Sell on Amazon

and gain additional revenue

People buy with their eyes. It is assumed that 65% of the world's population are visual, so this saying is not at all exaggerated. Clarity, consistency, quality graphics and the overall look and feel of a sales page are not just about individual aesthetics and the retailer's 'whim'. Visual content is one of the key aspects of platform selling. Good design sells. Today we will try to prove this and show you how to prepare your website so that it sells more.

Good visual communication is a foundation for success

Imagine you are looking for shoes. You go to your favourite sales platform, type in the keyword "shoes" and a few adjectives. Whether it's Amazon, Ebay, Allegro, CDiscount, Bol- you start browsing the listings. What are you looking at? At the pictures. You only read the offers that catch your eye. The description, specifications, sometimes even the make or model are secondary. It is therefore worth treating product images as a hook for potential customers.

It is worth remembering that buying online, despite its ever-growing popularity, is still an unnatural situation. People are used to experiencing with their senses. Luxury boutiques are outdoing themselves with further ideas on how to charm their customers and make the consumer experience more pleasant. A specially selected fragrance, the right lighting, the optimum temperature, a glass of champagne. Product pampered, clean, pressed, shiny, exposed. How to replace these experiences in e-commerce? Experts, already in the not too distant future, foresee standard access to VR shops. For the time being, however, we are using the only possible sense we can engage with the internet. The consumer experience must focus on the visual layer - both the representation of the product and the entire virtual environment.

The perfect product photo - what kind of photo? 

First of all, professional. Photos taken with amateur equipment, without proper lighting, backgrounds or even processing - it shows. You can, of course, take them yourself, but at the very beginning it's worth counting the costs of buying a professional camera, lighting, tripods, perhaps renting a studio and assessing your options. Of course, you might think that a realistic photo is fair to the customer - after all, this is what the product will look like in real life. No, those days are gone. Amateur photos will be lost among the plethora of doctored ones. Ba, the industry is becoming increasingly high-tech. A trend that is gaining ground faster and faster is so-called packshots. This is another attempt to replace the real-life shop experience. A packshot is a representation of a product that allows you to see it from all sides. Most often it is several good quality photographs from different sides, arranged in a presentation, a 3D model of the product for 360-degree self-rotation, or a 3D photo animation spinning around its axis. Such solutions are, of course, a greater investment, as they require the hiring of a special studio for 3D photos, but it can be noted that sellers who have chosen packshots as a form of presentation of their products report a significant increase in sales. It is worth considering this method if you sell a larger number of units of the same product.

Platform regulations

Depending on the sales platform, the guidelines for images, may vary slightly. However, there are a few basic rules.

What can and should be shown when presenting a product visually:

• the item you are selling
• packaging of the item sold
• logos for brands, products, technologies
• colour and pattern designations
• certificates, markings
• graphical elements, e.g. magnification, cross-section, principle of operation, arrows, etc.
• numbers

What to look out for?

• Description. Most platforms forbid the addition of descriptions on photos. While it is permissible to show a caption on the packaging, for example, you cannot add a photo with pasted text. You can, however, number the space with a description below the photo.
• Background. The choice of background depends on the platform. If you are operating on several platforms, it is safest to choose a white background, which is required by Amazon, for example.
• Photo format. Here too, it all depends on the platform. The preferred format is standard JPEG. It's also a good idea to keep the source file - having it is the easiest way to prove ownership of your images.

Clear description, regardless of language 

A customer whose attention is drawn to a good photo will be interested in the description in the next step. This, too, can be made more visually attractive. Infographics, illustrations and visual comparisons are available. Here, it is worth placing an emphasis on transparency. Especially in international e-commerce, it is a good idea to replace words with graphics as much as possible. This reduces translation and, of course, costs. In addition, graphics that are aligned with the corporate identity are a great asset, as they create consistency in the message. This, in turn, lends credibility to the brand as a whole.

 Video now rules

As we have already mentioned, trends are steering us towards virtual reality. For the time being, however, we are living in the audio-visual age, and these trends can of course also be seen in e-commerce. Platforms are increasingly willing to provide the option of adding a video. This can be used to insert the aforementioned packshot, and it is also possible to present a product using a video. All tricks are allowed here. Please note: a video, unlike a photo, does not have to be professional at all! We can of course go for a professional mini-production, but it can also be a video for an Instagram story - as long as it is moving, eye-catching and the product is well-lit. And of course - the more original, the better!

In summary, to build good visual communication on platforms, you only need to follow a few rules, in addition to being original and imaginative. There is only one overriding rule- the visual message must be consistent. If the visual content follows a single convention, preferably one associated with your brand, then 90% success. Ensure that everything is professional and top-notch, and you have success as painted!

Of course, all the above principles will work on one condition - they must be in addition to really good text. Keywords, as the name suggests, are the key to a good algorithm. We will talk about texts, good copywriting, linguistic nuances, keywords and titles next time.

Remember, too, that you can take advice from specialists in this area. The marketplace agency CommerceBay provides professional and comprehensive services for sales platforms. We invite you to a free online consultation, during which we will individually approach the improvement of your business!

Remember, too, that you can take advice from specialists in this area. The marketplace agency CommerceBay provides professional and comprehensive services for sales platforms. We invite you to a free online consultation, during which we will individually approach the improvement of your business!