Shoppers stay longer, view more, come back more, and buy more!
Do more images sell products better?
While Stylaquin is my current focus, I’ve been a catalog Art Director for over 30 years. In catalogs, you pay for every inch of space so understanding which images sell, and which don’t sell, is vital to success. The online world is a little different. There’s no extra cost to adding as many images as you want to any product. Does that mean more is better, since it doesn’t cost any more? No. In this post I’m going to walk you through how to find the right number of images to show for any product.
What makes a good image?
The first thing you need to consider is what the image is for. Images explain the product. Let’s start with clothing. If it’s a shirt, It just needs to look great, right? It’s a little more complicated than that. There are model shots, and pin shots. Pin shots are also called lay downs, and they show the product flat, without a model wearing it. Pin shots cost less to create than model shots, so they may be the only option available. When I worked for L.L. Bean, one of the things we tested was whether it made a difference if we showed model shots or pin shots. The answer was that having a mix was the best. All model shots was too expensive and visually cluttered. All pin shots looked empty, and sales went down. Mixing a few model shots in with the pin shots delivered the most bang for the buck.
Adding model shots can be expensive, but a great model can sell the heck out of a product. They can add excitement and movement that brings images to life. So if you have a great model shot, put it front and center. Once you have your primary shot selected, focus on explaining the product.
Does Your Site Do This?
It can with Stylaquin! Stylaquin is the easy to add Shopify app that transforms your website. Stylaquin makes shopping faster, more engaging, and more fun. Stylaquin shoppers stay longer, view over 85% more products, come back more often, and buy more when they do. Find us in the Shopify App Store.
How do you visually explain a product?
Start with the product features and benefits. Is it waterproof? Show it with water beading up. Does it have pockets? Is there a shot with the model’s hand in a pocket? Does it stretch? Is there a pose that shows the fabric stretching? Understanding what the product offers the customer let’s you choose images that quickly show customers what they’re getting. A picture paints a thousand words.
Having multiple images of the same model showing the same garment in the same basic pose isn’t going to help customers choose to buy it. I see this a lot with drop shipping sites. The vendor offers multiple images of a product, and rather than taking an extra minute or two to decide which will answer the customer’s questions, the site just adds all of them. While this saves time in choosing images for a product, it wastes the customer’s time in choosing to buy, or not to buy that product.
What's the downside of adding lots of images?
There’s an old axiom in the Art Director world. When you confuse, you lose. Let’s say you have a product with lots of images that all kind of look the same. The first question customers will have as they flip through is “What are they trying to show me?” You know they’re all pretty much the same, but the customer may assume that there are features or things they aren’t seeing. This adds the dreaded confusion element to the purchase journey.
Another thing to consider is the customer’s time. You’re always fighting with life for your customer’s attention. If they have to choose between shopping at your store or a child that wants attention, or a dog that needs to go out, or dinner that needs to go on the table. You lose. You want to get them hooked and ready to buy as quickly as possible.
One of the things that Stylaquin excels at is getting shoppers to look at more items. It does this by making shopping faster. Shoppers only have to drag a product onto the Stylaquin bar to see a layout with most of the images available. Shoppers typically view about six more products per visit. That’s a huge improvement to a site’s engagement stats and bottom line. Think about how much faster you can shop if you can see everything in a magazine style layout, rather than flipping through a carousel of images.
Add a Styling Board and a Wishlist!
The Stylaquin Idea Board keeps customers engaged in two ways: it’s an interactive styling board where shoppers can collect and curate all the things that interest them; and it also acts as a wishlist that shoppers can return to. Find us in the Shopify App Store.
What about other products?
For the most part, the same strategies that work for clothing, work for everything else. Let’s say you’re selling a shovel. Would it help customers understand the shovel better if you show a model using it? That depends on if it is very light weight and designed for women, or has a unique handle that makes it easier to use. It may be more helpful to add a simple image of the shovel on a plain background with callouts to features. Creating a single image with the front, back and side views would be more helpful than having three images they have to click through. What won’t be helpful is to have: Front, back, left side, right side, front with slight angle, back with slight angle, shovel with the blade up, shovel sideways and so on. Show customers why it’s worthy of their consideration as quickly as possible.
So how do you choose which images to show?
Choose the main image that represents your brand. Then add any images that help explain the product’s features or benefits. Try to limit your images to no more than five. If you have a lot of colors and options, think about grouping them so you aren’t asking customers to scroll through endless options. There’s something called “The Paradox of Choice” where tests have shown that offering too many choices reduces sales. You can improve sales by grouping in ways that help customers self select from fewer choices. Say you have a shirt that comes in multiple colors and patterns, could you offer the patterned shirts as one product, and the solids as another? Think about what is going to be the best experience for the shopper. What will help them see what you’re offering quickly without overwhelming them with choices. Let me know if you’ve found a better way to select images.
