“The following article is prepared by Brian Taylor, VP of Business Development at Forix Web Design. He has vast experience in E-commerce website development and this article is based on his experiences and observations in this Spectrum. Happy reading!”
In creating an e-commerce site, it’s important to put contents that would directly mean your business. But that’s just half the battle. Another important thing to remember is placing visuals all throughout your website to keep the customers interested. This is where photography would pretty much weigh in a lot to the success of your e-commerce website. It may not be the most effective method, but it would surely help increase traffic in your e-commerce site thus increasing your chance for profit. Here are some of the steps to visual merchandising.
Quality Photos
When using photos for your online store, it is important to use photos that would make your products look more desirable. This is where skilled professional photographers come in play. They can provide you unique, original, high resolution images of your products that you can then place on your website for potential customers to look at. It’s not bad to use old photos that have been used in several sites. But the problem with these types of images is that the quality of these images gets worse when it’s been repeatedly being copied and pasted so it’s not a good idea to use them anymore.
The Human Factor
Another important thing to consider when posting images to your online store is using models using or wearing your product. For online clothing stores, it is best to show your products being worn by male or female models to give you customers an idea of how your dresses and shirts would look like when it’s being worn. For sites that sell electronic gadgets, it is best to show these units being held or carried by someone. This gives your potential buyers a connection to the item itself. It makes them relate to those people in the picture thus enticing them to go and buy the product for themselves.
Backgrounds
Painters would usually make the background of their portraits less interesting to the eye so that whoever watches their masterpiece can focus their attention to the real star in the picture. This type of philosophy is also applicable when trying to capture images of your products. A good tip would be blurring out the background of the item so that people seeing the picture can focus their eye on the product that you are trying to sell them. You can also use plain colored background such as a black or white.
Layout
Another thing to remember when putting photos on your online store is the overall layout of the thing. Your pictures should present a sense of harmony between the website, the product and the photo itself. Careful balancing of the image shape, color and texture would create a pleasant experience for the people looking at your site, making them use your site a little more.
Interactivity
When it comes to using images on your online store, it is also good to add more function to that photo rather that just being a plain picture. Some online store makes a single photo movable from all different angles so onlookers can see the product front to back. Some also adds a video element to the image. A visitor can just click on to the image itself and a video describing the product would immediately play.
So these are some of the tips to optimize your online store through visual merchandising. It is important to keep in mind that these little things count when you want to have a good business. It may not actually be the defining factor, but it can help raise your business to a whole new level.
