implied testimonial of a happy customer’s social share. Similarly, retailers can make it easy for consumers to share product detail images on social media, photos of themselves using the products or email themselves a product to keep it top of mind.
If the product is out of stock, enable customers to sign up for notifications when the product is available (and follow up with a targeted email reminder or SMS message when it’s available). These are great ways to facilitate multiple interactions throughout the year, without being overtly salesy.
Elevate the Customer Experience
Give customers a consistent, elevated product experience, whether they browse online or visit your store or showroom. High-quality product photography sells products online,while visual content offers continuous touch points between you and your customers. Meanwhile, SEO-friendly descriptions help a wider audience find and fall in love with your products. Together, this combination increases website traffic, deepens customer engagement and ultimately drives regular, repeat sales.
Alyson Hunter is the director of marketing for Whereoware, an award-winning B2B digital agency and software company helping gift and home clients use technology to grow their business for 19 years. She can be reached at ahunter@whereoware.com.