Companies that sell physical products online allow their customers to virtually window shop—that is, allow them the opportunity to see items beautifully displayed without having the opportunity to interact with them in real life. To encourage the same purchase intent as an in-store experience, brands must incorporate product storytelling using the design and layout of their Shopify websites, or other e-comm platforms. Here are seven ways to beautifully display products online that encourage visitors to buy.
Professional product photography. Well lit, styled, and high-resolution images are the foundation for online product merchandising. Displaying products in settings where buyers can see themselves using them can do much to convince a person to make a purchase. Once these are captured, they can be used in a variety of ways throughout the company website.
Hero Images. Hero images, a large billboard style image at the top of the home page, prominently tells a products story. Just as a Fifth Avenue shop window attracts passerbys so that they stop and go into a store to explore, hero images featuring product sliders, action scenes with the products, or items on sale can encourage online buyers to stay on the page and browse product options.
Product Galleries. Retailers with a variety of product options can incorporate a product gallery that automatically or manually advances to allow visitors to see all that is available. To enhance engagement on these, the gallery can include zoom buttons for viewing enlarged images with product details and escape buttons so that viewers can minimize and move on to the next image or website action.
Shop Images. While some sites only display products in a portfolio, sites with full ecommerce functionality should incorporate good photography on product landing pages. Typically, the home page of an ecommerce site will include a hero image or slider and a shop grid immediately beneath it that displays product categories or shoppable products.
Blog Images. Blog images provide another opportunity for retailers to beautifully display their products. Pete’s Living Greens does this impeccably by blogging recipes that use their live herbs. The featured images on these posts are enticing, boost engagement and encourage a purchase. Another bonus is that blog images are Pinterest-friendly, which will allow a company to share their posts to the platform as part of their traffic and sales strategy.
Video. Video takes product display up a notch. They increase a customer’s knowledge of products 74% and the likelihood of a product purchase by 64% over still pictures. Videos can be incorporated as explainer videos or simply capturing the products in use, much how they are done in commercials. These can be displayed on the home page, as a feature of a landing page or in a blog post. Northshore Living does this on their home page boosting product storytelling when visitors scroll down for more information.
Minimal, yet valuable text. Studies show that sometimes when there are only product images, users may become overwhelmed on an ecommerce site. To balance out whitespace, hero images and product galleries, companies can leverage meaningful text to share features and benefits in product descriptions or for sales copy and brand storytelling much like our aforementioned examples.
As online shopping increases in popularity, companies should use every opportunity to beautifully display their products and encourage website visitors to make a purchase. For support in building an engaging website, contact us today.
Photos by Katherine Chase and Gyorgy Bakos on Unsplash.