When running an e-commerce business, do everything you can to encourage visitors to purchase your products. While there are many different strategies that you can employ, adding high-quality images and product descriptions is one of the most important.
Whether you’re brand new to the e-commerce world or are looking to take your established business to the next level, the right strategy in this area is essential. Learn about details like:
- How does using images and product descriptions enhance your user experience (UX)?
- How can you create great e-commerce product images?
- Where can you find stock images for your products?
- What should you do next?
How Using Images and Product Descriptions Enhances Your UX
- Images improve your UX because humans are visual creatures
- Image make your UX easier to follow
- Images and product descriptions are great for engagement and sales
When you have an e-commerce website, make sure that it loads quickly, looks great, and is easy to navigate. People online today have a huge number of options available to do their shopping, which is why it’s so important that you stand out from the crowd.
Once you get someone to visit your website, make sure that their UX is as good as possible so that they don’t browse to another site to do their shopping.
Images Improve Your UX Because Human Are Visual Creatures
Using images is a proven way to help keep people on a website, and even make them more likely to make a purchase. There are many reasons for this. Humans are very visual in almost every aspect of life. Being able to see the products that are being considered makes it much easier for most people to make a purchase.
Images Make Your UX Easier to Follow
Almost as important, however, is the fact that images on a website help to break things up and make it easier to find what’s being looked for. No matter what type of website someone is browsing, having nothing but text makes it very difficult to follow. On an e-commerce website, using images helps to break up the text and make it a much more pleasant experience.
Images and Product Descriptions Are Great for Engagement and Sales
Product descriptions are also a great option because they’re generally brief and easy to understand. Having a well-written product description gives the reader a good idea of what the product is, how it works, and why they should buy it in just a few lines of text.
When done right, these types of descriptions can serve as an effective sales pitch that can help visitors make a purchasing decision in seconds.
How To Create Great E-Commerce Product Images
Each type of product needs to be unique but, in general, you should follow these tips and tricks to ensure you’re getting the best possible product image on your website:
- High-resolution images: Always use high-resolution images. Remember that users could be accessing your e-commerce website from large monitors, and if your product looks pixilated, they’re much less likely to purchase.
- Keep the background white: In most cases, you want to keep the background of the image white. While there are exceptions to this rule, they aren’t common. The white background helps to set the focus on the product and it looks good on any screen.
- Display the product on a person, if possible: If your product is used on or by people, consider having at least one of the images include a person with the product. For example, if you’re selling sunglasses, make sure to show them on the face of a model to get the best effect.
- Avoid cluttered images: Make sure your image doesn’t have any clutter. The focus should be on the product itself and having multiple other items in the shot ― even just in the background ― can be very distracting.
- Consider showing the product from all angles: Add in images of your product from multiple angles so that potential customers can see what they’re buying. You can either add pictures from each angle or create a 360-degree photo that allows the customer to manipulate the image so they can see the product.
- Make sure the product is prominent: You don’t want your product to be one part of an overall image. When someone looks at the image you’re using, they should immediately know what product they’re considering.
- Show multiple product options: If your product can come in multiple different colors, make sure to make this clear using images. For example, if you sell shoes that come in five different colors, have the main image automatically scroll through images of each color option.
- Allow users to zoom in: Good e-commerce platforms typically have a feature built-in that allows visitors to zoom in and out. Make sure you have this option enabled so that customers can get a close look at your products.
It isn’t enough to use a picture of your product on your e-commerce website. Use the best quality images possible to get the results you’re seeking.
Keep in mind that these tips and tricks aren’t strict rules that should apply to every single situation. Each product is unique, and each e-commerce website is different. The most important thing is to make sure that your product looks as good as possible so that visitors want to make that purchase.
Where To Find Stock Images for Your Products
Some of the best options include:
While pictures of an actual product that you’re selling are ideal, that isn’t always going to be necessary. If you need images for categories of products or pictures of similar items to what you’re selling, stock images can be a great option to consider.
Stock images are typically going to be high-quality options that are readily available, which makes them a great way to get the images you need for your site.
There are many different websites that provide you with access to stock images. Some of them offer free stock images that you can use on your site, and others charge you for each image you want to use.
The premium stock image providers generally have a greater selection and ensure the quality of the images are top-notch.
Digital.com has evaluated dozens of different stock photo providers and reviewed them for our readers. Click to read all about the best stock image providers available today.
What Should You Do Next?
If you already have an e-commerce website setup, you want to evaluate each of your product pages closely. If you’re already using images, make sure that they’re of the highest quality and positioned to help encourage visitors to buy.
Do the same thing with the product descriptions. Make sure to start testing different strategies for images and product descriptions to see which ones perform the best.
If you haven’t yet set up an e-commerce website, you want to do that right away. Find the best e-commerce platform that allows you to easily add and manipulate images and product descriptions for all of your pages.
Many dedicated e-commerce platforms include web hosting, but if you choose one that doesn’t, make sure you also have the best hosting solution in place to ensure visitors get fast response times when browsing your products.