Photography in eCommerce – Driving Better Conversions and Sales
Many individuals have explored photography as a hobby or a profession in the past. However, with the advent and evolution of eCommerce, photography has become a reliable form of communication that goes a long way in building and increasing the trust factor between the merchant and the client. The need for photography has increased by leaps and bounds following the rise of high speed Internet, which has led to online merchants display higher quality products with the help of quality images that show more product detail.
Competing with photography are video and animation media, which have become popularized to a great extent. However, there have always been pitfalls associated with these media. Although flash was popular for a long time, the tide is now returning to the use of HTML5 and animated GIFs. The use of video and animation requires plug-ins of various types. However, photographs do not need any plug-ins, so it can be said that photography is medium independent.
Photography is useful in all business circumstances. It could be that your company is migrating to a new platform or investing in a new content strategy, or is introducing a new range of products. It’s time to consider the role of photography and how it can present your company, products, and services in the most befitting manner. While implementing photography as part of your corporate image refurbishment campaign or even redefining your company’s role in the face of the competition, you will need to know how strongly you can use photography to represent the your company or product as perceived in the real world.
For example, you might want to display a large product such as industrial machinery, or you might want to display a small product such as a high end consumer electronics item that requires proper lighting and professional handling to photograph. In case you are selling apparel, then color accuracy is the key. It is also advisable to avoid fake looking drop shadows. Replace them with real, soft shadows instead.
You don’t need to eat up your entire budget in order to improve the photography on your eCommerce website. You may have a staff member with artistic talent, or may be you could hire a consultant at affordable rates. Even small photography improvements will be able to build up your brand and establish trust, which will ultimately drive conversion and sales.
