Trigger emotion and create purchase confidence
Around 80% of the UK population are now buying products online, they are spending around four days every week researching products online and expect engaging online shopping experiences. Yet despite the size of the market, the number of abandoned shopping carts suggests retailers can do significantly more to tap into consumer desires.
For us, the fundamentals are clear. It’s about helping brands find new ways to do what they do best – creating aspiration, desire and confidence in their products.
Time and again, we see just how important visuals are in getting customers to engage with products and feel confident enough to move forward with a purchase. And while identifying the minutiae of ecommerce photography makes us seem a little pernickety, attention to detail is how we excel. As a leading independent digital experience design agency, we take the guesswork out of how to create a better experience. We actually test and refine and drive creative and commerce performance through insight, data and customer validation. If you’re not doing this, you're just guessing and that can be costly.
Whether you’re using paintbrushes or pixels, a picture really does paint a thousand words. There’s science to prove it too. It’s called the picture superiority effect and it means that images are more memorable than words.
In the fight for the 62% of consumers who start their shopping journey online, getting customers to click to buy isn’t quite as simple as making your models strike a pose that they’ll remember.
With more than 40% of consumers continuing cut back on non-essentials and 59% specifically cutting back on clothes, it’s the brands that let their photography do the talking who are more likely to convert browsers to buyers.
And we should know. Because with nearly two decades of hands-on ecommerce photography experience (and skills), we’ve helped high street favourites and global brands speak to their customers through creative commercial imagery.
Developing more than 1,000 images each week from our in-house studio keeps us pretty busy. When we’re not shooting and snapping, we like to get to grips with the whys and wherefores of what works and what doesn’t (because we’re curious like that).
It’s given us unique insight into shopper mindsets and customer journeys that make us better creators. But what use is knowledge unless it’s shared – here’s what we’ve learned.
What shoppers want
Omnichannel shopping gives consumers choice – a benefit they’re willing to flex. Less than half of shoppers who start their journeys online end up buying digitally and the average basket abandon rate for retail is now 70%. And while price is a factor in decision making, it doesn't always override the desire to buy (just 18% switch brands to save money).
Faced with indecision, retailers must appeal to consumers on a subconscious level. Taking away the ability to touch and try means photography must try to recreate the emotional and sensory in-store experience, giving consumers the confidence and impetus to buy.
Studies show that when businesses get it right on an emotional level, sales can increase threefold. Our own research also shows that while facts like price and size availability are important, it’s product imagery that draws shoppers in and keeps them engaged.
To give you a better idea of what affects buying decisions, we identified five core themes from our insight and optimisation teams that repeatedly crop up in our customer shopping studies.
Image clarity
Interestingly we have found through our testing and experimentation team, that customers have a higher click through rate initially when presented with cut-out product images rather than those featured on models. Our tests have shown that leading with a model shot on product listing pages can actually decrease click through to the product details page by 11%. Interaction with navigation filters also increases when presented with a model shot first (by 6% on mobile and 15% on desktop), perhaps suggesting that model-led shots are not providing enough clarity to make decisions in the first instance.
Interestingly, although lighting ranks relatively low on consumer priorities, it’s closely linked to perceptions of trust and quality, suggesting this appeals on a deeper subconscious level. As such our testing has shown customers engage more when images are photographed in natural light, natural poses, producing minimal shadow. May sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many miss the basics.
Image choice
Consumers expect multiple images photographed from different angles, often including 360° shots on products such as Furniture/big ticket items, close-ups to show details and model images for fit. To complement this, customers do expect to have superzoom functionality. If customers can’t see images clearly, it can affects exit rates by up to 3% – fine margins but the difference between making a sale or not.
Clarity and quality can also be affected by format and compression, which brands need to consider in relation to site loading time and how this might impact consumer experiences.
Identity and styling
Online shoppers want to see themselves reflected in imagery and expect a variety of body types and ethnicities to be represented. Diversity is so ingrained in consumer expectations, that not providing it can actively discourage sales and damage brand perception.
Younger customers especially expect images to be relatable to demonstrate you understand them. Tapping into lifestyle aspirations, model choice, hair and makeup all play a role in creating audience relevance and images that show a complete outfit are particularly appreciated. Customers are looking for guidance and inspiration as part of their decision making process and an overarching theme we found was that inconsistencies (for example, in lighting or styling) negatively impact brand perception and quality.
Realism and sensory appeal
Touching products triggers a greater emotional response compared to just looking, studies show. We’d recommend that brands simulate these tactile experiences by helping to demonstrate fit, fabric and garment movement through video and high-resolution close-ups of texture. Again and again, we have seen improved click throughs to basket when retailers understand the impact of investing here.
Complementing images with detailed product descriptions, including model height, size and garment measurements all help customers ‘examine’ the product and visualise how an item might look on them.
In the absence of being able to try clothes on, shoppers have to rely on model poses and expressions to gauge how an item might make them feel. Our focus group discussions revealed customers were more likely to interact with a product if models appeared relaxed, natural and happy – particularly for active and casualwear (because nobody wants to be miserable in their spare time).
How we implement emotion through commercial photography
Identifying these themes through measuring the impact, means we’ve been able to use technology, alongside our photographic skills, to adapt and respond to increasing customer expectations.
An early success which is driving conversion and reducing returns has been magboard photography. It combines the need for static cut-outs and sensory experiences by making garments more lifelike with greater depth and realism. We’ve had great success in this area for George@Asda and we’re able to deliver greater efficiencies too.
Instead of using a mannequin, products are styled on a board using powerful magnets. This allows us to showcase the natural silhouette and contours of a garment, giving emphasis to fabric texture, depth and movement through how it folds or wraps.
We’re also focussing on augmented reality (AR) and how this can help brands connect with consumers. Done right, it can increase the likelihood of a sale by nearly 20%, according to the Harvard Business Review.
Not only that, AR helps reassure consumers when it comes to buying from a brand they’ve never tried, or a new product from somewhere they already shop. Excitingly, AR could bridge the confidence gap between triggering an emotional response to a product and guiding consumers over the finish line to complete the sale.
So far, our own experiments with AR have shown a light-touch approach works best. Overwhelm customers and you’re more likely to see them click exit than buy.
If you’ve got questions and want to hear more about how we can help you connect with consumers through commercial creativity, drop us a line using the link below, and we’ll bring you the answers.