Product photography is a frustrating thing when selling online. First off, you have to find that sweet spot where you're not spending hours slaving over getting the perfect pictures, but you're also taking good enough photos to catch the eye of potential buyers. That's enough of a challenge. Then comes the descriptive information.
One of the biggest anxieties I hear from fellow sellers is the frustration that ensues when a buyer either didn't read or missed important information written in the description. While many of you are probably saying, "But I
always read the description before I buy," remember that not everyone is just like you. Some people--
many people--buy based solely on the
visual appeal of the item the images give. They may glance at basic info such as size, but then again, they might not.
The point is this: don't assume you're buyers are reading
anything you write in the description. Many will. Many won't. Find a sweet spot with descriptive images.
With some things it's pretty straightforward:
- Convey size by placing the item next to a common object. Many choose coins or rulers, but these aren't really the prettiest choices. Find something that the majority of your customers will be familiar with (fruit, tea cups, spoons, a standard size book). Brainstorm items that you might find in every home.
 |
| Holding an item can be a great way to convey size (Lotus Garden) |
- Convey color by making certain your pictures are closest to the true color as possible. Yes, that piece of turquoise does look extra pretty with a little more saturation, but remember that your customers expect to get what they saw.
- Convey fit by showing it on a model.
 |
| Having the model wear the locket helps really show how petite it is (Chickadee Locket) |
But what about the things that aren't so straight forward? What about custom items with specific instructions? What about made-to-order pieces that require a bit of extra info from the buyer? What about important information about the artist that a buyer really should know?
Pictures don't always have to be just images. Adding a little bit of text really can help. If the buyer is satisfied with the information they got there, great! If not, they can easily find more detailed info in your description. The text in images should be bullet points, not detailed instructions.
For example: for over a year now I've been selling custom book collection necklaces. They've always been pretty popular, but for the first few months at least 1 out of every 6 buyers wouldn't know to tell me titles. They'd purchase and think that what they were getting was one of the sample images I had. This was just no good. Although we always worked it out simply, it was adding time to the order that could have been reduced. I also would wonder sometimes if I ever lost buyers due to confusion. What if they chose NOT to purchase based on the titles in the sample piece? That would be tragic.
So I devised a solution.
 |
| Letting an image tell the story of an item's origin helps pique interest |
Above is the second image in my
The Book Lover's Portable Collection Necklace listing. The first looks much more like a standard product shot. It has a banner saying briefly what it is, but otherwise is meant to attract people to click. This second image has been very helpful.
Rather than fleshing out all of the details a buyer might want (how long it will take or how to let me know what titles they want) I state the
most important one. I also chose to use images of a necklace in progress. In my view, this helps the buyer see a bit of what goes on in making what they're going to get. It tells the
story of the piece they're about to purchase. Isn't that neat-o?!
When you've got made-to-order listings for pieces with unique qualities, a banner with a little note of that in one of your secondary images can help alert a buyer to this fact. I once saw a jasper necklace online that I LOVED I fell head over heels for the stone in the picture. I was half way through the checkout process when I remembered that I hadn't read the description at all. Thinking that it might tell me something important about the size I went back--I was surprised to find it actually told me something more important: the stone pictured wasn't the one I would actually get. This was really important to me. A few minor details (such as teeny differences between hand stamped things) isn't such a big deal, but with a stone like this one, whose whole beauty relied on the uniqueness of its appearance, it really was. I ended up leaving the necklace alone and un-purchased.
The moral of this story is this: people are much more likely to look at your images than read your descriptions. Putting your most important listing info in at least one of the images can save you frustration later on down the line. Remember that when you take pictures of products you aren't just capturing pretty images, you're giving a visual description of the product they are about to get.
