Is investing in product photography worth it?

We are living in one of the most difficult times for businesses in decades, so in a world of cutting costs, how can you justify spending money on product photography?

We can’t tell you how often we hear business owners claim that paying for product photography isn’t worth it. They say it’s not worth the return, and that as long as the customer gets a look at the product, it doesn’t matter how good the images are.

In our research, we have found the exact opposite to be true. Here are 5 reasons, backed with research, why the investment of product photography can be invaluable to your business and its sales.

1. Photography will pay for itself faster than you think

It’s as straightforward as it sounds. When you invest in photography, those pictures will literally make sales by themselves. Sound too good to be true? Let’s use an example.

You’re a footwear retailer. You make the decision to update your online store with higher-quality product photography, so you get every product photographed. Our studio, for example, charges $30 per image, and you need 4 angles, so you end up spending more than $100 per product. Stick with me.

Yeah, $100 per product sounds pricey, especially for a pair of shoes of all things. But let’s assume that most of your samples sell between $50 and $150. That means that even your most inexpensive product will pay for itself after 2 sales. Assume just one or two of your customers converts on the sale of each product because of your new product photography alone, that means that those photos have already paid for themselves.

And these are conservative estimates! The reality is that a large number of your customers instantly become more likely to make a purchase simply because of your updated photography.

Considering our research shows that about 80% of customers say quality photographs and multiple angles of the product were essential to make their purchase, photography will clearly pay for itself in no time.

2. Customers care more about quality than most people think

Let me throw something out there: shoppers in 2020 are picky.

More picky than they even know. In this fast-paced, visual digital age, consumers want the most stimulation and the highest quality possible. This idea transcends online stores, applying to everything from captivating headers to on-white product photography.

You ready for this? In our research, we have seen examples of sales DOUBLING after a store updates its product photography.

You read that right, doubled. When these stores ran the same products, at the same time of year, with the same curation, they watched sales increase more than they (and us) ever expected. Here at Elysian we know why photography is great, but we have to admit, this shocked us.

The moral of the story here is that these stores gave their customers higher quality imagery, close up details, and more angles of their products than they previously had. Because of that, a significant amount of customers were exponentially more comfortable with their purchasing decision, resulting in a spike in sales.

Needless to say, the investment in photography by those stores paid for itself overnight.

*Obviously, we cannot guarantee you will see your sales double, but we have seen it with many businesses before.*

3. You’re 44% more likely to be shared on social media

These days, every business can benefit from having active social media, and the most important part of creating an interesting and dynamic social media posting schedule is visual content.

When your content is shared on social media, that means more traffic to your website, which means more sales. Make people not only want to buy your products, make them want to share your visual content across social media with stunning professional-quality photography.

Your visual content is 44% more likely to be shared on social media if it is high-quality and eye-grabbing.

These days you can’t rely on customers stumbling on your website, and you definitely can’t depend on foot traffic into your store, so social media is the most efficient and cost-effective way to acquiring new customers. We all know how expensive new customers are to obtain, but organic social media sharing is 100% free. Your loyal customers will only feel the desire to share your visual content when it is worth sharing: beautiful, captivating, unseen enough to be worth showing their friends and family.

The money you will save by buying less advertisements, and the money you will get from the increase in sales due to organic social sharing, it all makes the idea of product photography a no-brainer.

4. Pivoting to a visual-dominant online business model is essential to succeed in 2020

Sure, everyone is saying that pivoting to an online store is essential because of the economic impact of Covid-19, but visual content is the most crucial part of that. Here’s why…

No one was expecting the Coronavirus, and no one expected the impact it would have on business. Because of that, the businesses that have survived have been those that have quickly and seamlessly transitioned to a more online business model.

And if we’ve seen one trend in modern online stores, it’s that businesses are prioritizing visual content.

So when you put that all together you get the idea that in order to thrive amidst a global pandemic, you need an imagery-driven online store. But how do you give your customers, people who know your brand based off the store they walk into, as close to that same experience as possible?

Shocker, it’s all about the visual content. Whether you’re photographing every angle and close up detail, or whether you’re providing shoppers with interactive 360° spins (the closest thing to touching a product), this is how you give shoppers the next best thing to walking into your store.

So as you make the difficult yet smart transition from a foot traffic-dominant store to an online store, think about whether or not you want to give your customers as close to that in-store experience as possible. Then ask: are you putting your best foot forward with visual content?

5. You’re more likely to show up in Google image search results (SEO)

Did you know that Google and other popular search engines prioritize websites with imagery complete with relevant metadata?

Believe it or not, many businesses generate a significant amount of traffic to their website through Google Image search.

Think about it: a potential customer searches for a product he or she is interested in, but may not know exactly what they want, so they browse all the styles that populate on Google Images to see what he or she might want. Boom! They see your awesome product and click it, taking them into your website.

If you didn’t have captivating imagery on your website, they may not have seen your product, but this type of traffic requires more than great imagery, it requires metadata.

Metadata is a boring word to describe the information that travels with an image. You never see that data, but it affects SEO, key-wording, and many other invaluable tools for generating traffic.

With metadata, you can name your files and include keywords relevent to the image, and those keywords are used by Google when it decides how and when to show consumers your content.

What all of this means is that when you pair informative data with your captivating images, those images will begin populating in so many more places across the internet. And every time someone clicks on one of those images, they are directed right into your store.

What do you think?

Do you agree with these reasons justifying the investment of product photography? Do you have anything to add that we might have missed? Let us know by commenting below.

If you enjoyed this post, check out our other blogs and please share across social media.