As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. And it couldn’t be more true for anyone selling products online. Online merchants are often challenged by a consumer’s inability to physically handle the product—to touch, to feel, to turn the product around and look it over in person—before deciding to make a purchase. It’s one advantage traditional brick and mortar establishments continue to hold over e-commerce. To help close the gap, be sure to use product images that show the product in its best light and that highlight its best features. Use only professional, high quality images. Make them big, make them zoom-able and show the details. Offer views from different angles and show any alternative variations. It can also help to show the product in context to demonstrate size, how it’s used, or to help your customers imagining themselves using it.
Add a directional cue or arrow
A strong hierarchy is important to any goal-driven webpage design. While there are many ways to develop a strong hierarchy, directional cues are a great way to help you reinforce it. Directional cues are visual elements that direct visitors’ attention to certain areas of your page. They can be explicit, like lines or arrows that point in the direction of your goal—or suggestive, like a photo of a person gazing, pointing or making a gesture toward your goal. Experiment with different ways to direct visitors toward your goal.
Provide sufficient information
About 50% of purchases are not completed due to lack of information. There’s a reason why wildly successful online merchants like Zappos dedicate a huge amount of time to photographing every product from every imaginable angle, and even shooting video of their products. Ever gone to a brick and mortar store to check out a product before making the purchase online? We like to be able to see the item, hold it, flip it around, read the box, maybe talk to a salesperson about it or even try it out before we’re sold. We like to see and know exactly what we’re getting. And the product’s monetary value usually plays a role in how much information we require. How big is the potential loss if the product doesn’t work out? The bigger the risk, the more research you can bet will be done before a decision is made.