It drives sales
Shopping in a store is a rich sensory experience. The lighting, the layout, the products on display, the other customers, and the background music work together to create a unique shopping experience. Online sites cannot replicate the senses of touch, taste, smell, and sounds found in an actual store. Instead, they are at the mercy of their website design and most importantly, their product images. In other words, product photography must somehow make up for the lack of a real store experience.
Is that possible? The various kinds of ecommerce product photography can accomplish a lot as we covered in a previous Petra blog. But what’s really needed is a comprehensive marketing plan that defines the brand and its target audience. The product photos must then not only reflect all these things but also meet website requirements. It takes a professional photographer to pull it off—especially when it comes to capturing lifestyles.
So, don’t dismiss the importance of compelling product photography. Medium.com sums up why you need to invest in your product photos:
- Builds your brand
- Hooks the shopper’s attention
- Sets the right expectation for what the product looks like
- Lifestyle photos set a mood while telling a story and showing the product in use
- Sets the product apart from the competition
Resultsimagery.com mentions even more benefits:
- Builds trust in your brand
- Conveys product quality
- Can be also shared on social media platforms
- Adds SEO potential when you use keywords for image files and their alt text boxes
In other words, high-quality photography is WAY more than pretty pictures. And it is worth the investment to do it right.
Ecommerce is here to stay even with in-store shopping on the rebound
This chart with 2021 data from Statista shows global online shopping is continuing to grow in popularity:
They report:
“In 2021, retail e-commerce sales amounted to approximately 4.9 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide. This figure is forecast to grow by 50 percent over the next four years, reaching about 7.4 trillion dollars by 2025.”
Yes, people ARE returning to in-store shopping. According to Shopify’s September 2021 Market Credibility Study:
- 49% of North American shoppers are more likely to buy from brands with a local presence
- 54% said over the next year they are likely to look at a product online then buy it in a store
- 53% are likely to look at a product in a store then buy it online
- Brands are staying competitive using omnichannel tools because the lines between online and in-person shopping have blurred
“According to our research, consumer packaged goods and retail companies say sales from their physical retail stores and sales from their ecommerce website are nearly equal, with physical retail generating 18% of revenue and ecommerce generating 19%.”
It’s apparent that today’s shopping journey can start or end on any channel. This means that businesses must promote themselves across all channels, providing a consistent experience from channel to channel.
This also means that the mood a website or social media post creates using product photography and the experiential setting of a brick-and-mortar retail store should mirror each other—if not actually merge.
Product photography statistics prove the importance of product photography to online sales
In 2021, Fieldagent.net published the results of a survey they did with 1,100 shoppers on how product photography influenced online purchasing. The result is seven must-read takeaways.
1. 9 out of 10 shoppers said photos are very important or extremely important in making a buying decision.
2. Even when shopping online for groceries…
“36% said photos were ‘extremely important,’ and 39% ‘very important,’ to their online grocery purchases.”
3. 31% found photos even more important than reviews and product descriptions.
4. Of the kinds of photos found on product pages…
- 45% found lifestyle product photography (those that feature real people) to be the most impactful
- 29% found concept photos (product being used but no people in the image) the most impactful
- Both types allow shoppers to imagine the product as part of their world
5. Photos provide size references.
- 80% of respondents said they use photos to understand the relative size of the product they’re considering
6. 360° product photography helps replace the in-store inspection and handling process.
- 75% said photos are important to their online purchases by giving them a complete picture of the product “from every angle”
Shoppers also found them helpful to inspect small details (56%) and read package labels (57%).
To read more about 360° or spin photography, be sure to check out our Petra blog on the topic.
And for those willing to take it a step further into 3D AR (Augmented Reality) videos, Shopify reports merchants who use computer-generated 3D modeling can increase conversion rates significantly—by up to 250% on product pages!
7. Product showcases like photo-rich recipes, outfit combinations, tablescapes, and other ways to showcase products can influence shoppers.
A picture is worth 1,000 words
Here at Petra, we work with many manufacturers and ecommerce sites. And we’ve pretty much seen it all when it comes to images. We know first-hand that product photography can be everything we’ve talked about in this blog.
So don’t take shortcuts. Take ecommerce product photography seriously. The future of your brand or your store depends on it.
Should you need help with your photography needs, visit our website and then touch base with your vendor business manager.
Now more than ever, photos capture sales before a word is even read.