What Is A Product Image?

A product image is a photograph of the product you are selling.

Businesses utilize these product photos to market their items through posters, advertisements, eCommerce websites, and other platforms.

Because online shoppers make an instant value judgment based on the appearance and aesthetics of your offer, product images aim to draw customers and leave a positive impression of the goods.

However, it still emphasizes a need for high-quality images that accurately portray your product range.

What Are Product Image Types?

Different types of product images can be used to showcase your product, depending on the message you want to send to your customers.

‍1. The main Image or Product only image is a single shot of a product. In contrast, the Group image is the shot of several products grouped in one shot, convenient for showing various colors or options available.

2. A detail Shot or 360 shot is a great way to show different features or characteristics of the product, enabling customers to zoom in.

3. Packshot or Packaging shot includes the image of the packaging, mainly if it is unique or a valuable part of the product.

4. Process and Lifestyle images show how to use the product and how it fits everyday life situations.

5. Scale shots serve the purpose of showing the dimensions of a product compared to other objects. 

Why Is Image Size Important?

A good product image influences buyers to purchase the product. What's more, it adds value to the product description by complementing it.

But, what is an image size actually?

It refers to image pixel dimensions (width and height in pixels, for example, 852 x 852) or the image file size (KB or MB), which simply means how big or small the image will look on the website.

Different eCommerce websites have additional requirements, we will discuss them below.

The important thing to remember is that even if you are tempted to put the largest, most professional photo, it can cause just the opposite effect.

Firstly, it can slow down the website. The most common cause of website slowness is a large number of unoptimized images. While loading, high-resolution images can consume a lot of bandwidth.

Your objective should be to keep your images below 100Kb in size.

The smaller the size of your image, the faster it will load, resulting in a lower bounce rate and more satisfied customers.

And on the contrary, using low-resolution images with poor quality will look cheap and unprofessional.

Moreover, since most people use mobile phones for surfing and online purchases, if the image is not optimized for mobile devices and in low resolution, it will cause a blurry and low detailed image.

Which File Type Is Best For Your Image

Now that you have that clear, which file type to choose, PNG, JPEG, or GIF?

Maybe HEIC, WEBP, or TIFF?

1. JPEGs are great for portrait photography, landscapes, and product images, especially images with many colors. This ensures that when you compress your lifelike images with many different colors, they do not lose color or look flat or grainy.

   
   JPG preserves the vibrancy of colors, and its size is adjustable.

   
   

2. PNGs are better for images that put quality over file size. A PNG image is usually larger than a JPEG image of the same image. When you want to include graphics like illustrations, logos, charts, or graphs, you should use a PNG.
   
   When compressing a PNG, images with low color counts, text, and straight or curved lines perform best. This is because PNG maintains the integrity of lines.

3. GIF is a lightweight file used for simple animated images. It is useful for 360-degree shots or quick tutorials.

   
   

4. HEIC files are a format that uses advanced compressive technology to take up roughly half the space of an equivalent JPEG file. It is Apple's standard file format and it is commonly used to store photos on iOS devices.

   
   

5. WebP is a newer image format that provides improved compression for images on the web, saving over 30% in file size compared to conventional file formats such as PNG and JPEG.

   
   

6. TIFF is a lossless compression format widely used in editing and web applications. It has a high resolution and allows you to save multiple images and pages in a single file. However, the file size is typically large.

What Is The Best Image Size and Format For ECommerce?

Let's look into the recommended image dimensions, optimization tips, and how to make images suitable for users with all types of devices. Also, let’s see how well-placed visuals can help draw more conversions to your store on Shopify, Amazon, or WooCommerce.

1. Shopify

The importance of image style, image effect on page load times, zooming functionality, and Shopify mobile optimization cannot be overstated.

1. The main Shopify product image size should be 2048 x 2048 px for square images.

The smallest resolution at which customers can still zoom in on product images is 800 x 800 pixels.

However, at the recommended size of 2048 x 2048 px, they will do so without sacrificing significant quality, allowing shoppers to see the finer details of your product.

Smaller images look better on mobile devices, and product photos larger than 4472 x 4472 px is automatically sized down.

Any product may have up to 250 images, and images can be in .png, .gif, or .jpg format. 

Aside from the main product image, Shopify provides numerous opportunities to highlight your brand with visuals.

2. Shopify collection is a grouping of products categorized to make your customers browse all products within a particular category quicker. The ideal image size for the Shopify collection is 1024 x 1024 px.

Collection images cannot be larger than 4472 x 4472 px or smaller than 800 x 800 px.

It is not only the image size that is important – you must also be consistent.

When site visitors scroll, images with the same dimensions and aspect ratios will naturally appear next to each other. For that, square images work best.

3. Shopify slideshow image should be 1200 px to 2000 px in width and 400 px to 600 px in height.

Make sure the subject of your shots is in the center of the frame.

Because mobile and desktop devices crop them differently, the sides may be cropped.

The more similar your images appear, the better the design.

Align all of your slide images to be the same size or ratio.

As shown in the table above, these are other Shopify image types and recommended sizes for ideal optimization.

2. WooCommerce

To drive sales and increase revenue, store owners need to develop innovative ways to optimize WooCommerce product images.

To determine the best image size for your WooCommerce store, consider the store user interface, the WooCommerce theme, and the store's image zoom plugin.

Most often, the minimum resolution for your WooCommerce product images should be 800px x 800px.

The recommended resolution should not exceed 1000px x 1000px.

However, these dimensions are appropriate for standard products, whereas complicated and detailed products may necessitate larger images.

Customers will most likely be able to zoom in on even minor details if the resolution is above 2000 pixels.

Unlike Shopify, which has an easy setup guide, WooCommerce is a bit more complicated.

But, you can use WooThumbs for WooCommerce, which allows you to change or resize your WooCommerce image sizes on the single product page.

3. Amazon

Being the biggest eCommerce platform worldwide, Amazon offers straightforward guidelines that are easy to follow.

This platform will not accept your images if you don't meet image guidelines and related technical requirements.

You may add up to eight supporting product photographs and one main product image in your preferred order on Amazon listings.

The ideal size should be at least 1000 pixels wide or tall and 1600 pixels on the longest side.

You can upload JPEG, PNG, GIF, or TIFF files, but JPEG is still the most popular choice.

One thing that makes Amazon recognizable is the pure white background, which is mandatory for all store owners.

4. Etsy

Etsy is an online market specialized in selling vintage art, handmade goods, and crafts.

When uploading images to your Etsy shop, you should follow their guidelines:

• This platform only accepts JPG, GIF, or PNG file types.

• Transparent PNG and animated GIF files are not supported. 

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An image containing transparent parts will appear black.

For optimal results, Etsy requires users to meet the following image recommendations:

To make your images convert, keep these recommendations in mind:

• A listing's first image should either be horizontal (landscape) or square. It will make the image's central focus visible in the cropped thumbnail views.

  
  

• Try to use the same shape for the first and all subsequent photographs. It is easier to browse when all listing photographs are uploaded using the same image format.

  
  

• When uploading Listing image thumbnails, ensure you have enough of a border so you don’t lose vital parts of the image when you crop it. Use an aspect ratio of 4:3.

Tips On How To Convert Sales and Receive More Clicks Using Images

1. Use a good image editor

If your product must be on a clean white background, you know how important it is to have a reliable Background remover tool.

Glorify can save you time and make editing fail-proof within minutes. You can pick any template from the glorify templates library which is easy to customize.

1.1. After logging in, and choosing the desired template, simply click the image element you want to edit.

In the top left corner, additional options are available for more detailed alterations.

2. Be consistent throughout different formats

 If you wish to switch between platforms but have difficulty keeping up with different image requirements, Smart resize is the tool for you.

How to use it?

2.1. Click the Browse sizes at the right side of the page.

You can easily see the current photo's size and manually enter the desired resolution.

2.2. Or, from the drop-down menu, select one of the Template bundles. From social media, marketing, and eCommerce platforms, the Smart resize tool got you covered.

2.3. Finally, click Resize design. You can further edit, save, share, or download it.

3. Choose your colors carefully 

Make sure to give your product the attention it deserves when you advertise it.

To make your image aesthetically pleasing:

• Avoid using a bold or bright background that will overshadow your product.

  
  

• Do not make the various components of your advertisement compete with one another. Instead, focus on what you want people to notice.

• Use colors that compliment or contrast each other. 

  
  

3.1. On the left panel, click Color Palettes.

3.2. These premade combinations come in dozen of color variations that indeed go well together.

3.3. Every combination offers multiple possibilities for further enhancing the image.

To Sum It Up

Whatever eCommerce platform you choose, never undervalue the importance of product image optimization.

Although the brand name, product title, and description are important, improving your photographs can drastically increase your conversions.

As you know, a picture is truly worth a thousand words. That is why you need to be sure that your product images allow customers to visualize using your product while giving them all the vital information.

Start your free trial today, fully explore Glorify's capabilities, and discover its beautiful advantages for creating captivating images.