eCommerce and omnichannel shopping are reshaping the retail landscape. Make sure your online store is ready for traffic spikes during the Holiday Season by optimizing your product images according to the following 3 Do’s and Don’ts.
1. Compress your product images
- Don’t use RAW, TIFF, or unnecessarily large dimensions
- Do appropriately compress JPG product images
Product images are more than just the heart of your website; they make up the bulk of its size as well. Ensure you’re compressing your images properly for the web. Compression will speed your page load times while also reducing bandwidth use.
See the difference? Compress your product images appropriately.
You can use simple, free apps to ensure all photos are properly sized for the web. If you’re working in Photoshop, simply save the image for web to ensure a quick page load speed on product pages.
2. Optimize Your Photo Production Workflow
- Don’t let bottlenecks create weeks-long studio to web lead time
- Do take a product from studio to website in one or two days
Be prepared to scale your photography operations up for the holidays. You’re going to sell more products and have more editorial and product image needs than at any other time of the year, so copy fast fashion retailers and develop a hyper-efficient workflow. Outsourcing digitized steps like post-production processing can save you time and money while also increasing your product image quality.
Product image editing companies like Pixelz can deliver edited product images in 24 hours or less. Consistently cropped, aligned, and web optimized product images are a must, but that’s just the beginning. Take advantage of features like shadows, color correction and an invisible mannequin effect. A professional appearance increases customer trust in your product.
Techniques like the Invisible Mannequin can professionalize your product images.
3. Provide Many Images of Your Product
- Don’t provide a single lonely image of your product
- Do provide images from every angle of all points of interest
Additional product images increase your sales and reduce returns.
Adding additional product images to each listing increases your chances of making a sale. Try photographing from the front and back, from 45 degree angles, and from the sides. If there are interesting pieces of detail, like gems or embroidery, take some close-ups. The better your customer understands your product, the more confident they will be about making a buying decision and the less likely they will be to return it.
3 Do’s and Don’ts will prep your product images for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and T-giving Day
Give Thanks
The popularity of individual shopping days like Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday allows you to create a targeted plan for success. It’s stressful, certainly, but it’s also an opportunity. Seize the moment, and traffic spikes will give you something to be thankful for!