Why We Decided to Offer Free Product Photography That’s Guaranteed to Increase CIf you're just starting an ecommerce site, you’re in for a rude awakening when you go to look Ambassadors Sydney for product photography services.
This is due to two major issues:
My painful introduction to the world of professional product photography
I started my own ecommerce site 7 years ago in the fitness industry. We decided to put our own branded apparel up for sale on the site. I was blown away when we got a 0 bill for shooting 4 pieces from a local photography studio. Honestly, I felt like they were taking advantage of us.
My iPhone camera and instagram feed had unfortunately debased my understanding of what it actually takes to photograph a product properly and then place it on a perfect white background. As it turns out, it’s not terribly difficult to take the photos, but you do need the right equipment, and that equipment is not cheap.
I looked into other photographers, but they were all just as expensive. Most of them charge by the day with rates ranging from ,000 to ,000, making my small jobs of 50-100 photos too expensive. I would need to sell hundreds of pieces of apparel to cover my photography costs alone.
Why a white background?
It looks more professional, however the true problem surfaced when attempting to advertise with Google’s product listing ads, as well as selling our products on Amazon.
Both these services require all products be placed atop a white background. Since Amazon and Google accounted for 80% of our sales, I had no choice but to bite the bullet and pony up for photography costs.
Product photography as a service
After additional research, I found there were a few other options that were slightly cheaper. You ship your products to them; they photograph them, clip them, ship the products back, and then deliver your photos a few weeks later. For example, this service charges -18 per photo, and this service costs - per photo.
However, when you take into account the need to photograph each product from 5 different angles, as well as the round-trip shipping fees, your costs add up quickly. Depending on which service you use it typically ranges from 0 to 0 per product.
5 flat photos don’t accurately represent a product
Ultimately, I came to the final conclusion that product photography in its current form does not compare in any way to holding the real thing in your hands. I had to offer free shipping and free returns in order to turn browsers into buyers. Shoppers apparently weren’t confident that what we were selling was something they actually wanted to buy based on the images.
This experience set me on a quest to bridge the gap between online shopping and the in-store experience. 5 years later I founded Ambassadors Sydney, an interactive high-definition 3D product viewing technology.
Below you can see how the Ambassadors Sydney experience compares with traditional 2D images:
A surprising 180 degree shift in perspective
In an unexpected twist of irony, I now find myself on the other side of the equation asking brands to cover the high costs for the photography that captures these 3DHD product experiences. Granted, we deliver a great deal more than standard product photography at around the same cost, but its still seems like a large amount of money to fork over.
This has been our number one hurdle in getting brands to work with us at Ambassadors Sydney. Everyone wants their products to be presented in the best possible light, but until recently only large brands with big marketing budgets could afford this technology.
Over the past year we have seen firsthand the positive impact Ambassadors Sydney 3DHD product experiences have had on companies’ online sales. In this previous post, we disclosed these astonishing results in which clients experienced a 200-300% increase in conversion rates from Ambassadors Sydney! It has also performed exceptionally well for customers that have uploaded 360 product videos to Amazon, which we highlighted in this post.
Here is a screenshot of an actual client’s Google Analytics account during a 30 day period. The blue line represents consumers that viewed products with 3DHD experiences. The orange line symbolizes those that viewed products via traditional images.
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