Hints for organising a perfect product photoshoot
While there are a lot of advantages to shopping online, one of the big downsides is a customer can’t get the full product experience. In most cases, e-commerce only engages one of the five senses — sight. Sure, people can see the product photos. But they can’t feel the texture, smell the leather, hear the crinkle or even taste the spices. They can’t hold a product in their hands and engage more of their senses.
Ecommerce is most often limited to the sole sense of sight. So you better nail the visuals. Successful ecommerce product photography must do everything possible to capture a product visually and hint at the other five senses.
Getting this right is mostly down to choosing an awesome photographer, yet there are several things you can do before the shoot to ensure a perfect set of product photos:
- Already have product photos from a previous shoot on your website? Make sure to send some examples to your photographer at least a day before the shoot, to ensure the new photos to match the style of the existing ones.
- Willing to break with the style of your existing product photos (eg for a new collection)? Reach out to website visitors/customers who returned their order and ask what it was about the photos that made them not want to buy/keep their purchase. A tiny tweak here or there could increase conversion rates by over twenty percent!
- Make sure you know where your product photos will be displayed and communicate this to your photographer in advance. By knowing the available dimensions, colour palette and layout of the web-page/app which will frame your product photos before the shoot, your photographer can make sure they have all equipment necessary to really tailor your photos to the rest of the content.
- Make up for your customer’s inability to reach out and inspect the product by showing them the product from multiple angles. Your photographer will help you decide which angles are best — but a good trick is to ask a potential customer to inspect your product in person and note down the areas of the product they spend most time inspecting.
- Another reason why customers don’t buy is context. Especially when considering fashion and home accessories/furniture products, it can be very difficult for potential customers to get a good idea of the relative size of your product. Make sure to include a standard sized object of reference in your photos or, if you have the time and budget, include further lookbook-style photos on your product page to make sure the sizing is clear.
- Your photographer will help you with the staging, but it’s worth thinking about in advance — after all, no-one knows your customers like you do. How you set up the product matters. First, take care of the product itself. Clothes should be ironed. Anything with a reflective surface should be wiped down and shined. Make sure everything is perfect. Then are there ways to communicate the context or show the product in action that will help?
- If you have a great photographer, they’ll guide you through these steps themselves. At nanna, our project managers guide you every step of the way and make sure you get the perfect photographer for your requirements. You can book a photoshoot today in just 30 seconds — we charge a flat fee of CHF20.- per photo ordered.
