Today, I will show you what you need to know about Amazon product photos so you can improve your listing and increase your sales.
Photos are the most important part of your Amazon listing for converting sales.
Your Amazon listing's title, description, and bullet points main job is to help your listing to show up in Amazon Search. After shoppers find your listing, it's your photos' turn to do the heavy lifting and get the sale.
As well as you could describe your product, nothing helps your shopper understand the benefits of your product as much as quickly as a single picture.
For example, imagine that you wanted to buy a vintage leather messenger bag. If a listing's title described a bag as a "dark brown 18 inch vintage leather travel messenger bag / unisex laptop satchel", could you envision what that bag is exactly and draw it? What if the description gave the dimensions of every pocket and details about all the zippers and buckles? Would that title and description be enough for you to throw down $70 without seeing a picture?
Probably not. But if you just saw a photo, then you'll understand whether or not that's the type of vintage leather messenger bag you want to buy.
You probably wouldn't even be able to describe what makes the bag right for you or not. You'd just know. It's instinctual.
Sometimes shoppers consider the title and product features logically. Sometimes their best buy really is a measure of needs and cents—especially for generic consumables. But if shoppers always acted logically, why would pet rocks or flimsy, decorative phone cases make sales?
You need to make the shopper feel the need to purchase in their gut. Your copy can then allow the shopper to justify the purchase to themself with logic.
Human beings are visual creatures. Plus, online we can't feel, smell, or taste the ones and zeros on our computer screens.
The human brain processes an entire image in 13 milliseconds. Break a second into 1,000 little minuscule pieces, take just 13 pieces, and that’s how long it takes for the human brain to process an entire photo.
Of all the information transmitted through the human brain, 90% is visual according to MIT. If you aren’t investing in absolutely stunning photos, you are bypassing 90% of the senses customers use to decide if they want your product.
What about reviews and sale price?
Yes, they can affect conversions. However, you can't control those like you can control the quality of your product images.
You can influence shopper reviews with an excellent product, great customer service, and over-delivering on what you promise in the listing, but you cannot control what your buyers will write. Plus, you could always have bad-faith actors review-bombing your listing.
You set your price. But what if your supply chain changes and your costs go up? What if the market loses demand or a competitor comes out with a similar product for a lower price? You would be compelled to change your price.
Your photos must accomplish 3 objectives.
- Attract the shopper.
- Solve a relevant problem for the shopper.
- Persuade the shopper to buy.
It's like a funnel. Imagine there are 10 shoppers scrolling through search results.
First, you need to grab their attention. Your featured product photo is magnificent, so you get 9 of them to stop scrolling.
Second, shoppers will compare your listing preview with your competitors. What they're really doing is considering if your product features a better solution than competitors. This is all still happening in Amazon Search results, so your featured photo needs to convince them that your product is better. Your photo is still one of the best, so 5 of them click on your listing.
Third, with shoppers on your listing, you need to justify your product's value. After your featured photo, they check out your other photos. You convince 2 of them to add your product to their cart.
You must accomplish each of these objectives in order. You can't get your shopper to add to cart before they even notice your listing. When you bring your shopper down these stages, you are pulling them from being unaware of your product listing to making the purchase. You will inevitably lose some shoppers through each step.
Your goal is to bring shoppers from one end of the funnel to the other.
But what's great about each of these stages is that you can progress forward using your photos as your weapon.
Let me show you how the funnel works using an example.
Attract your Amazon shopper’s attention.
The first step is to attract them. You want to make your main photo so unique, compared to all the others, that they stop to notice it.
A good photo stops the scroll finger.
Let’s say your Amazon shopper is hunting for a small dog tote bag. If I'm your shopper and these are your photos, I'm going to keep scrolling:
The first one doesn't help me get an idea of how it's used. There's no dog in the image.
The second one is boring and unprofessional. The woman holding the dog tote bag has half her body cut off. Plus, it doesn't look any different than a non-dog carrying tote bag.
The third one is using horrible photoshop. It's a fuzzy, decapitated dog head pasted over a plain-looking bag.
Your dog tote bag has to stand apart from these three if you want to get my attention. Now it's time for me to show you what a good featured product photo looks like.
Notice how it stands out:
- The bag design looks distinct.
- The woman model is attractive.
- It lacks the awful photoshop of the others.
- The dog is super cute.
It also leads up into our next step.
Solve a problem for the Amazon shopper in your featured photo.
Your featured photo needs to both attract and solve the shopper's problem in the same photo all within two seconds.
In our good photo example, the woman is demonstrating how the tote bag works. You can immediately see how convenient it is to use, and it looks comfortable. These are practical features the photo shows. Because it both attracts and solves the shopper's problem in the same photo, which leads to more clicks. Which led to the listing being the best seller in the niche.
Most shoppers don’t think about it that analytically. They just think, “Hmmm, that photo looks the best. Oh, that’s a cute bag. I think this is what I’m looking for.” And they make this decision in a couple seconds.
You must do this with your main, featured product image in order to get the click. However, keep in mind that there are the more restrictions for your product featured image than for your other images:
But sometimes Amazon does not enforce all of these rules. 😉
For example, 3D renders work wonders on Amazon when they look photorealistic.
Persuade the Amazon shopper to buy your product by showing value in all your product photos.
Now that you got the shopper to click on your listing, it is up to the rest of your photos to show that your product is more than worth the money. Then, they add your product to their cart.
How can you help the Amazon shopper feel like they are using the product, just by looking at it?
You create an experience for the Amazon shopper (and I can show you even more tricks to do that). That’s how you turn them into your customer.
For example, let me show you the other images from the dog sling bag listing.
The first image, a size chart helps shoppers become confident that the bag they buy will fit their pet. It provides this valuable info in an easily digestible way.
The second image shows off the quality features that you get when you buy the bag. It's compelling. It shows the value you get with the bag.
The third image compares the bag to competitors. It convinces you that this is the best bag for your pet compared to the others. It does the work of competitor research for the shopper.
All of these photos help shoppers to quickly process dozens of details about your product, which brings them closer to buying. This is why your product photos are so crucial to your Amazon listing and your store’s success.
Now, there’s tons more I could teach you about successful product photos that drive sales to your listing. I have dozens of tips and tricks.
If you want to learn everything about building a stunning product listing (and I do mean everything), visit JOD.com/freedom. You will find not only our photo secrets, but we will teach you how to set your listing up for ultimate success.
Just one more thing: how do you want to improve your featured photo? Let me know in the comments below.
