Product Images - Are they really that important?

"A picture is worth a thousand words". We all have heard that before but let's be honest, a person would much rather see a picture than read a thousand words. It's no surprise in a world where digital technology is king, companies are constantly competing for your customers attention (Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok) leaving you with a matter of seconds to lock and engage with your target audience before they lose interest and continue browsing. When it comes to Amazon, most customers begin their search with a keyword. The search results then populate with hundreds (sometimes thousands) of relevant results. If you and your competitor are selling similar products, how do you ensure the customer picks you over them? What if they have more social-proof (reviews) and a better price (cheapest)? The only chance you have is with an enticing image that grabs your customers attention because it connected with them. Great! Now that you have got their attention you need to convert that looker into a buyer (close). Once your prospect is on your detail page, the selling/closing starts. Your next 6 images should address questions such as, why your product is better than your competitor (think comparison chart), Lifestyle images (make an emotional connection), Tips on how to get the most of your product (recipes, cleaning instructions, anything to add value). In short, images give us instant information and the truth is humans are visual by nature. We have a tenancy to put a higher perceived value on an item just by the way it looks. This "Judging a book by it's cover" mentality should make you 2nd think your marketing strategy with photography.

Take this Unrefined Shea Butter for example. The packaging is simple, yet neat. The shea butter is out of it's packaging "showcasing" it's contents. Which helps properly educate the potential buyer on what he/she is receiving. Overall, this seller does a great job of displaying his product for the online world to see.

This next seller, selling the same raw shea butter, seems to have skipped the effort of packaging and photography. Both item's received great reviews on quality, and they are both comparable in price, however, the first shea butter outsells the 2nd shea butter 100x to 1x. Do your brand a favor and be Shea butter #1 and not Shea butter #2.