Amazon, ASOS and Zalando Photo Specs: A Side-by-Side Comparison
If you’re shooting one collection for three marketplaces, the question isn’t “what does good product photography look like”, it’s “which platform’s rulebook wins when they conflict.” That’s what this guide is for: the actual numbers, not the general theory.
The specs, side by side
| Amazon | ASOS | Zalando | |
| Background | Pure white, RGB 255,255,255 | White or light grey, ~RGB 240 (back image) | White, RGB 255,255,255 (catalogue view) |
| Minimum dimensions | 1000px longest side | 1500 x 1900px | 1000 x 1000px |
| Recommended dimensions | 2000px+ longest side | 2116 x 2700px | Category-dependent |
| Aspect ratio | 1:1 square | Portrait | Portrait preferred |
| File format | JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF | JPEG | JPEG |
| Max file size | 10MB | 3MB | Varies by category |
| Product fill | ~85% of frame | Not fixed — set by partner brief | Not fixed — set by category guide |
| Minimum images per listing | 1 (up to 9 total) | Set by partner brief | 3 for most categories (2 hosiery/socks, 1 beauty) |
| Primary format | On-model or ghost mannequin | On-model (ghost mannequin in approved categories) | On-model as default for apparel |
ASOS figures are drawn from integration-platform documentation rather than ASOS’s own published spec sheet, ASOS issues its full brief directly to approved partners and updates it periodically, so treat these as a starting point and confirm against whatever brief you currently hold before a shoot.
Where the real conflicts are
Background colour is the first fork in the road
Amazon and Zalando both want a true RGB 255,255,255 white on the primary image, no exceptions. ASOS’s own back-image spec, by contrast, calls for a light grey closer to RGB 240. Shoot to Amazon’s pure white as your base and you’re safe everywhere; shoot to a grey that “reads as white” and Amazon’s automated scanner will flag it even though it might pass ASOS.
Aspect ratio decides your crop, not just your canvas
Amazon wants square. ASOS and Zalando both lean portrait. If you’re capturing once and exporting three times, shoot with enough headroom in the original frame to crop to both ratios without losing the product’s edges.
File size limits are easy to miss until a batch upload fails
ASOS’s 3MB ceiling is considerably tighter than Amazon’s 10MB, and Zalando’s varies by category. A 2000px+ TIFF that sails through Amazon can bounce straight back on ASOS. Build your export presets around the tightest limit in the group rather than discovering it mid-upload.
Minimum image count is a Zalando-specific trap
Most Zalando categories won’t onboard an article with fewer than three distinct images, and duplicating one shot to hit that number gets the listing rejected outright, it has to be three genuinely different views. Amazon and ASOS don’t enforce a hard minimum the same way, so if you’re batching a shoot around Amazon’s requirements alone, you can come up short for Zalando without realising it.
Building one shoot around the tightest constraints
Shoot to Amazon’s pure white and square crop first, it’s the least forgiving on colour and the easiest to build outward from. Capture with enough extra frame to re-crop to ASOS and Zalando’s portrait ratios afterward. Export your Amazon set at full resolution, then generate the ASOS versions specifically checking file size against the 3MB cap before upload, since that’s the limit most likely to silently fail a batch. For Zalando, plan your shot list per SKU against the category’s minimum image count before the shoot, not after, reshoots for a missing angle cost far more than five extra minutes with the garment still on the rail.
If you’re managing this across a full season’s SKUs and want a shoot planned around these three specs from the outset, get in touch, we structure sessions to hit the tightest constraint per shot type and export from there.
