Before the eCommerce industry ever existed, brick-and-mortar shops dominated the world of retail. Businesses boomed because they have little to no competition other than those in the same niche as them, and there were enough customers for everyone to go on with their day-to-day operations unperturbed.
There are also plenty of market factors working in their favor. For instance, retail shops could attract potential customers using eye-catching banners and easy-to-recall jingles. The store’s employees can also strike conversations with the customers, which can hold influence over them and generate sales.
Unfortunately, all these advantages that brick-and-mortar stores enjoy are pretty much non-existent for eCommerce businesses. The reasoning behind this is that there are too many shops online all vying for the attention of a specific market demographic. And then there’s also the challenge of using the right channels to market their products.
As a business owner trying to make your mark in the field, you must acknowledge that the competition in the eCommerce industry is steep. You may not be able to win over potential customers just by sheer luck, so you have to make your product photos stand out from the crowd. Here’s how you can do it:
1. Create Shoot Concepts That Reflect Your Brand
From the perspective of a potential customer, there could be nothing worse than looking at an eCommerce web page that has no clear direction. Having coherent content is one of the most important things that you have to ensure while making your shop because it can enhance your customer’s buying experience.
To do that, you will need to create photo shoot concepts that will reflect your brand’s image. The concepts don’t have to be extravagant or expensive; they only need to be coherent and appealing to the eyes of anyone who sees them. Also, keep in mind that sometimes, less is more.
When brainstorming shoot concepts for your products, consider who your target market is and what visual elements appeal to their demographic. Afterward, you have to ensure that no matter what your products are, there won’t be denying that the photos are yours because it reflects your brand image.
2. Let Your Product Photos Shine on Their Own
It can be tempting to point your camera at the product you’re selling, snap a photo to upload to your shop, and call it a day, but that can be a futile attempt to generate a sale. If you want to succeed in this business, you can’t always take the easiest way out because that’s just lazy marketing.
Keep in mind that your product photos are the first thing that your potential customers will see once they get to your website’s landing page. If you present them with low-quality and blurry photos that fail to capture the essence of your products, then you shouldn’t be surprised if you don’t make any sales.
Just because consumers nowadays prefer the convenience of online shopping doesn’t mean they aren’t looking for certain standards, such as crisp product photos. If you don’t have the skills to make this possible on your own, you can always work with experts in eCommerce product photo-editing services.
That’s because you won’t want overdone photos that are cluttered with busy elements as they will appear disorganized; instead what you’ll want high-resolution product photos that will reflect the beauty of what you’re selling through your potential customers’ screens.
3. Supplement the Photos with Brief but Sufficient Captions
Having good product photos may be enough to capture the interests of your customers, but you can easily hit a home run by supplementing the photos with captions. Of course, you won’t want to bore your customers with a block of text detailing every aspect of your product because that’s unnecessary.
For captions to be effective, you should handpick the important selling points of your products and highlight them in the description. If you can keep the description within one to two sentences that pack a punch, all the better.
Always remember that not everyone has the patience to sift through paragraphs, so you should keep everything short but sweet. That said, you shouldn’t state the obvious in the descriptions. Instead, you can shed light on the aspects of your products that don’t manifest in the photos, such as the textures, sizes, or dimensions.
You won’t have the chance to sales talk your customers to influence their buying decisions in the eCommerce setting, so you have to let your products speak for themselves. This may not be easy to grasp in the beginning, but once you get the hang of letting your products take center stage, the rest will follow.
