Product photography plays a key role in eCommerce and an Amazon product photo is no different. The photo on your Amazon listing allows the customer to develop an opinion about your product and brand and therefore is the catalyst for making a sale. It’s imperative for you as a seller to have the best quality product photo possible to ensure a high sales conversion rate. To help facilitate your sales, here are our top 10 tips for Amazon product photography in the UK.
Lighting
Lighting is incredibly important in product photography as you want to show your product in the best light. Shooting your product in a dim environment will make your product look dull and won’t accurately portray the colour of your product. If you are using natural light make sure you are near a window so that you maximise the potential of the available light source. Many product photographers will opt for studio lights as they can improve the quality of the photo.
Amazon sells a Photo Studio, designed especially for its sellers. It is a collapsible lightbox with LED lights which makes product photography easy. The photo studio is designed to be used in conjunction with the Amazon product photo studio app. The Amazon app makes taking high-quality product photos on your smartphone easy. This is a worthwhile purchase for sellers who are inexperienced photographers.
White background
The Amazon product photo background is always white which makes approaching product photography much simpler for its sellers. The use of a white background ensures a clean, professional look for your products. To achieve this, you should use a sweep a.k.a. a paper background that creates a seamless backdrop for your product photo. Amazon stipulates that all product photos must have a pure white background: RGB values of 255, 255, 255. If your image does not meet these requirements it can always be amended in post-processing.
Sharp resolution
Having a high-quality image is essential to your sales conversion rate. A sharper image portrays your product more accurately and allows the consumer to make a better-informed decision; it also reflects on the quality of your brand. A sharper resolution is also obligatory as it allows the user to zoom in on your products effectively. Take your products on a good quality camera with a high-resolution lens to ensure that your product comes out on top.
Use a tripod
Another essential tip for crafting a high-quality image is to use a tripod. Amazon instructs that images must not be blurry, pixelated, have jagged edges, or be cropped by a frame edge. It can be tempting to skip the tripod, but camera stability is vital for Amazon product photography as camera shake leads to a blurry image. Setting up your camera with a tripod reduces motion blur and makes the product photography session a smother process altogether.
Show scale accurately
A significant factor of product photography is managing your customer’s expectations. You want to promote your product as excellent but also to show it as accurately as possible. An important part of Amazon product photography is showing the scale of your product so you don’t disappoint your customers – an inaccurate photo can lead to negative reviews and will affect your rating. Be aware that too much negative space will make your product appear small and zooming in too much may indicate that your product is larger than it is. Guidelines specify that all images should occupy at least 85% of the frame.
Show your product from different angles
Another way to manage your customer expectations is to show your product from a variety of perspectives. The best Amazon product images always showcase the product from a variety of angles so the customer knows exactly what to expect. When uploading your product photos the ‘main image’ should be your essential product photo shot head-on, but upload additional images showing the product from various angles as this will help the customer have a clearer understanding of the product.
Just the product
You only show the product against a white background on Amazon– no models, props, or accessories necessary. As mentioned, the white background creates a clean, professional look, and the absence of extras in the image forms complete transparency regarding your product. However, this is only the requisite for the ‘main image’. Amazon allows you to upload up to nine photos where the sky is the limit as long the image pertains to the product and complies with the technical requirements.
Product photo size
According to their guidelines, any Amazon photo size must be 1000 x 1000 pixels minimum, so bear this in mind when editing and uploading your images. The 1000 x 1000 pixel size is necessary as it allows the user to zoom in on the image. The preferable file format is JPG; however, Amazon states that GIF, JPEG, PNG, and TIFF can also be used.
Aspect ratio
In terms of aspect ratio, Amazon has not set any technical requirements. Amazon only states that the image dimension of every image should be at least 1000 pixels or larger in either width or height preferred. Therefore it is not specified how many pixels the longest side should have. We would recommend using a 1:1 square image with the dimensions 2000 x 2000 as it allows for a maximum zoom or a 5:1 aspect ratio
Use as many pictures as possible
Amazon allows for nine photo slots, and it works to the seller’s advantage to fill all of these spaces. Although some listings only post 2-3 images, you should be filling all of the slots as it will allow you to accomplish higher organic rankings on the Amazon SERPs.
Amazon ranks products higher if they have a higher number of images. As we have suggested, showing your product from multiple angles allows the customer to better understand your product. You can also consider lifestyle images, as showing the product in context can enhance your conversion rate. If you are stuck for what to put in the remaining slots, infographics are permissible but ensure that they are high quality and relevant to the product. There also Amazon product photo templates available for purchase online which make it easy for sellers to have interesting supplementary images.
If you require a product photographer be sure to book with Splento today for a reliable, on-demand photographer at a fixed, affordable rate. If you have any questions get in contact with a member of the Splento team who will be happy to help.
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