Even about a decade back, online shopping was nothing compared to an in-store experience – it was convenient for sure, but the low quality images and the static website pages made buying products online a painful experience. But much has changed in the last couple of years. The eCommerce business has witnessed a sudden boom and things seem bright for online businesses. This has equally led to a heightened need for professional product photography services. Bright and sharp images, coupled with lots of video content allows shoppers to experience or view products in great detail.
There’s more to high quality images. According to the latest estimates, retail sales are projected to grow and become a whopping $6.5 trillion industry by 2023. Thus, this is a great time to amp up your business. So, here’s a lowdown on how you can beat the odds and survive stiff competition by opting for reliable, professional photography services.
8 reasons why professional product images lead to eCommerce success
Product images meet customer expectations: With the evolution in technology, people’s expectations for product images have also risen. These days, customers seek detailed product images before they make the purchase. This is where professional photography services shine. It allows businesses or sellers to showcase detailed and clear images of the products, thereby helping in the growth of the business.
Better images build trust: Let’s face it, customers always prefer quality. So, they not only want to see the product from all angles, but they also prefer to see it in high quality. So, when a seller lists a product with high quality images, the product immediately grabs the attention of the masses. A study revealed that quality images win customer’s trust more than ordinary images.
Professional images lead to interactive photos: Interactive images are a great way of offering a detailed look at the product listed on the website. When you upload a high quality image on the site, the interactive feature allows customers to manipulate the image by zooming or rotating it, thereby offering a better understanding of the product. Features like 360° rotating images allow sellers to give shoppers a chance to spin the images in any number of ways and view the product in high detail, thus having a positive effect on people’s buying intent.
Professional images save you time and money: You may feel that a DIY approach may be the easiest way of getting pictures for an eCommerce website, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Hiring someone professional for product photography saves the business time and will help you in using resources more efficiently. Product imaging is built around the concept of speed and precision, and therefore the job is better left to the professionals. Moreover, a professional studio is better suited to handle every aspect of photography, including taking pictures, post-production, and the final editing.
Professional images are highly scalable: Here’s another area where DIY product images fail to deliver. They aren’t scalable! If you are a distributor or retailer managing 100s of products, in-house photography would become a daunting challenge. Thus, if you need high-resolution product images of all the products in every product category that can be used for different purposes, a specialized and reliable photography service is the safest bet. Trying to do it on your own wouldn’t be cost-effective and would instead be a challenging and laborious process.
Professional photography prevents returns: Offering low quality images have their own set of demerits. With high quality images, product returns can easily be avoided. According to a survey, about 22% of all product returns happen because the low quality image on the website didn’t match the product when it finally arrived. Customers want the visuals shared on the site to match the actual product. This instills a sense of trust. Once customers get to see the product properly and have a thorough idea of what they’re ordering or what the product would look like once they get it, the returns would drastically drop.
Professional pictures boost conversions: Having high quality professional pictures on the eCommerce site drives more sales and leads to more conversions. Few studies have shown that businesses witnessed a jump of about 45% in conversion rates when they started opting for 360° images. In fact, data revealed by a notable eCommerce platform showed that a major faucet brand saw an increase of 85% in conversion rates when they shifted to high quality 360° professional product images.
Accurate images lead to increased loyalty: Let’s face it, everyone knows that online product information isn’t always accurate and literally unreliable. Thus, if they’ve bought from your site once and have been satisfied with the data shown and the product received, they are likely to come back again. So, always choose professional product photography services. It has the potential to make all the difference between a one-time purchase and repeat orders.
Key takeaway
Gone are the days when people used to visit stores for the smallest of things. With the rise of the internet, eCommerce websites, and smart devices, people have started shopping for things online. Thus, high quality and interactive images have become the trending norm. Non-professional, low quality DIY images would show your business in poor light and would adversely impact your sales. Therefore, if you are looking to grab people’s attention, and engage people, and experience heightened conversions, team up with the right photography services.
Hopefully, our brief guide to product photography and why companies looking to amp up business should hire professionals for the job, helped you in figuring out whether or not you need professional photographers for the job too. Let us know your thoughts on the same and whether or not you have decided to opt for professional photography services.
