6 benefits of ecommerce fashion product photography
It’s no secret that we’re highly visual creatures, and no ecommerce store would think that it’s enough to put up a text description of their product. But when it comes to selling fashion products, high-quality photography is even more important than you think!
Benefits of Ecommerce fashion photography
Here’s why professional fashion product photography is non-negotiable for ecommerce stores that want to grow their profits and customer base.
Removes the need to try before you buy
One of the biggest challenges for fashion ecommerce stores is that many people still want to be able to feel and try on an item before they buy it, but good fashion photography helps to overcome this. By giving customers detailed visual content to rely on, they can get a good idea of the weight and texture of the material, how it drapes, and what the fit looks like on a person in a way that no textural description would ever be able to do. And capturing this accurately and aesthetically still requires great photography skill, showcasing the fine detail of the product, how it moves, and the true colour and shape. Techniques like close ups on material textures, 360-degree photography, and more help show the buyer the entire product inside and out through a virtual shopping experience.
This increases sales while causing returns to decrease because people are more likely to be getting exactly what they thought they were buying. The last thing you want is online customer complaints because a product is different to what they thought they were buying, the expense of content returns, and damage to your reputation. In the fashion ecommerce world, your customers need to know that they can trust you, that they can rely on the quality you’re supplying, and that they aren’t going to have a frustrating experience. With poor photography, even haute couture won’t sell for what it’s worth!
Highlight’s the appeal of the product
Fashion is about more than clothes on a rail – and without visual context, customers won’t be as motivated to convert their interest into a sale. Great lighting, being able to capture the movement of a model, and the ability to showcase the item alongside an entire outfit will show people how they can wear an item, how it enhances their wardrobe, and how they’ll feel wearing it. Poor quality photographs will lose the detail of the product, make it look cheap or unappealing, and make people unsure of the value of your offering – and that means you’re losing out on sales.
From flattering backdrops and high-end photographic equipment to sharp editing skills, professional product photography for ecommerce goes a long way to making your products look as appealing as possible. You can show off craftsmanship, unique details, fit, design elements, and the quality of the material much more easily, accurately and truthfully with professional ecommerce photography, helping show potential customers why they want to buy your product.
Build a more powerful brand
Photography and the imagery it produces is not a once-off product – it has long-term returns and an important role to play in developing your brand. If you take a look at two major fashion labels, for example Nike and Burberry, you’ll immediately be struck by the fact that it’s not just the clothing or products that are different, but the entire feel, energy, and atmosphere of the photographs on their website.
When done right, ecommerce fashion photography is a powerful way to develop your brand and get your vision and values across to your market, setting you in front of the right people, at the right time, in the right way. For example, if you are a streetwise, young brand you’d like urban backgrounds and a sense of fun and rebellion in your fashion photography. Similarly, if you are an eco-friendly brand, you’d prefer to have an element of nature, natural lighting, and raw textures. It’s a great way of telling people who you are without using a single word.
Be more competitive
Professional product photography is a powerful way to differentiate yourself from your competition and make your brand stand out. For example, if you’re in the vintage clothing industry, professional shoots with talented models and an experienced photographer will set you apart from the many thrift stores run from home on social media, justifying higher prices, and allowing you to access more exclusive clientele, and setting you apart as a more desirable, more exceptional brand to follow and purchase from.
In contrast, opting for amateur or non-expert product photography can be detrimental to your ability to compete, and having a ground-breaking or exceptional product just isn’t enough to make you stand out. Professional fashion photography is immediately recognisable due to its quality, clarity, and lighting, so if you aren’t able to deliver the same standard, your graining, blurry or pixelated images are immediately going to label your brand as non-professional and an indistinguishable part of the rest of the hundreds of home-run fashion ecommerce ventures that are popping up every day.
Increase online visibility
As every digital marketing specialist will tell you, high quality images are key to building your digital footprint because they capture people’s attention in an instant. They are incredibly versatile and can be used in social media ads on Facebook and Instagram, Pinterest, email newsletters, video ads, digital catalogues, website content, and so much more. They can also be coded so that the alt text of the image helps to improve your SEO, making your products easier for people to find. People love sharing high-quality visual content too, making professional product photography an easy way to generate buzz about your brand, create excitement about new products or giveaways, and help your content go viral in all the right ways.
Lastly, this helps ensure that your ecommerce products appear in an appealing way on shopping feeds. This is a new tab that’s been added to Google search results, and it’s specifically designed for online shopping and making brands more discoverable. A great photo and product information on a Google shopping feed is the ideal way to bring new customers through your door and turn them into loyal supporters of your brand.
It offers great value
Professional fashion photography is expensive, often requiring hours of shooting time, professional models, make-up and lighting professionals, hiring a location or building a set, and hiring the photographer too! Ecommerce product photography is a little different. You get the same high-quality results, but the images are simpler and more to the point. That’s because it doesn’t need to look great on full-page print spreads, billboards, or glossy magazines – it just has to look great in digital format. It also has to adhere to certain rules if you want the content to be as versatile as possible.
This can include minimal or no backgrounds, a greater focus on accurately representing the product rather than outright creativity, and far less time editing. This means you get fewer images per product at a faster, more affordable rate, but all of them are useful and infinitely reusable as you need them. These images are also far less likely to overwhelm your customer, slow your website load speed, or make items unviewable on mobile screens – all of which are a huge win for search engine optimisation and making customers happy!
Ecommerce fashion photography for new and established online brands
Marca is a fashion photography studio that’s here to help ecommerce fashion stores to thrive. We understand what it takes to make products shine online, how to work within the rules and opportunities that 3rd party retailers and Google offer, and how to keep photographic products affordable and accessible for small and medium-sized brands. Our team of experienced photographers has worked with some of the biggest fashion houses in the UK and the world, including Chanel, Puma, Lacoste, Ben Sherman, Oliver Brown, and Calvin Klein, but that doesn’t mean you have to be a mover and shaker in the fashion world to get our best work.
Chat to our product fashion photographers today and we’ll use our expertise from working with the biggest fashion houses to take your brand to the top and set you apart as a true leader in the ecommerce fashion world.
