Don’t judge a book by it’s cover… A picture is worth a thousand words…
When it comes to pictures, pick your cliche! But they’re around for a reason: pictures are important! And this is especially true when it comes to Amazon listings. Personally, I can’t remember ordering anything off of Amazon that didn’t have a picture. And there’s been more than a few times when I’ve been disappointed that a product’s image didn’t match what actually arrived in my mailbox.
If you’re adding pictures of your products to the Amazon catalog, there are some steps you can take to make sure that you’re putting your best foot forward!
Know Amazon’s Policies
Amazon’s product image requirements and standards are a good place to start learning about what images you should be submitting. The technical requirements may seem confusing but JPEG and RGB are standard image formats so you probably won’t need to worry about those too much!
Follow the ABC’s of Great Images
- Attractive – I feel like this should be obvious, but you know that I don’t like to assume! Take pictures of flawless products: no creases, smudges, dust, dings or dents.
- Big and Bright – In some categories (Clothing & Accessories, for example) hovering over an image will zoom in on it. For this to happen, any images you submit should be at least 1001 pixels by 1001 pixels. Take pictures against a clean white background lit with a bright light. A sheet of foam and a few clamp-on work lamps from Home Depot work make for a cheap, effective DIY photo studio. Modern point-and-shoot digital cameras are very powerful and can take excellent pictures and are well worth the investment.
- Current – If your product’s packaging changes, take a new picture! Buyers want to see what the product looks like today, not what it looked like last year!
Edit Your Images
Your pictures won’t be perfect right out of the camera. But don’t worry, you don’t need to spend big bucks on photo-editing software to make them great! Try using Google’s Picasa to crop, resize, straighten, brighten and otherwise adjust your pictures. It’s an amazing tool and best of all, it’s free!
You can even use Picasa or another photo editor to improve any product photos that you receive from a supplier or distributor.
