How Important Is Product Photography?

In every business there are trade-offs. Understanding product photography pricing, then deciding what you want to spend of your often limited budget can a difficult decision when you’re just starting out. There’s no magic formula and tactics that work for one business might not work for you, and vice versa.

It would be great if there was a clear definition of how much product photography is worth and how much you should spend on it. The truth is that the decision is subjective and all about what resources you have, what your goals are and ultimately what will help you best sell your products.

Lets take a closer look at the considerations around product photography pricing to help make your decisions easier. Here’s what we’ve found:

1. We know that product photos are important, but just how important are they? We love stats, so we ran a survey of eCommerce shoppers to find out just how important photography is to their purchasing decisions. You can read more about the results here, but the main takeaway was that over 75% of respondents rated product photos as very influential when they’re deciding whether they want to buy a product online.
2. 22% of online product returns are because an “item looks different than the photos.” We love a good lifestyle photoshoot — but it’s important to remember that representing your product accurately will save you money and time. No one wants to deal with returns and unhappy customers. Even if you’re showing your product in its best light, make sure your photos accurately represent what you’re selling.
3. Professional product photographers can range from $75-$150 an hour, or from around $60 a product for small batches, typically with add-ons increasing cost. They’re expensive, but if you have multiple products you can batch together, the price goes down.
4. 76% of product photos are on white backgrounds. Let’s call this the “Amazon effect.” That means if you’re looking to build a unique brand, there’s room to use bright colors, prints, or lifestyle settings to help display your products in an attractive and exciting setting. Just remember, if you want to sell on marketplaces, white’s unavoidable. If you’re getting creative, don’t forget number 2 on this list.
5. Visual content is more than 40 times likely to get shared across social media than other content. If you want your product to go viral (for the right reasons…) quality photos are key. People emotionally react to visual cues. According to the somatic marker hypothesis, when a consumer sees a photo of a product they want to buy, they don’t process every single bit of information on which they base their purchase decision.

So product photography is important! But what type of photos should you invest in? We’ve broken down the different types of images to help you understand what’s best for your business, how to make your products stand out from the crowd and ultimately help drive sales.