Within the average online store, recent reports have confirmed that consumers strongly believe that the quality level of a product image is more important than the product-specific details, description, and customer reviews about that product, according to MDG Advertising. Since your online customers are not able to physically see and touch the furniture that you sell on your website, your high-quality images have to be engaging enough to captivate their attention and drive them towards checkout. Here are four ways that you can make that happen.
Place Popular Images on Your Homepage
While it is beneficial to have a gallery on your website that allows consumers to browse your entire catalog, this should not be the only place where these pictures are featured. You need to make sure that they are strategically placed on the most visible page in your entire website – the homepage. Chances are that if your consumer does not like what they see on your homepage, they are not going to stay there very long.
Therefore, you need to use high-quality images of your bestselling furniture items and sets to grab their attention and make them stay. One report confirms that placing these images above the fold of the homepage is a prime location, because your online visitors will not need to scroll down the screen or click anything to see exactly what you have to offer, according to Mashable.com.
Attach Your Best Image to the Homepage
In addition to placing quality images of your furniture on the actual homepage, another great idea would be to use your very best product photo as the featured image for your homepage; for this a furniture template based theme based theme could come in handy, as it will help make your furniture specific web store standout. The same study mentioned earlier from MDG Advertising also stated that 60 percent of your prospective customers are more likely to contact your business and go to your website when you have a featured image from your homepage that appears within the search results. This might seem like an insignificant step that you can do without, but you need to think about the massive number of potential sales that you could be losing by not doing it.
Do Not Compromise the Authenticity
You should never compromise the authenticity of your photos. Your customers do not want to see an overly saturated image of a furniture set, for example, that obviously has been doctored through Photoshop or some other photo editing software. They want to see exactly what they are going to get if they decide to go through with this purchase.
Even though enhancing the images a little can go a very long way in captivating the attention of your target audience, there are boundaries involved that should never be crossed by any means. Distorting your product images to make them more appealing will cause your customers to lose trust in your brand, which is much worse than losing a single sale.
Update Your Online Inventory Regularly
A major mistake that quite a few eCommerce websites make is that they hardly ever update their product inventory. One of the worst things that you can do is captivate the attention of a consumer with one particular furniture set or accessory that is no longer available, because that could very easily cause you to lose sales that would have otherwise been closed.
The Bottom Line
Remember that the only visual reference your customers have when it comes to your online catalog is the gallery of product images that you have on display. Make sure that your place these images prominently on your homepage and as a featured image for search purposes. But, never risk losing the trust and confidence of your customers by overly editing the quality and appearance of your pictures.
Sam DeeringSam Deering has 15+ years of programming and website development experience. He was a website consultant at Console, ABC News, Flight Centre, Sapient Nitro, and the QLD Government and runs a tech blog with over 1 million views per month. Currently, Sam is the Founder of Crypto News, Australia.
