Picture-perfect: Boost Online Engagement by Optimizing Your Current Product Imagery

In an era of instant gratification, top-notch visual content like product imagery on an eCommerce website is critical to standing out from the crowd. The adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” remains true even today. In fact, 67% of shoppers find high-definition product visuals more convincing than plain text-based descriptions.

Image optimization is crucial if you run an eCommerce platform for better site performance, browsing experience, and search ranking. All these eventually translate to improved leads and sales.

That said, traditional 2D product images, though necessary, fall short of conveying a product’s true value. With people spending more time on visual platforms, including Snapchat and Instagram, the urge to make product pages aesthetically appealing has intensified. This is where augmented reality (AR) for product visualization enters, transforming how eCommerce businesses present their offerings.

In this article, we have put together eCommerce product image best practices and how AR visualization can help here.

Assess Current Product Imagery

Compile all your existing product images and organize them based on categories, product types, or any relevant criteria.

Analyze:

• The resolution, clarity, and overall quality of your product images.
• Consistency in your product imagery across different categories, including background colors, lighting, and styling.
• Whether you provide multiple images for each product, showcasing different angles.
• Whether your product images are optimized for mobile devices.
• The loading speed of your product images. The faster, the better.

Furthermore, examine the product imagery of your competitors. Identify trends, successful visual strategies, and areas where you can differentiate your brand.

Upload High-quality Images

This one is a no-brainer. Customers see the quality of product imagery as a proxy for the product quality they are considering.

Besides, most web-browsing devices have a high pixel-density display. Simply put, more pixels per inch. Hence, these devices require high-resolution photos to fill in those extra pixels.

So, post high-quality product images to boost your eCommerce brand’s credibility and perform better in search results. Pay special attention to product angles and image direction. Ensure the product imagery is optimized for multiple devices and operating systems (OS).

Further, choose the appropriate image format to improve the visual quality of your eCommerce website. Popular formats include JPEG, PNG, and WebP.

Consistency in Branding

Maintain consistency in your visual branding across all product images. From color schemes to specific filters to lighting to styling choices, every aspect should reflect your brand image.

Use standardized backgrounds for your product imagery, whether a white background or a background that aligns with your brand’s aesthetic. In addition, ensure that the AR product visuals align with your established brand guidelines. This includes aspects such as angles, framing, and contextual elements.

For instance, if you want to make your product images look more professional and cohesive, adjust them so that they take up 70-80% of the canvas.

This means that even on a webpage of differently shaped items, that element of consistency will still exist.

Mobile Optimization

Today, people shop online not only through their desktops but also through mobile devices. In fact, 9 out of 10 people place online orders using their smartphones. As such, you should optimize your product imagery to tap this massive customer base not only for your eCommerce desktop website but also for the mobile version.

Build or integrate mobile applications that support AR visualization experiences, which should suit both Android and iOS platforms.

Apply mobile-responsive design principles to your AR interfaces. Test your product images on various screen sizes, orientations, and resolutions to guarantee a consistent and user-friendly experience on different mobile devices. This cross-platform approach broadens your target audience and serves users irrespective of their mobile device preferences.

Make Images More Interactive

Until now, uploading static product images on eCommerce websites has been the norm. But today, customers want interactive shopping experiences. They think twice before adding a product to their carts as they want to learn more about the product by seeing it from multiple angles. Of course, nobody will buy a t-shirt based only on a single photo of the front side.

As such, deploy AR product visualization, coupled with 3D modeling, on your eCommerce platform to let shoppers rotate, zoom in and out, switch between colors/shades, and scrutinize products from every angle in vivid, photorealistic detail. This level of interactivity with product imagery helps eliminate doubts and uncertainties, resulting in more confident buying decisions.

Customers spend 20.7% more time exploring products on eCommerce websites with AR visualization tools than those without the technology.

Incorporate Lifestyle Imagery

How well that glass frame complement my face? Will the earrings look just right with the necklace I own?  Customers find it challenging to determine when they are gazing at the physical product in-store — let alone looking at it on a PC or mobile screen.

Here, you can use AR product visualization on your eCommerce website to offer shoppers a real-time glimpse of how well a product will fit into physical settings.

Place the product visuals in relevant environments or demonstrate its usage. Additionally, ensure that the AR visualization accurately depicts the product's scale, style, and proportions in the real world. Include informative elements in the visuals, such as product details, materials, and care instructions.

A/B Testing for Image Optimization

The primary intention of optimizing product images in marketing is to help boost your eCommerce sales, revenues, and growth. Lots of images, too slow loading time, or wrong image angles can drive people away towards your competitors.

Like test marketing campaigns/emails, testing how images are performing and what shoppers like every now and then is tremendously crucial. So, what to test for in product imagery?

• Number of images per page/category/product
• Number of product listings per category page
• The suitable image angles to garner more views and clicks
• Whether shoppers prefer product video over its image

Optimize Alt Text for Better Accessibility

Alt texts are substitute descriptions for your product imagery web browsers display when they cannot load the images properly. Moreover, they help your eCommerce products rank better in Google images and web searches.

Follow these rules for adding image alt attributes:

• Describe your product images in plain and simple language, like you did for the file names.
• Add model numbers or serial numbers to the alt attributes, if necessary.
• Do not treat image alt attributes as a keyword dumping ground. For instance, (alt=” tata nexon car cheap best price on sale").
• Avoid using alt texts for decorative images; otherwise, search engines can penalize you for over-optimization.

Engage and Convert

So, there you go. A product imagery optimization checklist to ensure your eCommerce website loads quickly, the images look impeccable, and you see more sales for less work.

Some product categories are tricky to sell on eCommerce sites, as interpreting how the products will look in real life compared to a smartphone or PC is challenging. In this ever-competitive landscape, AR product visualization has emerged as a game-changer.

While the immersive technology is gaining footholds, many e-commerce brands are yet to jump on the bandwagon. In other words, you can make your mark, lead the way in your industry, and maximize the ROI now.

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