Do you have a product-based business? If you do then you might have a store for your products to showcase as well. A store, showroom, shop whatever you have, hear me out, you are getting the least audience and clients. You can grab way more customers by creating an e-commerce website. It’s not enough for a business though. It’s also necessary to do photo post-processing in online business.
Any product-based website needs to have a website that can reach a global audience. Once you reach the global platform, it means you get way more clients and potential clients than average. The first thing you need is a website. The second thing you will need is good product photos. But do you think only photos are enough for the website? Neh. A website not only needs photos it needs quality photos that can actually make the audience stay for a while.
Unseen magic of photo post-processing in online business
Think of a product that you recently bought online. For now, let’s assume it was a dress from a renowned brand. What makes you stay on their page? What makes you scroll for hours and hours to make a decision to buy the dress that you bought? What makes the dress stand out from others? It is the picture that you saw on their website. Isn’t it? So, there is no need to explain any further, why it is unskippable for anyone to provide quality images on their website.
What is E-commerce Photography?
E-commerce photography is also an industry like e-commerce, yet in a small portion. E-commerce photography is the process where the product’s quality picture is taken for marketing purposes. This photography ensures that the products or goods look the best on their own. These pictures are the only way to present the product to the audience. The aim is to attract buyers through the images.
As I explained above. E-commerce photos are the only way for buyers to judge the product and decide whether they want to buy it or not. E-commerce photography directly and indirectly increases (or decreases, depending on the quality) the sale.
Types of Photo Post Processing in E-commerce
As I was saying, clicking the picture of the product is not the ultimate goal. Clicking the picture is not enough for any product. Doesn’t matter how expensive your DSLR camera is, a camera is never able to capture 100% exact look of the product. That’s when you need Photo Post Processing services.
But before talking about photo post-processing in online business, I want to talk about the types of photography or images that an e-commerce site usually has. An e-commerce site will definitely have a single product image on their site. Mostly, you can “place an order” or “add to cart” from that image’s site.
Besides that, if your website is focusing on one brand or the same categories of products then you can also go for a product group shot. Usually, this type of photo increases the brand value and visuals. Or sometimes for a special launch product group photo is taken.
One thing that every e-commerce site should have is a size chart photo. Products can be tricky sometimes to understand. We all have been there where we like a product and want to buy it online, but we are not sure about the size. It happens mostly with outfits and shoes. So, if your products are something that deals with size then it needs to have a size chart photo.
Lastly, but most importantly your website needs to have detailed photos of each and every product. Most of the returned products have the cause of not being the same as shown in the picture. To avoid that kind of situation always take a good detailed photo of your product to upload it on the website.
Now, let’s talk about the basic editing that an e-commerce website needs…
1. Clipping Path
The clipping path is the most basic and obvious editing service that an e-commerce site needs. For most of the editing, the clipping path is basic. Editing like jewelry retouching, background removal, and sky replacement, will need to do a clipping path first. Even to get a refined edge you will need a clipping path service. And speaking of e-commerce business, no matter what editing or retouching service you are taking, you will need a clipping path.
2. Background Removal
This is the most common of all. Product photography mostly needs a background removal service. It helps to remove any destructive object that might be in the picture. The best part is background removal can be done in almost every software. You won’t need any fancy editing app or software for this. Even AI can remove background information these days. But the human hands can do precision way better than any AI software or app. So, if you want fast work done then go for AI work. But if you want precision in your work then go for a professional editor.
3. Ghost Mannequin
If beating the marketing competition is something on your to-do list, then following the trend must be included in your work-process list. Ghost mannequins are trendy in the e-commerce business.
A ghost mannequin has a purpose of its own. The ghost mannequin’s purpose is to get the audience’s imaginary visual of the outlook of a product. An audience can imagine himself/herself in the outfit and decide to buy it. You may ask what is the problem with models then? Well, not everyone feels secure in their appearance. I know it sounds not so cool, but we all have insecurities about something. Most of the time people started comparing the models’ figures, complexion, height and looks with their appearance. In the end, instead of focusing on the clothes or outfits people focus on the model and their looks and perfections.
4. Color Correction and Color Change
First of all, color correction and color change are not the same things. Let me clear out that first. Both of them are done for different purposes. Color correction might sound unethical to some since it’s working on the exact image and working on its color. But it’s actually quite the opposite. Color correction is done to bring the original color of the product that can be seen in the image. High-quality cameras are also not able to capture the true color of the product sometimes. So, it’s important to do color correction in the e-commerce business.
And the color change does exactly what it says. It changes the whole color of a product. It is mostly done on e-commerce sites to showcase the color variety of available colors for the products. So, both are different services. Yet, both are equally demanded on e-commerce websites for product photos.
5. Retouching for E-commerce Website
The goal of retouching is to present a clean product to the audience and the visitors of the website to grab their attention and convince them to buy their products. What kind of retouching is done for e-commerce product photos?
There are different kinds of retouching based on the products. For example, if you are working on clothes then there might be a wrinkly area where you need to make it look well-ironed. There you can take the retouching facility.
Or even if your products are based on skin care or makeup then definitely you will need some model pictures. There you can take the model retouching service for your e-commerce product.
Indirect Benefits of Photo Post-processing
There are tons of services that you can use for your website and products. Above mentioned services are common and almost all needed kinds of services. You can see these services can not be skipped for most of the photos that have been taken for e-commerce purposes.
But photo post-processing not only increases the quality of images but makes them presentable to the viewers. It also has other benefits. Indirectly you can benefit in many more ways. Let’s discuss them as well…
Increase Stay Time
What makes a human stay longer on a webpage? Engaging content. That’s right. You need to be relatable to the audience to make them stay on your page. But what grabs the attention instantly and for a long time? It is visual. Videos, Graphics and photos. If you can provide quality images that are relatable to the viewers, it will generally keep them surfing on the webpage. In short, good/quality images will increase your website’s stay time.
Increase Click-Through Rates
As I said before, you need to make viewers click on your website and stay there for longer. Let’s get into some technical parts. Your website needs to rank at the top to get visitors. More visitors mean more customers. Leads to more profit. When you search for something on the internet, Google will show you thousands of results. But do you go through all of the sites that you come across? No. What do you do? You go through 3-4 sites that appear at the top of your search list.
When you search for something and it appears on the search page, it’s known as the impression. And when you click on the pages to get information that is known as Click Through Rate AKA CTR. When the CTR increases, your website gets ranked. Now, how can you make viewers click on something that they haven’t been through yet? Then written content won’t work well here. Here you can rely on images. If your image is on point then the viewer will click to get the information from the website. So, you can’t skip quality images in this case.
Decrease Bounce Rate
Bounce Rate is just the opposite of CTR. When a visitor clicks on your website and leaves within a few seconds then that counts as a bounce. It mostly happens because of the lack of information that the webpage has. Or probably the images that the page has, are not attractive enough to keep the visitors for a long time. Most importantly, an increase in bounce rate is harmful for a website. It eventually leads to the website to drop its rank.
If your webpage has enough relatable information and relatable pictures then viewers who search for that specific topic will definitely stay on the website. You just have to make sure that the page has enough information to provide relatable images. If the images have quality then the possibility of staying on the page automatically increases.
Grow Credibility
Any relationship is based on trust. And the relationship between clients and service providers isn’t different. It also depends on trust. To grow credibility, you also have to build trust. Now, go and get a mic. And announce to everyone why they should trust you and what kind of product you sell. Can you do that and cover a wide range of audience? That’s not practical. What you have to do is, build trust through the website. Make your website strong visually so that the brand value grows. Quality images build a strong connection with the viewers. So, to grow credibility as well you will need quality images.
Boost Sales Rate
Eventually, everything will lead to increased sales. How? If you are doing the right thing, and by right thing I mean, if your webpage has enough information and relatable and quality images then it will convince Google to rank on top. When it ranks it will increase click-through rates. If the audience finds the page engaging with enough content and images then there is no reason to leave the page which means a low bounce rate. That will make your website even stronger.
When a website gets strong, then slowly every page of that website starts to rank. So the potential clients who are window shopping online, will eventually buy and become your client. What does that lead to? Increasing Sales of course.
Out-sourcing Opportunity
Freelancing is booming. One of the best ways to start earning as a student. Also best for working from home. You don’t have to work under any boss, you are your own boss. You just need some skills and be honest to work. And photo editing and photo retouching is one of the most demanding services. If you are a student and want to earn for your bills then you should try outsourcing opportunities that are out there.
Finishing Touches
Still worried about trying out this field? Don’t worry, just try it out. If you have a client that demands complex work from you but you don’t know how to do that specific editing then what to do? Yet, don’t worry you can take the Next Bell services for your bulk or complex images. Next Bell is known for its punctuality, perfection, and professionalism. It definitely can be your next call. Give it a try to be sure.
Photo Post-processing is photo manipulation in order to make an image more attractive to the viewers. Mostly it's done to enhance the beauty and quality of an image and to hide the flaws, spots, blemishes, dust wrinkles, and many more. In short, it ensures to make the image look better with the intention of attracting potential clients.
There is no exact process that you need to follow chronologically. But there are some common editing steps that most clients demand like Cropping, Clipping Path, Color Correction, Noise-reduction, Saturation, Shadows and highlights, jewelry editing, contrast, etc. It depends on what image you are editing.
Photo post-processing can easily change the look of an image. It can change the model's face, product images, and product perceptions from a viewer's point. If you are into product business then your product needs to look attractive to the viewers' eyes. So, you can not avoid photo editing and photo retouching for your business.
