A great deal of talk these days focuses on how to convert visitors to achieve a prescribed end goal; that is generating a sale or a lead. These days marketers know how important a conversion friendly website design is in stabilizing their online business conversions. I jut thought I would touch quickly on one feature that I have often seen as overlooked by many online marketers. Optimizing the images on your website! (both in e-commerce websites and B2B websites)
Yes, with better product images (images of services rendered) you can improve your conversion figures more then you think! Studies show that with a better looking image you can increase conversions up to 145%. Images give a perfect mental picture of the product to the user. How many times have I been to a website and seen software that I know full well that I download, but in the product display I see a shiny, hot looking box that apparently the software would come in! Yet when I buy it, I simply get a link to download it. No box even exists! But the image of one makes the product more appealing. Get it?
There is a famous Chinese saying “A picture is worth a thousand words”. It rings true in the case of an effective product image display. Remember with internet marketing your customer is lacking the luxury of smell, touch or taste of the product. This is far away from the old traditional style of ‘smell it’ and ‘sell it’ concept as part of traditional marketing channels. But with your detailed and well shot product images you can create feelings of touch, smell, taste without the visitor ever actually feeling it.
Let’s have a look at the product category 'everyday gifts' on the web site Home Accent Source. Here, our designers have vibrantly utilized effective product images. If you click on the category you are led to the sub category or products list. Chose a product and you can see the description of the product and a vividly displayed image of the product chosen.
Now, doesn’t that make you think, 'yummmmmmmy' or want to gift the sweet treat to someone. That’s the purpose. Conversion then happens!
How to choose images that boost conversions
Sometime the product or service sells itself. Perhaps you are offering interior home decoration. You then need to show the large view of the image. For instance, view this link.
Clicking on this you 'learn more' and gain a broader view of the product. We are then able to gain a better perspective on what this company does.
If you’re selling products like bags or baby dresses you should use zoom features in your image since visitors prefer a closer look at the products. So try A/B split testing your images. This lets you see which images are making the difference with your conversions.
Image selection for your e-commerce site depends on:
- What you’re selling (product image)
- Which image can do the best conversions (A/B testing)
- How much the image customer needs to see to instigate his/her to buy(size of the product image).
- Customer wants the product in its full feature, which gives them impetus to buy the product.
How About Real Images?
Then start your photo shoot keeping in mind well photographed images are key to helping your online business. By inserting real images of your product you can prove your authenticity as a genuine e-commerce trader. Finally, always deliver products that look the same as the site picture. Ever ordered that new McDonalds menu items and been extremely dissappointed in the slop that was put in front of you? Customer discontent will be the result, since they expect the same to be delivered as in the picture.
Using facial images
Will pretty faces boost your sales? B2B websites always use a ‘face’ as images in the site. No wonder marketers use faces to grab attention to their sites; they know it works well! A pretty face can make big improvements to your conversion!
Gender of image is also a crucial criterion in getting targeted traffic to the website. For example, It is not advisable to project a female face in a website of a company selling big infrastructure equipments or agricultural instruments. In short, always be thinking about what your website is about and match your content with strong imagery that matches.
That is all for me today. Snap, Snap!
on
Very informative article Asha. Compliments to you. As well explained in your post, images have a major influence on website conversion rates. It’s often a specific image that motivates the visitor to take the desired action. Maybe the one thing I would like to add is that the images on a website must complement the content.
on
Thank you Asha for your coverage here. I was not aware of this case. Really interested in the tip of picking male and female face in our web pages 😀
Now i understood how much image pays us in improving conversions. Fascinated and very useful information!
on
Nice article Asha to stumble upon. The style of the copy creates the atmosphere for the right images and associations to flourish, and the intense sensory descriptions help the reader to almost smell the sophistication of the product. It’s business now and not any ‘Geek Country’ affair anymore.
on
The ‘WYSIWYG’ (What You See Is What You Get) effect is what this means.
If the image is appealing to you, as a customer you have had a closer look at the product of your choice and liked it then most likely you have made a ‘conversion’ or sale for that website.
It pays to have high end resolution images to make the visual appeal even better.
on
Nice post!! Websites, especially e-commerce have the additional onus of creating a mental imagery of the product on customer. And that could be done only through action provoking images. Yes, we must deliver products same as in the picture.