“The eCommerce industry is a force that no investor can afford to ignore.”
Considering how eCommerce has taken over the retail industry by storm, the above statement couldn’t be more true. Today, online shopping portals dominate a large section of the market in almost all industries, and we have stats to prove it.
According to eMarketer, “following a 25.7% surge in 2020, to $4.213 trillion, we expect retail eCommerce sales worldwide to climb a further 16.8% this year, to $4.921 trillion.”
Well, that’s about the growth of eCommerce, but the real questions are:
- How do retailers do it?
- How do they attract customers?
- How do they keep up with customers’ expectations and requirements?
- What strategies do online businesses adopt?
And so on.
Though these questions might have multiple answers, but one thing that remains uniform, relevant, and prominent across all industries is photo retouching for eCommerce business. Online businesses heavily rely on product images because customers assess the value and features of a product through its images. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that photos speak for themselves, and have no better substitutes in terms of reliability.
Now the question is, “is it necessary to edit or retouch your photographs before you upload them on your eCommerce store?”, and the answer is yes. If your product pictures aren’t appealing, clear, or accurate enough to attract customers, then you are probably missing out on both sales and profits. On that note, let’s start with the basics.
What is Photo Retouching?
In simple terms, photo retouching is the process of altering an image to prepare it for the final presentation. It involves getting rid of imperfections/blemishes/spots, color correction, or adjusting brightness/contrast/saturation. Besides this, photo retouching experts remove elements from the background or add elements that initially weren’t in the photo – based on your requirements.
For more clarity, let’s have a look at the below image:
As it can be clearly seen, the image on the right looks eye-catching, clear, and attractive in comparison to the one on the left. This is what photo retouching does – it enhances your product without losing its authenticity.
Why is Photo Retouching Essential for Your eCommerce Store?
When it comes to running an eCommerce store, you have to constantly work on attracting new customers or keeping up the existing ones, and informing the audience about your brand. However, when you provide high-quality, appealing product pictures to your customers, half of your job is already done.
- 67% of consumers say that the quality of a product image is “very important” in selecting and purchasing the product.
- Low-quality images make a bad impression of your eCommerce site.
- Poorly captured or lit images may transmit a wrong message to the buyers.
A well-defined image, on the other hand, provides customers with visual product descriptions – ones that are compelling and persuasive enough to help customers make the buying decision. Highlighting your product images and encouraging shoppers to see, explore, and buy is the ultimate goal of every online business, and that’s one of the most significant reasons why photo retouching is essential.
When you have well-edited or enhanced photos on your eCommerce portal, you open up new opportunities to grow – both financially and non-financially. What we mean is you not only earn in terms of money but customers, reputation, and identity as well. In addition to this, photo retouching for eCommerce business brings in multiple benefits – some of which have been discussed below. Let’s have a look:
Benefits of Photo Editing And Retouching for your eCommerce Business
1. Polished and Professional Photos
As an online retailer, you have a lot on your table, which usually might leave less or no time for photo editing. You might resort to the easy way of image publishing, i.e. capture, upload, and wait for sales without retouching the images. However, there are high chances that customers might not buy from you since the quality of your pictures is not up-to-the-mark. Badly lit, unprofessional dull, or unclear product images are less likely to draw customers. On the other hand, photo editing services can polish your images by either fixing the lighting, adjusting the colors, setting the saturation level, or removing the background. The result is professional, attractive, and bright product images that encourage your target audience to make a purchase. Photo retouching experts add depth, appeal, and life to your images to create a better customer journey.
2. Develop Customer Trust
We have always heard people say pictures speak louder than words. Well, that’s true, at least when it comes to eCommerce. No matter how well-written and enticing your product descriptions are, a well-edited picture is always more powerful than text. This is perhaps because customers find pictures authentic, valuable, and of course attractive over text or paragraphs.
When you outsource photo retouching services to specialists, they create accurate, detailed images which, in turn, adds credibility to your products and ultimately arouses trust among your customers regarding your brand as well as products. This strengthens your brand image, brings you returning customers, and expands your overall customer base.
3. Social Media Promotion
Promoting your products on social media is yet another factor that supports the fact why photo retouching is essential. Besides your website, you might also use social media channels such as Facebook or Instagram to promote your products. Retouched and edited photos come handy in such cases. When you post high-definition, alluring product images across social media channels, you give your customers and prospects a reason to choose you. Good product editing can considerably spice up your promotional campaigns on social media and help people identify and connect with your brand as well as products seamlessly.
4. Brand Recognition
You might already be getting your photos edited or retouched, but the way in which you get it done can be exclusive. Numerous brands display exquisite photos on their website following similar saturation or patterns to leave a long-lasting impression on their buyers. Fortunately, photo editing services specialists can perform image customizations that resonate with your brand. Resultantly, customers can easily recognize your brand from the images you provide thereby facilitating brand recognition.
5. Enhanced Sales
Several businesses make the mistake of providing blurry or unclear images, which instigates their audience to look out for alternatives. Such a scenario has adverse impacts in terms of sales, trust, brand identity, and conversions. Nevertheless, businesses can save themselves from landing in this pit by choosing photo retouching for eCommerce business. Well-edited displays of your products’ features and merits in an attractive way thereby convincing customers to choose you over your competitors.
It’s a well-known fact, people believe what they see, and eCommerce product photos are no different. The more visually appealing photos you put on your online store, the higher are your chances of winning at sales.
Well, the benefits of photo retouching aren’t limited to these five; however, these are the top five. You can avail immense advantages by outsourcing your image editing needs to an expert photo editing services provider. But before you hire one, consider a few things – as discussed below.
Things to Look Out in a Professional Photo Retouching Service Provider
As discussed, product images play a pivotal role in your eCommerce business, which is why it is absolutely essential to choose a partner who can provide you with exceptional photos. Make sure they have:
- An experienced, adept team of photo editors and designers
- Relevant industry experience
- Access to the latest photo editing tools and software
- Proven methodologies
- Privacy and security
- Quick turnaround time
- 100% satisfaction
In addition to this, as a part of photo retouching for eCommerce business, they must provide an extensive range of editing services, including:
- Photo restoration
- Photo colorization
- Makeup retouching
- Skin retouching
- De-wrinkling
- Image masking
- Dust spotting
- Color correction
- Digital Photo enhancement services
- Photoshop retouching
- Background removal
- Clipping path
- Crease/glare removal
What’s Next?
Find, connect and outsource photo retouching services to a renowned partner with relevant experience, expertise, and resources. Intensify your eCommerce business with a set of professional product images to hook and captivate your audience for exceptional outcomes and desired results.