Photography

Leveling Up Your E-commerce Photography: Why It Matters and How to Get There

We’re living
in an era of
image
domination.

Humans engage with images in a way that simply does not happen with text-only content. 63% of consumers say that high-quality product imagery is more important than product descriptions and 53% say they find images more important than ratings and reviews, so high-quality e-commerce photography is no longer a nice-to-have—it's a must-have if brands want to keep up with their competition.

Despite the importance of high-quality product imagery for e-commerce, many brands still struggle to offer an e-commerce experience that not only engages customers, but inspires them to make a purchase. Why is that?

‍The majority of today's consumers are shopping on mobile, and those who shop on their phones say images are the most important feature. That means mobile is the new brick and mortar, and each and every product image is your storefront. And because consumers are never more than a few taps away from their next purchase, the moment they see your content, the clock starts on your chance to impress, create trust, and convert.

©Vogue Italia | Retouching by View Imaging

So, how do you keep potential consumers engaged when the average person's attention span is only eight seconds?

Consistency is key.

Think about it—when shopping in a store, people feel more in charge. They can see the item, feel it, try it on. Online shopping requires brands to establish consistency, cohesion, and clarity to help existing and potential customers overcome their retail anxiety. Providing a range of visually stunning e-commerce imagery that not only tells a story but communicates essential product information enables consumers to make purchase decisions they can feel good about.

Consistent product photography is the key to achieving this.

Poorly executed e-commerce photography takes away from your brand's sense of credibility. The moment a consumer begins scrolling through your website, they are unconsciously registering the consistency (or inconsistency!) of backgrounds, coloring, lighting, crops, model skin tones, and more, as well as the availability of various angles, details, and zoom-in features. If your e-commerce imagery lacks consistency and proper organization, that could mean the difference between someone making a purchase or scrolling right past your content to the next retailer.

All Eyes
on Your Brand

©Rothy’s | Retouching by View Imaging

We've seen why elevated e-commerce photography is critical. But how can you achieve high-quality product imagery that is consistent and visually appealing? Here are three tips:

1. Create a digital design, photography, and retouching style guide for your brand.

2. Build a team that fosters collaboration and trust.

3. Work with a professional studio to save time and money.

Sometimes, brands overlook the need to create a style guide, particularly if their team is smaller and only one person is in charge of post-production. But if you're hoping to expand and scale over time, you'll need a proper style guide to provide new hires, external studios, and anyone else supporting your creative needs. This gets everyone on the same page when it comes to execution, ensuring consistency of final deliverables.

Although your style guide is unique to your brand, be sure to provide the following to your post-production team, including cropping specifications, formatting needs, or references for background, skin-balancing, and the level of retouching on skin or product surfaces.

A style guide helps get everyone on the same page visually, but there's no guarantee every team member gets it right on first execution. Communication is key to upholding creative standards while respecting everyone's capacity for learning and growth, especially if you are working with a studio outside of your internal team.

Brands should feel comfortable sharing feedback and communicating inconsistencies or misses without attacking anyone. Conversely, a high-functioning creative team should understand the importance of receiving feedback without taking it personally.

Clear and consistent feedback is a core pillar of any healthy company culture, and building trust is the key. If your team feels heard, respected, and understood, they will happily do the work to create e-commerce product imagery that everyone is happy with.

Have you considered working with a professional production or post-production studio? Investing in a studio partnership can open up a world of possibilities for your business such as professional photo retouching, while lightening the workload for your internal team.

The right studio can leverage your style guide and set you up with an experienced e-commerce photographer and talented retouchers, ensuring a faster editing process and image consistency for your high-quality visual content. Once you establish a trusted working relationship with a studio, you can focus on growing your business rather than getting bogged down in the details.

What's next?

Whatever your business, your images deserve to look their best! You need a partner equipped to help them stand out.

View Imaging is a creative production and post-production studio who makes the most of every image. Our team of experts have worked in the world of e-commerce since it's inception, and we can help establish a start-to-finish process to level up your product photography for e-commerce and reach your business goals.

‍Schedule a call today to share your creative production needs and learn how View Imaging can help design an e-commerce creative production process that increases efficiency, consistency and overall brand quality.