{"id":1001,"date":"2014-06-25T20:04:35","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T20:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.productcart.com\/?p=1001"},"modified":"2014-06-25T20:04:35","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T20:04:35","slug":"how-to-take-product-photos-that-impact-your-bottom-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.productcart.com\/index.php\/2014\/06\/25\/how-to-take-product-photos-that-impact-your-bottom-line\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Take Product Photos That Impact Your Bottom Line"},"content":{"rendered":"

Product photography is one of the biggest selling points in an ecommerce website. Without being able to visit a tangible store and touch, smell, hear or taste the product, potential customers only have images to interact with, and according to <\/span>this infographic<\/span><\/a>, more than 90 percent of buying decisions are influenced by visual factors. In other words, cell phone photography or pictures from your early 2000s point-and-shoot camera just aren\u2019t going to cut it if you want to be successful in ecommerce.<\/span><\/p>\n

One ProductCart store that takes full advantage of the importance of good photography in ecommerce is equestrian apparel website <\/span>Kerrits<\/span><\/a>. In this blog, we examine Kerrits as an example to give you some ideas on how to maximize the user experience in your ecommerce store and ultimately achieve better sales.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Lifestyle Photos<\/span><\/b><\/h1>\n

\"Original<\/a><\/p>\n

Photos for your company should be a reflection of your brand, not just your product. <\/span><\/p>\n

Lifestyle photos, unlike studio shots, are taken outside a studio, in a natural landscape or setting. <\/span><\/p>\n

A great tool to use is a lookbook, which is a collection of lifestyle photos of your products that often tell a story. Photos in a lookbook should show the products in use, and make it clear how they fit into the customer\u2019s life. <\/span><\/p>\n

Lifestyle photos also show the size and shape of a product when in use. If you\u2019re selling electronics, you might show a comparison to an everyday item, like a paperclip, to portray the scale of the product.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>If you\u2019re selling clothing, show how the clothing fits on a person instead of a mannequin. <\/span><\/p>\n

Keep in mind what kind of products you sell, and take note of what other well-known companies are doing to market to their target audience. The style of your photos should reflect your goals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ideally, lifestyle photos should be taken by professional photographers, but <\/span>here are some great tips<\/span><\/a> for taking your own. <\/span><\/p>\n

Kerrits does a great job with its lifestyle photos, and the photo above is just one example of many. Instead of only showing the clothing with a stark white background, the photo shows the product in action. Kerrits goes above and beyond in demonstrating this by not only photographing models outdoors, but also including horses in all of their lifestyle photos. They\u2019re not just selling the product; they\u2019re selling the brand \u2013 quality clothes and the equestrian lifestyle.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Studio Shots<\/span><\/b><\/h1>\n

\"Original<\/a><\/p>\n

While lifestyle photos are a very useful addition to your website\u2019s collection of product photos, don\u2019t forget the basics. It\u2019s important to include studio shots as well, so the consumer can see details that may go unnoticed in lifestyle shots. These include the type of material used, the texture and highlighted features of the product. <\/span><\/p>\n

When capturing a studio shot, you can\u2019t go wrong with a simple, white background. You want your product to stand out, so eliminate distractions. Focus on the product, and don\u2019t allow it to be consumed by the background.<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, Kerrits does this really well. They have a bright, colorful product with clean lines, and the white background doesn\u2019t compete for the viewer\u2019s attention. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re new to studio photography, this <\/span>product photography how-to<\/span><\/a> gives some very practical advice on capturing the best view of your products.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Lighting<\/span><\/b><\/h1>\n

\u00a0\"Lighting<\/a><\/p>\n

Good lighting is essential to achieve a quality photo. While natural lighting can be great for some products, manipulating light sources is better for products with lots of detail. Don\u2019t worry; it doesn\u2019t have to be expensive to produce a studio-quality photo. Our sister company, NetSource, wrote a great blog on <\/span>how to achieve a high quality photo on a budget<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Remember, one of the most important things about lighting is giving the customer a true representation of the colors and detail of the product, especially in apparel stores. Don\u2019t let your lighting compromise the look of the product.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Details Matter<\/span><\/b><\/h1>\n

\u00a0\"Kerrits<\/a><\/p>\n

In an online store, customers can\u2019t feel the texture of your product or weigh it in their hands. They can only look at it, as if they are looking through a shop window. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to make them feel like they can see every detail of the product \u2013 it answers questions and gives customers a sense of trust that your company is not trying to hide anything about its products.<\/span><\/p>\n

Showing off the details of your product can be attained by using a zoom feature. Consumers want to see your product up close, so make sure you use high resolution photos. If you don\u2019t have high resolution photos, a zoom feature will show up blurry, and may hurt rather than help you as it makes your brand look unprepared and unprofessional. <\/span><\/p>\n

Do you offer more than one color or style of a product? You should include a photo of each choice. Kerrits offers multiple styles and colors of boot socks, and it allows the customer to view each option on the mannequin. <\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t assume the customer knows what it looks like. There are infinite shades of green, so if you offer a green alternative, show them which shade they\u2019re choosing. Accurate representations will cut down on customer complaints after purchase.<\/span><\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

C<\/span>utting costs for your ecommerce store by skimping on product photography is never a good idea. It takes a little extra investment of time and sometimes, yes, money, but the traffic and sales return you\u2019ll get on showing realistic, quality photos of your products will be well worth it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Product photography is one of the biggest selling points in an ecommerce website. Without being able to visit a tangible store and touch, smell, hear or taste the product, potential customers only have images to interact with, and according to this infographic, more than 90 percent of buying decisions are influenced by visual factors. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-case-study","category-online-shopping","category-tips-how-tos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.productcart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.productcart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.productcart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.productcart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.productcart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.productcart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.productcart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.productcart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.productcart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}