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360-Degree Photography and 3D Models for E-Commerce: Why both?
One of the most crucial challenges for e-commerce stores is in creating a visually rich, authentic and immersive online experience for shoppers through 360 product photography. The right product photography improves not only SEO on your website but also conversion rates and revenue benefits. In this guide, we’ll highlight the benefits of improving your e-commerce product photography and provide you with some tips on how to get started.
When executed perfectly, 360 product photography provides customers with that in-store experience they are looking for as well as the convenience of shopping online. The images are the products, so the better the image, the more likely it is that customer interactions will generate sales. This is why product photography is so vital, especially in today’s online world. E-commerce stores need to find the best ways to showcase their products or risk business going to the competition. Read on for 5 ways to improve your 360 product photography and meet the demands of today’s shoppers.
It’s important to have a photo station with multiple configurations so that you can capture images of all angles from a wide range of products. PhotoRobot’s 360-degree product photography equipment is designed to snap photos of products as small as a coin, as complex as a piece of jewellery, or as large as furniture, automobiles, and other large and heavy objects. The versatility of PhotoRobot’s equipment allows us to do precisely this, making any product viable for e-commerce photo shoots.
The correct lighting brings products to life, and this is especially true for 360 product photography. With spin photography, you need a depth of field to keep everything in focus, and this requires a lot of light and proper illumination. At PhotoRobot, we utilize Broncolor, Profoto and Fomei strobes, all 3 well-known for color accuracy and consistent output. Our solutions also support a wide range of DMX-controlled still lights, like RotoLight among others. These tools help us improve our 360 product photography for a wide range of products of all sizes, shapes, and transparency.
One of our go-to cameras in our eCommerce photography studio is the Canon 5D IV. It has become the standard in many commercial studios, well-renowned for its durability and its 30-megapixel CMOS sensor. This camera provides high quality photos with deep zoom capacity, and its zoom lens at 24-105 is perfect for making quick adjustments in the studio based on the photographed object’s size.
In order to capture a 360° product photo, you usually need between 24 and 72 images. With spin photography, you can showcase both moving and hidden product features, as well as provide customers with additional information about the product during their interaction. This is where animated 3D photography can take your showcases to the next level. Use animation to let customers interact directly with a product with numerous pieces and features, bringing the product to life and coming one step closer to replicating that in-store shopping experience they demand.
With automated 360-degree photography equipment, you can capture consistent, precise and steady images that can be easily deployed to other retailer and distributor websites. Computer-automated features also eliminate time-consuming manual errors from the equation, while likewise providing you with consistency across the various channels where you sell your products.
With the right 360 product photography workstation, e-commerce stores can increase throughput and overall efficiency. They can create more photos in less time per day with every workstation they add to the studio, saving time and also reducing costs for e-commerce photography.
The perfect image can provide shoppers with more confidence in their purchase, ultimately leading to higher sales and less returns overall. When it comes to online shopping, most customers know they are taking a risk that they might not be satisfied with the product when it arrives, and that they could eventually return it. When you offer customers a rich 360 product experience, whether for B2B or B2C e-commerce sites, customers will be more likely to purchase with more confidence, and, ideally, to return fewer items.
Poor, missing or corrupt image files not only harm an e-commerce site’s SEO but also prevent companies from utilizing critical marketing campaigns like Google Shopping. Google refuses to host campaigns when product images are too small, too low in quality, or even when images do not have white backgrounds. This is where high-quality, 360-degree product photography makes you stand out in the crowd and improve your SEO. More relevance will be attached to your image, as well as your site, and you’ll also receive better SEO through the increased dwell time on your pages.
Ultimately, when you improve your efficiency with 360 product photography, you’re not only setting yourself up for current success in the industry but also for the rapidly approaching future of e-commerce. Companies require a repository of assets for marketing and sales needs, and you don’t want to reshoot individual products every time a new channel becomes available to you.
By capturing more photos from all angles, companies will have all the assets they need in stock for their websites, in-store displays, mobile applications, promotional campaigns on social media and more. They will also be ready for new visual and image search platforms, and thus the future of e-commerce stores and marketing.
The future of e-commerce will demand 360-degree photos, spin photography, and interactive product experiences. You want your online experience to be no different to the customer than picking up an item off the store shelf. To learn more about how you can improve the efficiency of your 360 product photography, reach out to us.
