Product visuals play an essential role in the commercial performance of your products, especially in e-commerce. Attractive, appealing and reassuring, they have a strong impact on consumers and contribute to their buying decision. In a context marked by increasing competition linked to the rise of online commerce, taking care of the quality of the visuals of the products you are selling is now more than a necessity. Discover our five rules for successful product visuals!
Focus on quality
To help trigger the act of purchase, the quality of your visuals is a crucial element. Image quality can really sway a purchase decision in your favor, or of course against you if the quality is not there! We can never repeat it enough but the visual is now the first element that consumers look at when they visit an e-commerce site. Thus, a blurred, pixelated or non-zoomable visual can lead to a bad perception of your product by your customers. It is therefore essential not to skimp on the means to produce and offer quality visuals. To do this, it is essential to devote time and energy to have beautiful, realistic shots that will highlight your products and give them a maximum chance of being chosen by consumers. Settling for poor quality visuals is a real mistake. Don't compromise on quality anymore, your online sales depend partly on this point!
Propose visuals of all sides
Consumers need to have an exhaustive visual experience with the product. Indeed, it is important to keep in mind that they can't touch it as they would in a physical store. They need to be able to see all the sides of the product, read all the INCO data (consumer data) and appropriate your product in the best way. The goal is to take pictures of your product from all angles so that consumers can get a very clear picture of your product as a whole. This will also allow you to reduce dissatisfaction or return requests due to the disappointment of some customers who feel that the product received is not in line with the product sold and thus better control your brand image. Thus, presenting visuals of your products as close as possible to their original and authentic version is also an important issue for successful product visuals.
Homogenize your visuals
The visual experience must be homogeneous on all channels. Indeed, the boundary between online and offline has become blurred in recent years and no longer makes sense. This means that manufacturers and brands must now be even more vigilant about the consistency of visuals in physical outlets and in e-commerce. Visual consistency generates reliability, which truns in being a criterion of trust for consumers. As we have seen, product visuals are at the heart of a brand's marketing strategy and are therefore responsible for its reputation.
In this logic of coherence and respect for the brand image, balancing colors and harmonizing camera angles are key elements to obtain successful product visuals. Indeed, it is important, on the one hand, that the colors of the visuals of your products correspond well to reality. On the other hand, it is important to respect the same colorimetry from one product to another (as well as from one visual to another) because once online, your products could end up on the same page or even be placed side by side. Similarly, when creating your main product visual (front or ¾ left visual), make sure that the choice of shooting angle is the same for all your products, this will allow you once again to obtain more homogeneous visuals and therefore more qualitative from a customer experience point of view.
Ensure GDSN compliance
The development of e-commerce has considerably reinforced the importance of visuals on the performance of a product. To facilitate the exchange and distribution of visuals, GS1 and a group of players in the CPG and DIY industries have established a set of standards and specifications for visuals. If you market your products via the mass market, having GDSN compliant visuals is (almost) a must. When you look at the GDSN standards, you'll see that many of the requirements are essential but not all are mandatory. Here are a few of those prerequisites:
Dimensions and resolution
To be GDSN compliant, your product visuals must be at least 1500 pixels in one dimension. For standard definition, between 1500 pixels and 2400 pixels per dimension (height and width) and between 2401 pixels and 4800 pixels per dimension (height and width) for high definition. Images must also have a resolution of 300 dpi.
Product faces
All the informative faces containing product data must also be shot in addition to the GS1 recommendation which is to present a visual face and a visual ¾ left (some distributors prefer the ¾ left). Thus, when creating your visuals, it is important to make sure that the texts are easy to read (compliance with INCO-1169 regulations).
Formats, clipping and transparency
The recommended image formats are JPEG and PNG. Also, your visuals must be systematically cropped (the contours of the product must be stored in one of the layers of the image), be 100% transparent (no partial transparency, otherwise plain background) and have a maximum margin of 2.5% between the edge of the object and the edge of the image.
Colorimetry, weight and wrapping
As far as colorimetry is concerned, only the RGB (Red-Green-Blue) colorimetric mode is accepted since it is used by default for displaying colors on a screen. Regarding the weight of the visuals, they must be a maximum of 60 MB. Note that any text, logo or watermark visible on the images, outside the product, its label or its packaging are also prohibited.
Calling on a professional
The production of visuals cannot be improvised. The creation of visual content is essential, and constitutes a project in its own right with quantitative and qualitative objectives and constraints. It is a time-consuming task that requires specific skills. Dare to subcontract and call on a professional to help you in the realization of your visual products. Our photo studio teams are at your disposal and offer you professional quality product shooting services and creation of 3D and Mobile Ready Hero Images product visuals.
So, what are you waiting for to start the realization of your visual products?
