Quality product images are a driving force of engagement, conversion, retention and overall customer lifetime value. In this blog post we will precisely walk you through the benefits and best practices of good product photography to drive sales.

Benefits of Good Product Photography to Drive Sales

There are many factors to drive sales and the first one being the product itself! As per a popular Hindi proverb ‘jo dikta hai, voh bikta hai’, it is essential to present products well to scoot the sales higher and faster.

Whether you hire a professional to click your products or opt for DIY hacks using your mobile, these key benefits of product photography mentioned below are to be enjoyed by all:

Grabs Customer Mood

You cannot take your potential customers to a camping site and show them how good and comfortable your backpacking kit is. You can convey this feeling through your pictures majorly. Hence, it makes sense to plant a seed that your product is the ultimate solution for all the issues they may have. This gesture can be exceptionally conveyed via worthy and quality images.

Perfectly clicked, comfortable and useful product images draw attention within nano-seconds. Thus, increasing chances of high sales.

Builds Your Brand

A picture is not a short-term plan but a long-term solution to get your company recognised as a market leader.

Putting up branded product images consistently over months, can communicate your brand as:

• Professional

• Valued

• Quality

• Diverse

• Innovative

It helps your customers believe that your brand really cares for their preferences and that it is humble enough to cater to them all.

Promotes Silent Communication

Images speak louder than words! This fact still stands strong and tall when to comes to brands who believe in less word and more work.

People skimming through various online platforms have limited time and patience to actually read all the text or product descriptions. Hence, in this case: mention all the available product sizes, colors, features that are up for sale.

Pro-tip: Make an exhaustive list of your product’s important information and then state what to show in your images.

Sets Right Expectations

As mentioned above, 22% of products sold online are returned because ‘items look different than the photos”. Convincing people to buy products offline is comparatively easier than doing so online.

Hence, it is always advisable to show product images as they are instead of adding unnecessary filters, effects and the likes. Set your customer expectations about what they are looking at right.

Another expectation setter would be the number and days within which you can entertain product returns. People who make an impulsive purchase decision exist too! They are aware of the fact that any product bought online can be returned if felt unsatisfied with.

It is good to be a considerate online business but not at the cost of your added expenses. Setting customer expectations right by Inculcating a limited return policy is healthy.

Keeps Competitors Away

You might feel your product is 100% unique, but it is not a 100% true fact. There are millions of products globally, that might have the same features as yours does.

The cheat here is to talk with your images. Show that your products are way more attuned to detail and better than your competitors’, by using high quality product images.

These benefits prove beneficial only when teamed up with certain best practices of product photography mentioned below:

Lights

Irrespective of what your product is, lights play a huge role in product photography. Technically there are 2 types of lights in photography:

1. Natural Light: Products clicked in natural sunlit environments. It is also known as “soft light”. Natural light is the most preferred and suggested set-up by professionals as it highlights product’s true features and details better than a bulb or so. You can use natural light if your product is meant to be used outdoors or to be shot on or is worn by a person.
2. Artificial Lights: Candles, fire, bulbs, etc are all considered as artificial lights and are also referred to as “hard light”. Artificial lights produce smaller but focused light surface. Hard lights are preferred by professionals while clicking focused or close up product images for online shopping.

Camera

As a business you have the option to explore multiple devices for getting that best shot for your products. Broadly, you can either a hire professional photographer who comes along with all sorts of ‘best shot’ ideas and equipment or you can make the best use of your smartphone which comes with a decent camera technology.

If you opt for a smartphone camera to click your products, then the rawness can be your advantage as it makes people believe the genuineness of the product. It also saves your pocket of additional expenses of hiring a professional.

You can also consider investing in a professional camera (DSLR) for quality product images. But, it is highly recommended to do your research well on which model, company, etc is apt for your need.

In case you go ahead with a professional photographer, you save on a lot of time getting the angle, lights and settings right. He/she is the master of his/her artistry and knows exactly how to get any product clicked. The professional can also work up his expertise in post-production formalities.

Background

As per research, 76% of products images are clicked against white backgrounds. Along with the other factors that contribute to a picture-perfect product image, backgrounds is a crucial element as it changes the entire appearance and hence ‘need’ of a particular product.

Most of the online businesses opt for white or pastel backgrounds because they make a product look, grand, desirable, true and classic. Whereas, a black or darker background eludes luxury and desirability of the product.

Composition

Composition is composed of various elements which include; angle, texture, mode, etc of an image. It depends on how engaged and open your business with its audience is.

For example: If you are selling a nail paint or any cosmetics you can freely opt for a slant angle or a grainy or blur the background or opt for a portrait as well as a landscape mode. This is because your product segment is lighter and stylish.

Whereas, if you are a food centric business, then you should opt for darker or wooden backgrounds, lay the dish in the middle of the frame with portrait mode on. This setting is usually preferred as it makes the food look ultra-vibrant (with colorful ingredients) and more tempting because of the center placement.

Apart from these best practices, we would like to give away 2 pro-tips for most effective product photography:

1. Cut the clutter and make your images breathe-able. Let there be negative or empty space in your images.
2. Click product centric images. Zoom into the nitty-gritties of the detailing of your product. This accentuates the product all the more thus making it attractive to your audience.

Today, there are many smart apps that help businesses to indulge in healthy product photography which saves time, efforts and money. Snapseed, Focalmark and VSCO are a few to name.

There are many ways to increase your product sales by just making optimum use of a tool named: photography! Online businesses like yours must leverage this tool to the fullest in order to influence your audience to purchase your products.

With all your marketing efforts for your business in place, it’s a good idea to have an all-in-one payment solution in place as well. Now to enjoy the best payment gateway experience and grow your business effortlessly!

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