March, 2016 | geekspeak

Bro: Millennials are turning eCommerce on its head. Here’s how to reach these shoppers!

Millennials are becoming the single most influential generation in the eCommerce universe. In the U.S., millennials (now aged 18 – 35) comprise more than half of online shoppers. In Canada, one in five shoppers in that age group made a purchase from a mobile phone. In Europe, 78% of millennials chose to purchase from one retailer over another based purely on delivery options.

Some known facts: millennials like to browse in-store, then seek out the best price online. They’re won over with the cheapest delivery options. They want to buy when stores are closed. They’re more likely to buy personal care items and cosmetics offline but flock to eCommerce sites offering products such as electronics, music, clothing, furniture, and e-books.

Here’s how online stores can respond:

Make Supremely Shareable Content

Millennials are tech-savvy and social media-hungry. They expect eCommerce sites to be optimized for digital devices.

Rather than relying on brand advertising, millennials are adept at searching the web for information and typically turn to review sites and social media outlets. They’re active participants, both seeking out information about an intended purchase and posting reviews on products they buy.

They fill out surveys on everything from customer service, to products and content. And they’re not shy about sharing experiences, both positive and negative.

Offer an Array of Related Products

Millennials love to window-shop and will click on cross-sell and up-sell opportunities where they happen to be shopping and on social media sites. In fact, millennials are notorious “clickers” without completing sales. They have been shown to put products in the shopping cart and leave the site in the hopes that the retailer will email or target them with a special offer.

On the upside, this generation is amenable to retargeting, also known as remarketing. Retargeting is a cookie-based technology that uses code to anonymously follow a targeted audience over the web to determine shopping habits and product preferences. A recent survey indicated that 72% of millennials view this type of targeted marketing as acceptable.

Make Saving Fun

Compared to their parent’s generation, millennials have grown up in relatively lean financial times and have an eye for a bargain accompanied by the technological know-how to find it.

Virtual coupons and loyalty programs are popular with this group. Surveys have indicated that millennials are a key segment for brand loyalty programs. Almost 70% of millennials surveyed said they would change where they shopped if it meant getting more rewards, and one-third responded that they had bought something online that they didn’t need or want to simply earn points or increase membership status. Gaming techniques are popular with this generation.

Embrace Their Unique Tastes

The millennials are a challenge to eCommerce. E-retailers are responding by optimizing their sites for mobile devices. They’re offering a personalized experience, targeted ads, loyalty programs, and easy-buy, easy-return options.

Above all, millennial-savvy eCommerce stores offer great customer service and keep in touch – via mobile devices and social media sites, of course.

The BIG round-up! Site add-ons that are helping sellers build better online stores.

Major DIY eCommerce platforms such as Shopify and Bigcommerce have extensive app stores offering hundreds of add-on applications designed to help merchants build more successful online stores. From inventory and shipping management to customer service and cart abandonment, the focus of these applications is to help sellers drive sales by improving their online stores.

Although not exhaustive, here are some apps that can help an eCommerce store drive purchases and boost revenue:

Product Description Generator

A downside to operating an online store is the necessity to describe every single product in a way that is not only concise but also persuasive and unique. It’s a specific skill that not every company has the time or expertise to put together. Enter the automated product description generator.

kopigin draws from a deep database of product descriptions—written by a team of professional writers—and automatically generates content for eCommerce stores. Easily customizable and export-friendly, kopigin tailors the descriptions by attributes chosen by the user. It’s a quick and affordable way to generate hundreds of product descriptions that will help drive sales.

Live Chat Feature

In a physical store, a consumer typically has access to a salesperson to ask questions and get guidance before buying. The eCommerce equivalent is the live chat feature. Research studies suggest that consumers who take advantage of live chat are more likely to complete their online purchases.

Zopim, Olark and LiveChat are just three of the many web-based apps that offer to engage your customers and drive conversion. There are apps that wait for the customer to initiate the conversation and others that offer intervention strategies when it looks like a shopping cart is about to be abandoned.

Reviews and Referrals

Studies indicate that online customer reviews have a positive effect on buying completion rates. Sharing those reviews via social media helps spread the word. Yotpo is designed to help eCommerce stores generate customer reviews and, because it’s integrated into social media, makes it easy to share those reviews on a store’s Facebook page or Twitter account. The result is more qualified traffic on the eCommerce website.

Another app, Kudobuzz, authenticates customers via a log-in from their social media account. It solicits comments after purchase to assure potential buyers that they can trust reviews on your site.

However you choose to garner reviews, customers love to know that other people are happy with their purchase.

Cart Abandonment Solutions

Shopping cart abandonment is the bane of many eCommerce stores. Anywhere between 60% and 75% of shopping carts are left without a purchase. Picreel offers exit strategies that target customers about to leave the store and direct them to special deals. ShopStorm has created a number of eCommerce apps, such as Jilt and Happy Ending, to tackle the abandonment issue, increase conversion, and turn customers into fans.

New apps appear on a daily basis and many of them are geared towards the eCommerce market. Review your store with an eye to where apps might be useful to take your customer service up a notch, drive conversion, and increase revenue.

7 Common Questions and Answers to Online Merchandising

As technology progresses and retailers increasingly make use of the internet, there has never been a stronger need for excellent online merchandising strategies. But what are the most effective and efficient strategies?

1. How can I use images effectively?

Avoid stock images and make high-quality, high-res photos your priority because images are what an online customer sees first. By showcasing your product in the most vivid way possible, you’re giving visitors answers in a visual, immediate way. For example, if you’re selling a couch, set it against a plain backdrop and show how it’s used by photographing a person on it in an audience-appropriate way (for example, a family on a large couch or a hipster on an egg chair). This creates context for your customers and allows them to visualize themselves on it instead of looking at a plain photo of a nondescript item.

2. Should I use mannequins or models?

The choice between mannequins and models is often a personal one, and each has its pros and cons. For example, Old Navy uses mannequins with goofy expressions, which are synonymous with the brand but largely ineffective because they distract from the clothing they’re wearing. Using a live model, on the other hand, helps visitors see exactly how a product looks on an actual person.

3. What should my home page look like?

Your home page should be as simple and streamlined as possible. When it comes to websites, the current trend is high minimalism (Google is an excellent example), so only the most basic, concise information is immediately visible. By not overwhelming visitors and giving them easy-to-see navigation options, you have an edge over your competitors in terms of stay rates and click analytics. One of the worst things you can do is present a home page that’s busy and difficult to navigate. With so many other options available, visitors won’t bother with your site anymore.

4. Once I’ve set up my home page, how should I arrange the merchandise?

Categories are a highly efficient way of organizing merchandise and the next logical step in a minimalist home page design. A good way to categorize your merchandise is by use. For example, if you own a clothing store, create categories such as men’s and women’s, brand, upper or lower body garments and length of sleeve or leg. It also helps to cross-reference your products so that visitors won’t miss finding something, as your method of categorizing clothing may be different from theirs.

5. How can I sell more expensive items or items that need to be cleared to make way for others?

Select the items you want to move and feature them alongside searches to cross-sell, upsell and downsell. Using the clothing store example, if a visitor searches for white T-shirts and you’d rather they spend twice as much on black T-shirts, upsell the latter as an alternative. However, if you have an excess of white T-shirts and visitors are searching for black T-shirts, simply reverse the process (downsell). As for cross-selling, feature a row at the bottom that lists the most commonly searched for and purchased items.

6. How can I urge visitors to buy “neutral” items?

Reviews are one of the most important, effective ways to help visitors make a purchase. And with today’s tech-savvy visitors being more discriminating than ever, you need to give them real-life proof of the quality of your product. In this way, reviews aren’t simply a nice-to-have option that will set you apart; they’re a necessity, especially since word-of-mouth marketing is the predominant way to spread the buzz about your merchandise.

7. Do I really need good copy if my site is well-designed and easy to navigate?

Absolutely. While a well-designed site is essential for bringing in traffic, good-quality copy is vital for keeping it there. A clear, high-res image can only say so much about any given product; the copy has to fill in the rest. You should have a catchy headline, a brief yet informative short description, a fleshed-out long description that summarizes the main points and a bulleted features list that outlines all the specs. Each product’s copy should tell a story, but it shouldn’t be the main star. Rather, good-quality copy should seamlessly blend with the product image so that, together, the two create a fully realized guide, with everything the visitor needs to know.

5 Principles of In-Store Retail Merchandising that Apply to Online Stores

The line between online and offline shopping is becoming increasingly blurred as shoppers use both in tandem to fulfill their needs. Smart retailers know that, despite the two being separate entities, shared merchandising principles exist between them. Here they are;

Principle 1. Think about product placement as the first item of importance.

Brick-and-mortar stores are familiar with the importance of strategic product placement, with supermarkets being especially savvy at this. Consider the last time you went grocery shopping: Produce is placed at the front of the store so shoppers will fill their carts with fruits and vegetables; this makes them think that once they’ve checked off the healthy items on their lists, it’s okay to throw some junk food—which is marked up considerably—in their carts as well.

Smart online retailers have learned this lesson well from offline stores, placing products that showcase their brand on the front page and drawing a lot of attention to it. They also tailor landing pages to their customers, offering a search bar and brand descriptions for newer shoppers so they can familiarize themselves easily and providing suggestions for returning customers.

Principle 2. Showcase product use by placing similar items together.

Walk into any bricks-and-mortar store and you’ll immediately notice that the retailer demonstrates how the product is to be used. In clothing stores, mannequins wear layered outfits; bookstores surround novels with blankets and candles; and music retailers arrange CDs with earbuds and headphones.

While mannequins don’t have the same efficacy online as they do offline, online retailers can still use the same concept by placing like-minded items together, showcasing testimonials and reviews and creating an “ideas” section where shoppers can compare items side by side.

Principle 3. Recognize holiday-targeted marketing as an opportunity.

At least one month before major holidays—or more than two for Christmas—offline stores start ramping up specialized marketing campaigns aimed at the holiday using a variety of colour schemes, buzzwords and themed sections. A furniture store will group chaise lounges, umbrellas and patio tables together with summer accessories for the May long weekend, while movie theatres will bombard shoppers with posters of hit movies around awards season.

This is a fairly common concept for online stores because it’s easy to code different images and layouts for holidays—for example, all that is required during the Christmas season is rearranging the coding to showcase Christmas wish and gift lists, shopping options and holiday-related themes. Another trick that online merchandisers use is sorting their products by price and category, with the former offering shoppers options for gifts under X number of dollars.

Principle 4. Recognize the habits of impulse buyers.

Just about every bricks-and-mortar store features a selection of low-price items beside the till, with convenience stores being the best example. Colloquially known as stocking stuffers, impulse buys and till-side advertising, these value items have been shown to increase purchasing when placed in front of the customer when they’re paying.

Although it’s physically impossible to place actual objects beside a till in online stores, the essential concept remains the same: The final purchase is split horizontally in half, with the basket and checkout on one side and featured items on the other. Another incentive for using this strategy in online stores is motivating shoppers to add a few more items to their basket so they can meet the minimum requirements for free shipping, if offered.

Principle 5. Cross-sell low-margin items with high-value items.

Department-store retailers understand shopping psychology and know that buyers aren’t nearly as likely to act on impulse when it comes to higher-priced items. Therefore, they place lower-priced items in high-traffic areas in anticipation of drawing the customer deeper into the store and closer to higher-value items. Retailers also make a smooth transition between the two by sporadically placing a high-value item amid low-margin ones at the front and gradually increasing its appearance.

To transfer this strategy to online stores, retailers can research high-traffic areas on their site—landing pages are the most obvious example—and strategically place items they need to sell in these areas. Another way to use this concept is to place a “suggestion row” underneath a shopper’s current selection, with the idea of showing how two items work together so the customer will be more likely to pick up both.

Although online and offline stores vary in their marketing and merchandising strategies, they actually have a lot more in common than what appears at first glance. By implementing the five key principles that in-store retailers use, their online counterparts can appeal to shoppers more efficiently and strategically. Take time to visit bricks-and-mortar stores regularly to see how they implement these principles, and adopt them in your online store accordingly. Some will work and some won’t, but never be afraid to try something new. After all, the most successful online stores are those that learned from the hits and misses of offline stores.

Will the Apple Watch change the eCommerce landscape? It already is!

Apple wasn’t the first to launch a pairable wearable – Pebble and Samsung beat them to the punch with smartwatches and Google introduced Google Glass in 2012 – but Apple’s ability to popularize existing technology is legendary. Its introduction of the Apple Watch in early 2015 has developers and eCommerce giants scrambling to create apps focused on the very next thing that wearers are likely to desire. Smartwatches, where touching and tapping take over from scrolling and clicking, will change the very nature of the online shopping experience. With customers able to receive a Daily Deal text notification, touch the screen to go directly to the store, and tap a button to pay, e-retailers will find ways to target the impulse buyer over the casual browser. Smartwatch app optimization is likely to be the next big opportunity for retailers. As an example, just in time for the launch of the Apple Watch, eBay introduced a new smartwatch app that allows important notifications, such as outbid alerts and warnings, to bypass your phone and go straight to your wrist. Having access to timely messages could mean the difference between winning and losing in the online auction game.

Retailers large and small, credit card companies and social media sites are evaluating smartwatches platforms having the ability to simplify the buying process. A Samsung-PayPal partnership introduced fingerprint technology for authorizing payments on a smartwatch screen with its limited space for a PIN or password. With around 50% of consumers reportedly happy using fingerprints instead of passwords, this initiative opens the doors for shoppers to buy at any online or physical store that accepts PayPal.

Mobile payments are here to stay, especially with a younger generation already joined at the hip – soon to be the wrist – with their mobile devices. Apple, Google, and Samsung are among the forerunners recognizing that mobile payments will make their smartwatches indispensable to the wearer while supplying new insights into their consumers’ buying behaviour. In late 2014, Apple announced that Apple Wallet was partnering with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express to store credit card information on the iPhone, allowing purchases using Apple Buy simply by tapping the phone or smartwatch. Loyalty cards from retailers such as Wal-Mart and Dunkin’ Donuts and store credit cards from the likes of Kohl’s and JC Penny have also been linked into Apple Pay, which will automatically present the right card to the right merchant. Already available in the U.S., Apple Pay is gearing up for a U.K. launch.

Want to improve the usability of your eCommerce site? Psst…Pay attention to your product taxonomy!

Product taxonomy organizes merchandise into hierarchies and categories to help customers search and browse items using both drop-down menus and left-hand navigational bars. A well-designed taxonomy keeps the user’s needs front and centre, taking into account how they typically search or browse for products.

When looking at your existing taxonomy, or when designing a new system, keep in mind that there will never be one “right” taxonomy for any set of products. Your customers are a diverse group and are likely to browse and search using their own defined sense of taxonomy. The key is to thoroughly research how shoppers search for products on your site now, then design a taxonomy that responds to those typical search requests. The aim is to get the customer to the desired product quickly, make it easy for them to buy, and ensure that the whole shopping experience is one they will want to repeat. Designing a taxonomy takes time and shouldn’t be rushed. The challenge with any taxonomy is that it usually presents a complex problem with no best solution, but rather the best compromise. Often a single product can, and should, be placed in multiple categories. For example, envelopes might fit into the “Office Supplies” category and also the “Paper Products” category; a winter sweater could easily slot into both the “Clothes by Season” and “Clothes by Fabric” categories. Define the categories and figure out which products are related to which categories.

Faceted Navigation

Facets are vital for larger e-commerce stores. Faceted navigation works on the basis of allowing the shopper to filter a category by a number of classifications, such as price, size, or colour. While facets can be costly and time-consuming to develop, they offer more options to the customer. Working on the principle that you can’t buy what you can’t find, faceted navigation has been shown to improve product findability in general.

By relating products through their attributes and facets, your e-commerce store can cross-sell/up-sell other appropriate products to potential buyers. Interested in a laptop computer? Then how about one of these great cases to put it in? Buying a Valentine’s gift? Take a look at February’s red product sale items. By the way, make sure to build in a spot for gifts or promotions to highlight seasonal items or great deals.

Optimized Taxonomy

Especially important in today’s world of mobile devices and smart wearables is a quick result. Whether on a smartphone or an Apple Watch, mobile users demand a minimal number of clicks to get to where they want to go. Taxonomy designed with the mobile shopper in mind allows consumers to get there fast.

Studies have shown that there is generally an improvement in cart additions and conversion rates that coincide with the introduction, or improvement, of a taxonomy system on an e-commerce site. Customers find products quickly, are given options, and can easily compare different items, making for a pleasant and productive shopping experience.

It’s definitely worth your time to pay attention to product taxonomy.

Wait, What..? Gamification in eCommerce? Yes, it’s a sure win!

Gamification – or the use of the principles and mechanics of gaming in non-gaming contexts – is all around us. It appeals to our desire as human beings to establish rules, create winners and losers, and compete and collaborate. It gives us levels to achieve, quests to complete, points to garner, and rewards to win. But, is there a real opportunity for an eCommerce application? We say yes!

Let’s take a look at how gamification is implemented to help boost eCommerce sales:

Create Your Own Reward

Simplistic but true, research has shown that the key to gamification success starts by defining the end goal. In an eCommerce context, this means identifying what the business objective is, and why it will benefit the store.

For example, according to Shopify, there is strong evidence suggesting that customer-written product reviews are a great way to increase conversion rates. So placing gaming tactics, such as awarding recognition for writing a certain number of reviews, might help achieve the objective of getting more recommendations. This, in turn, may improve conversion rates and boost the bottom line.

Amazon.com has a basic gamification strategy that encourages reviews: customer content can be rated as “helpful.” This means a dedicated reviewer is rewarded by receiving recognition from other potential buyers. Who doesn’t want to be recognized for being helpful?

Raise the Stakes

eBay was an early adopter of gamification. Rather than a straightforward purchase, customers are encouraged to bid on an item. Text alerts tell you when someone else has bid more than you and the temptation is to rush back to the site to either buy outright or up the game stakes. Messages inform potential buyers that other people are watching the same item, appealing to the urge to be first.

Shopify is one of many eCommerce sites that offer a countdown app to focus customers on special deals, sales, new releases and more. It counts up or down, in numbers or time, but the end result is a sense of urgency; a sense that time is running out to get this item.

Both eBay and Shopify are targeting our desire to get a good deal. And surely it must be a good deal if others want the same product or if it’s only available for a short period.

Dole Out the Prizes

A basic component of any game is the desire to win and be rewarded. The Starbucks loyalty app bundles pre-order and pre-pay capabilities with free music and reward levels based on the number of stars “won” by making purchases.

Given a choice of coffee at the local café or earning stars and maybe achieving the next level at Starbucks, combined with the convenience of placing and paying for your order right on a smartphone, consumers appear to be voting with their taps. Compared to the thrills of playing the game, the reward of a free coffee is probably incidental.

With web developers creating great new apps and web applications every day, there are a seemingly limitless number of ways to introduce gamification into your eCommerce store. The trick is to decide what behaviour you want to influence and what gaming tactic you’ll use to condition it.

Launching your online store in 2016? Here is what you should be doing now.

There are a lot of decisions involved with the launch of an online store and focusing your attention on some of the more important aspects of eCommerce can save you time, money, and frustration. Here are the key areas to consider:

1. Picking Your Online Platform

The first decision should focus on the type of online platform appropriate to your business. There are basically three options:

Build your own eCommerce platform;
Use an existing online marketplace like Etsy, Amazon, eBay;
Set up with an eCommerce site such as Shopify, Magento, or Bigcommerce.

However, you’re not limited to just one option. Many stores host their own eCommerce platform and still sell on Amazon and Shopify. Other e-retailers prefer the convenience and corporate or community support of an established online marketplace or eCommerce site. Self-hosted stores give you the freedom to do it all your way, but the expense and expertise required can be a burden for some.

2. The Amazon Advantage

The biggest advantage of using platforms such as Amazon or eBay is the sheer scale of their online presence. Amazon, for example, draws an estimated 85 million unique visitors each month to their site. While these consumers are looking for specific products rather than your store, if they purchase your product there’s an opportunity for repeat business through excellent customer service or fulfillment.

3. Billing and Order Fulfillment

A key area of concern for eCommerce merchants is how to fill and ship items processed through the shopping cart and payment collection. Consider tracking systems for inventory and shipping as well as a shipping service. Payment options can be limited to just PayPal or opened to include all major credit cards.

Amazon and other major eCommerce marketplaces offer complete packages for shipping. “Fulfillment by Amazon” (FBA) lets you store your inventory at Amazon’s warehouses where they pick, pack, and provide customer service for the sold products.

Shopify offers numerous third-party apps to help with fulfillment, invoicing, and shipping. Indeed, Shopify even supports FBA if you choose to sell on Shopify and use Amazon for fulfillment.

Your choice of how to fulfill and ship orders will depend largely on the type and number of products you sell and all the associated costs.

4. Hello, World

Another consideration in launching an eCommerce store is how to boost sales and boost your brand awareness. For email blasts, write engaging and relevant content to hook your readers and inspire them to visit your store and buy. Choose an email content marketing provider that offers the services you need at a price you can afford. According to PC Magazine, questions to ask yourself before choosing an email provider include who’s your audience, what do you want them to know, how often do you want to send them emails, and how much support do you need?

5. Like Us

Social media is a must for eCommerce stores. Offer a variety of ways for your consumers to interact with your store. Invite them to “Like” you on Facebook, be active on Twitter, and/or upload videos on YouTube. The more you can engage with customers, the more they’ll feel loyal to your brand.

6. Thank You and Come Again

Services such as Picreel offer exit strategies for people visiting your eCommerce store. Such marketing providers can let you survey a select group of customers or provide pop-ups to entice people to stay and shop longer.

Conclusion

It takes time and effort to create an online eCommerce store. Pre-planning is key. Start your research and decision-making now – reap the benefits later.

Shopping on the new Apple TV; a game-changer? We’re about to find out.

On September 9, 2015, Apple launched its latest iteration of the Apple TV. It has all the usual bells and whistles you’d expect from Apple – a remote control that lets you “swipe” quickly through lists, Siri’s voice command feature, and so on – but the big news for eCommerce is the ability to download retailer apps. We’ve grown to accept that there are apps for just about everything on our mobile devices. Order a meal, learn a language, play a game, buy a pair of shoes; there are very few areas of our lives devoid of an app. Now Apple is bringing them to a TV screen near you.

It’s the new click & shop

The redesigned Apple TV has an App Store, just like any Apple mobile device, with apps that can be downloaded to the TV. Using the new glass touch surface Siri remote, a shopper can choose a retailer app, swipe through categories of products for sale, view product details and even complete a purchase. Already, at the September 9 launch, e-retailer, Gilt, announced the integration of its online shopping services with Apple TV. And you can bet it won’t be long before other eCommerce stores will want to follow suit.

What’s the BIG Deal…? It’s the screen!

Will there be challenges and opportunities arising for e-retailers from the new Apple TV launch? Definitely. Well-merchandized products will always be essential for successful eCommerce retailing. Apple TV isn’t going to change that. What will change is the scale and opportunity that a 50-inch or larger TV can present to engaging your customers. Retailers will now have to be prepared to merchandize products for both a 5.5-inch mobile device and a 55-inch smart TV screen. Think about reading a product description or looking at product images from 20 feet away while sitting on the couch. What is that experience going to be like for your shoppers?

Get it Done

As the new Apple TV rolls out in the next few weeks, we’ll begin to see how online shoppers receive it and also what new opportunities it offers retailers. Perhaps the biggest opportunity will be for retailers to turn their focus to what will make their eCommerce store experience unique at this new scale. It is inevitable that retailers will have to rethink how they merchandize products to ensure their customers are getting the best out of this new platform.

If they haven’t already, many retailers will begin developing their own apps for the Apple TV.

So what, I don’t have great product photos? No BIG deal right? Wrong!

So, your site is designed, product descriptions are written, the shopping cart is all ready to go, so what if you don’t have great photos? No big deal right? Wrong! It is a very big deal. Not having clear, original, and professional-looking photography could make the difference between a purchase and a pass in your online store.

The Touchy/Feely Syndrome

When you go to a physical store to buy something, typically you want to see it. There are very few occasions if any at all when you’d be willing to buy something sight unseen. You want to hold it, look at it, feel the fabric, compare the colours. The only opportunity your online buyer has to this “feeling” experience is through visual images.

Buying on the Go

More and more consumers are taking to mobile devices to buy online. Smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, all allow for shopping on the go. Now more than ever you need to be able to capture the fleeting attention span of the consumer who’s browsing while walking down the street, on the train, or sitting in the restaurant. Fabulous photography can catch their eye and hook them in.

Being Social

Social media marketing efforts through sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, are becoming the rule rather than the exception. Social media audiences crave visual content. The old adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words” rings true here, especially with character-restrictive sites such as Twitter. You can’t wax poetic about that new product, but you can post a stunning image to entice a purchase.

Standing Out from the Competition

With an ever-increasing number of consumers making online purchases, stores such as yours are investing more and more money into digital marketing strategies. Whether you sell pots and pans or luxury lingerie, there are probably dozens of other eCommerce sites selling the same product, possibly at a lower price. First-rate photography will help your products stand out from all the rest. Consumers look for value for money. Professional-looking, well-placed images can help create that value.

Now, before you rush around the warehouse clicking photos with your smartphone, give some thought to hiring an experienced, professional eCommerce photographer. Why? The intent of eCommerce photography, as opposed to recreational or creative photography, is to show the product exactly as it is. Fashion photography is gorgeous and creative, but will it let your customers imagine how that dress would look on them? eCommerce photography concentrates on presenting the product in accurate detail, without distracting or superfluous poses. That takes know-how and experience.

Good product photography is meant to promote sales and minimize returns. Never underestimate the power of the lens.