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Thursday, 11 December 2014

How Does Photo Gallery Benefit Conversions?

Imagery is the first thing about product that buyers want to see at any online store and strong imagery supports enhanced shopping experience, says Lauren Freedman, The E-tailing Group’s president. According to International Retail Conference Report:


  • 75% online buyers prefer image quality while making the buying decision.
  • 66% give weight age to alternative views of the product.
  • 61% look for zooming feature of the product.

What does it mean? An eCommerce store doesn't just need the product images, but the quality images to impress the buyers, to enhance engagement, and to increase conversions. A good collection of pictures of products and services offered at a store needs a well-managed photo gallery. Other than being attractive for the customers, a photo gallery should add value for the business.
Why an online store should have a photo gallery and how images could be made converting? Reading the lines below will help you in better understanding.

An Image Speaks A Thousand Words


Your web store might have perfect content, appealing the target audience, but if it lacks the power of picture illustration, you are at losing end. Images actually display how a product looks like. It’s a fact that images explain complicated things in an easy manner, compared to the words. And, it’s natural that human eye is first attracted to the images than words. Product images, displayed in a photo gallery, help building trust in the company.  

Photo Gallery Helps Marketing


A photo gallery, present at an eCommerce store, helps in enhanced search visibility. Optimized images appear in image search results. As images have less competition, so it won’t take enough time to appear among top image search results. What it will do? It will help attracting more visitors at the store, means more prospects, and more actual buyers. All this will support the higher conversions.
The point to remember is optimizing the images for search engines because the crawlers don’t index images the way they do for text. Use keywords in the title and tags of the images. Text can be used in the caption and alt-text to help search engines in crawling and indexing.

 Photo Gallery and Website Conversions


If an ecommerce store has an eye-catching photo gallery, it will attract more visitors. A visual impression would be strong enough to invite buyers and compel them to make a purchase. Product images, displayed in the photo gallery, increase confidence of the buyers, and support their quick buying decision.  

How to Make Images Converting?


Now come to the point, how images in the photo gallery could be made highly converting? Here are given simple rules for online business owners.

  • Every image in the photo gallery should be tied up with a product or service, offered by the store.
  • The images should be customized for the target audience. Do consider the gender and age of the audience while picking the images, because human eye has different tracking habits.
  • All the images should be of high quality. Avoid using poor quality stock photos to include in image gallery. A good quality image means the product is of high quality, helping high conversions.
  • Feature happy customers in your product images. Better to show real people because it will create social validation for your online Magneto store.
  • Use emotions in the images to compel buyers for conversion. The best example is that of the tech security companies, using images showing threats or fear.
  • Show images that reveal the product in detail. Providing customers with multiple views of the products can help increasing the conversion rate.
  • Avoid images that are confusing or difficult to understand because they will leave a negative impression on the buyers. Simple images help more conversions.

By considering the above-mentioned points, you can improve the conversion rate of your eCommerce store.
Do you have Magento gallery extension at your online store? If not, get it installed by using a simple photo gallery extension. Better display of product photos means attracting more prospects, and helping more conversions.

What’s your experience of using photo gallery at your eCommerce site? Share in the comments below! 
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Wednesday, 10 December 2014

How To Optimize The Product Page To Increase Ecommerce Sales?


Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc., realized that a product is not enough to bring in customers, but the experience around the product is a real appeal, so Apple redesigned all of its stores, investing $10 million/store. What was the result? $4551 per square foot increase in sales. The strategy made Apple the best retailer in US.
Considering the experience of Apple, the demand of web world is also somewhat similar. A perfectly designed website, providing enhanced shopping experience, supports piling up conversions. The worst thing seen at ecommerce stores is ignoring the product pages. Storeowners invest a lot in launching and promoting new products, but ignore presenting them effectively. This post will tell the storeowners about how to improve the product pages, resulting in increased conversion rate.
Use Image Power Of Products
Product images are the first thing 67% buyers notice while shopping online. Improve the image gallery presentation to make them converting. For that, consider the following things:
Hire expert photographer to take images of the products. Images should be realistic to impress the prospects.
Think about high resolution images. Not just because these are in trend, but also because these are highly converting. If there is a space issue, allow zooming feature.
Use multiple images for a product, showing close-ups. The images should be of real people using your products. If the products have multiple sizes, styles, and colors, allow images to dynamically change so as to let buyers have a clear view of each option.
Write Persuasive Technical Descriptions
It’s not just about product images to make product pages compelling, but the technical copy should also be persuasive for the desired action. Create a situation or a story revolving around your product and tell consumers how much benefits your product may offer. The technical copy should be written while considering the target audience’s interests. The language used in the product description should also resonate with the target audience.
For example, both Amazon and Apple sell tablets; however, the strategy of both is different. Apple goes creative and builds stories around its products, whereas, Amazon goes practical so shares the benefits of using its products. Both are gaining benefits out of their specific approach.
Make CTA Button Standing Out
Call to action button should be simple, yet compelling for the buyers to click at. Make it easily findable. Using complex images, links, and UI elements will add confusion for the buyers. The size of the CTA should be large for a quick glimpse and colors used should be contrasting against the ones used at the site. If there is a secondary CTA button as well (add to cart), place that below the primary CTA. Avoid mislabeling the CTA buttons like if it’s directing towards cart, mention that clearly and if it’s leading to checkout page, use the words of Buy Now. All these things about call to action button will surely help increasing the conversion rate of your ecommerce store.
Garnish With Product Reviews And Ratings
Let the buyers know how much satisfying your products are among the customers. Get realistic product reviews from the customers and allow them to rate your products as well. Both these things will support enhanced conversions. According to a research, conversion rate of ecommerce stores having product reviews is 12.5% higher than those lacking them. For a single product, conversion rate increases by 35.27% after having reviews. The count of reviews also matters a lot. 20 plus product reviews increase conversion rate by 83.85%.
At Amazon, the rating stars are present below the product title. There is a special page section, purely for product reviews. The customers are also encouraged to rate the most helpful product reviews. Better to get real product reviews from real people, it will increase the authenticity of your web store. Include good as well as the bad product reviews. Another approach being followed is using Facebook comments as product reviews because each review is connected to a Facebook profile.
Mention Any Guarantees And Warrantees
If you offer any guarantees or warrantees, mention clearly at the product page. Buyers are keen to know the shipping time before making the final deal. If you have separate shipping charges, mention along with the product price, instead of letting customers reach the checkout page and know about the shipping cost. The later situation may cause cart abandonment.
Product warranty and return policy, if clearly mentioned, will remove any worries of the buyers because they know they could return the product if it’s damaged or broken. It will also help building trust with the customers. It’s another tactic to improve conversions.
It’s not tough to create a new product page and publish that, but it requires efforts to make that conversion-friendly. Hire experts to design and optimize the product page for more conversions, more sales, and more revenue.

Is this post helpful to optimize the product pages of your ecommerce store? Share your views! 
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