Making a Picture Worth a Thousand Words
Online Shopping takes out the most critical part of making the purchase decision – the hands-on, touchy-feely part. Colorful & Descriptive Prose in the Description can replace some of that. But the biggest contributor to the decision can be the photo.
The Photo can make or break the sale.
Taking a wander through various auction listings on eBay can show the continuum of quality. They can be instructive all by them selves.
Some photos serve only as proof of life. The photo is ultra-blurry, poorly lighted, and generally occupying less than 3% of the total area available. There is “something” there, so we must presume it is the real thing, so this can’t be a fake…
Most others are of average quality, reasonably focused, well-cropped, and lighted to actually show a true color, if not some of the finer features of the item.
The rare photo appears professionally shot and prepared. The lighting and background enhance the viewing without distracting. The item is tightly cropped to show as little of the background as possible. There might be some sort of size indicator in the frame if the item is particularly small. The focus is sharp as razors. Finally, the entire photo size is large enough for details to be clearly seen.
One of the most disappointing aspects, though, is when the photo is a pretty good thumbnail with a “Click Here for Larger Image” link. Then, when you click the link, a new, pop-up window appears with the enlarged photo. Except that the new photo is barely bigger than the original thumbnail.
What are they thinking!?! The whole purpose of the photo is to help close the sale by providing visual information that descriptions just can’t match. So then, make that photo as professionally good as possible.
Then, if you are using thumbnails, make that enlargement worth the click. You save the bandwidth and speed the page load by using a thumbnail. Now that the buyer is interested enough to ask for more, give then as much as their browser can display. Give them a BIG enlargement.
Clarity. Size. Detail. Lighting. Those are the keys to that photo that sells rather than repels.
John