How to sell more products online

I’d always recommend using a professional product photographer (obvs). But I know when you’re on a budget you’ll want to have a go at your own product photography. So I’ve shared some of my top tips with you, to help you get going.

Helping your customer get an accurate idea of the product you’re selling is very important. When all you have is an online listing and no actual shop you have to be extra clear about what the product is. It’s surprisingly easy to misinterpret size, colour and texture when you can’t see it in real life.

These are my tips on how to get more sales and avoid returned products.

Shape – photograph your product from lots of angles. Customers need to get an accurate idea of what your product is like to touch and feel. This can be hard with just one image and with an online shop only, you’ll need to recreate that experience for them. So make sure you show your product in all its glory! Show it from the front and back, side angle, even underneath and above. If you are selling a bag, or something with an interior, then take photos of the inside too.

Texture – Don’t forget close ups, to show off all the details i.e stitching, fabric, pattern, embellishments, shininess, softness.

Scale – Consider taking at least one photo using a prop that helps the customers see the size of your product. Perhaps use pens, a note book, cup of tea, biscuit, a flower or even your hand. It helps to get a sense of scale. If your product is larger, could you place it near an item of furniture, a door or a person?

Colour – One of the easiest ways to ruin the look of your brand! Make sure your colours are accurate (I teach you how to achieve this on my product photography course). Cameras interpret colours different to our eyes. Some times they match what we see but many times they don’t. That’s why some photos look too blue or too dull. This means if the customer buys the product they may be disappointed when the product is a different colour to what they thought. I’m sure I’ve bought clothes before that were a different tone of colour to what appeared in the catalogue, and guess what, I sent them back!

WYSIWYG – A clean product image on a plain background can be useful. Although it lacks brand style it does have its place on e-commerce sites. Amazon, and some other online shops, usually insist that the main product image has a pure white background and no unnecessary props. This is so that there is no confusion about the item being sold. What you see is what you get.

Make it pretty – As mentioned before, the props can be a good way to show size difference, but also great to immerse the shopper into your product and brand. Using backgrounds, ingredients, tools or other prop items that complement the product will help make it a more engaging image.

Lifestyle – Whilst it’s great to show products off on their own or with some props, your customers will also appreciate being shown the product in use, to get a better idea of how it should be used/worn. Images like this go one step further to bridging the gap when people can’t see the product in real life. So if you sell jewellery, clothing or accessories then could you take a photo of someone wearing them? If you sell gifts or homeware, could you show it in situ in a home environment?

So, all these tips are important to achieve more sales and avoid returned items.

To find out more about how I can help or to enquire about booking me as your product photographer contact me

Thank you for reading.