Based on feedback from BigCommerce online retailers, we know how important product photos are in selling. But did you know there’s a huge difference between posting an average product photos versus one that you’ve taken the time to carefully craft yourself? In this article I want to explain how investing in high quality photography for your products will put you far, far ahead of your competitors and generate tens of thousands of dollars more in sales for your e-commerce business.
It really doesn’t matter what you sell online – the photos you put on your product pages determine (along with price, shipping cost, availability, etc) your conversion rate. That is, the number of people who buy something from you relative to the total number of people who visit your online store.
Think about this. If you sell the latest, most stylish Italian leather shoes online but each product only has one lame photo (such as the photo on the left), how likely is someone to buy from you right then and there? On the other hand assume you’ve taken the time to professionally photograph the same leather shoes from 5 different angles using a realistic light source and professional studio. You also upload the large version of each photo so shoppers can zoom right in close to see the exceptional quality of these Italian shoes.
How likely is someone to buy from you now?
Yes, having all of your products professionally photographed comes at a cost, but think about the benefits:
- You own the photos for life and can add your watermark to of each photo so they can never be stolen or repurposed by your competitors.
- More people will shop with you because they appreciate the high quality photos you provide for the products you sell, while your competitors continue to post tiny, low quality photos for the exact same products.
- You pay for the photography once but can use it forever. Depending on your margins you’ll make the cost of the photography back after your first few orders of each product.
- You can even make back the cost of the photography by offering to lease copies of your photos to competitors for display in their online store.
Amazon is know for its excellent, unbiased product reviews and if you’re competing primarily on price then using professionally taken photographs of your products can give you the edge you need to increase your prices and/or attract more shoppers who appreciate the extra effort (and cost) you’ve put in to improve their buying experience.
P.S. The ability to upload an unlimited number of product photos at once, SuperZoom photo zoom and support for an unlimited number of photos per product are all included in the BigCommerce 5.5 software update which is being rolled out to all new stores next week and as an optional free, automatic upgrade for all current BigCommerce online retailers shortly after that.









Yep, you sell stuff online. Cool. But who do you sell to? “Everyone who needs my products” is the wrong answer. Who really needs your products? Is it women aged 18-34 with a household income over $50,000 in a C-Level executive position or is it college students aged 17-22 with a personal income under $10,000? If you don’t know then I’ll show you how to figure it out in this post.
With the holiday season just 2 months away, let’s look at 8 tips to help prepare you for more customers and more sales. If you have any tips you’d like to add please feel free to leave a comment.
The BigCommerce Ecommerce Blog is written by Mitchell Harper, co-founder of BigCommerce