When we order something online, we expect that what arrives is going to look like what we ordered, be the same colour for instance. Do you agree? But so often people get it wrong. If you want to cut down on dissatisfaction and returns this year? Get your imagery on point! Delight, don’t disappoint!
So how many of the things you ordered online for Christmas didn’t measure up to expectations? And if you sell online how many issues of this ilk did you have to deal with?
Not depicting colour and size correctly can cost sales!
Dissatisfied customers are much more likely to relate their tales of woe to others than satisfied customers are. So you can lose more than one sale when you get it wrong. In an ideal world items would always appear truly representative of the real life item and it would be obvious what the size was too, as us humans don’t always read the words that hold this important information.
Remember, delighted customers are what we want, not just satisfied ones.
My recent experience
I’m talking about this today because I ordered a notebook from a well known bookstore as I could get it that day and it was (so I thought) in my brand colours. Dashed in, stressed as I had 101 things going on and was in a hurry to collect it. I remember thinking ‘Oooh that seems bright’ but no time to ponder.
I ordered a mustard or ochre colour or so I thought from the image used.
Get home pull it out of the bag and the ochre notebook I both ordered and expected is BRIGHT Orange! ????
This book which is rather more orange in colour arrived instead.
At this point I dashed to the website to ensure I’ve ordered the right thing! I did. Life shouldn’t be this difficult for something so simple! (Yes 1st world problems – unless you are the seller with many of them on a daily basis!)
The pictures on the website are ochre to view as you can see. To be fair they aren’t the only seller doing the same thing. But there’s a huge difference between the image and reality.
Size of products in imagery can also be misleading
Similarly photos can zoom in and make things look larger than actual life. I ordered a second butter dish off Amazon (and no I didn’t read the small print – but neither do your customers!!). It looked just the job!! Until it arrived.
Now in my mind these are rookie errors. But one was via a large corporate, who took the images either from the supplier(who has I suggest a larger problem), did them in-house incorrectly or they hired the wrong photographer.
Either way the customer (your’s truly) who would have been delighted is not a happy bunny. She doesn’t like bright orange, leastways not when she was buying ochre. It’s not what I want to live with for the next year. So the bookstore has a dissatisfied client that may be placated by a swap, but who would have been delighted if it had been as stated. Where are you currently on delighting or misleading customers?
Depicting colour and size can be done and can save so much upset
It’s so, so important to get the colours right. You need to delight customers, you need to know that they’ll feel taken care of, to do that you need to have the right photography. It’s needs to be true to colours and appearance. Your customer needs to be sure that what they see is what they’ll get, well, they do if you want returning customers and I’m guessing that’s what you’re after?
Now some cameras (and phones) actually have a problem with certain colours and what they dish up may not be what you expect. That’s where an experienced photographer comes in who can make the changes necessary to ensure the product looks online as it does in real live. I can’t stress how important this is to you and to your brand! It can save you a great deal of anguish and stress, as well as unwanted returns.
Equally when it comes to size displaying an image either with the sizes added or showcasing the product alongside something else to give it perspective can really help your customer at the decision stage. With my butter dish scenario picturing it with a dolls house in the background could have been a great solution!
The Solution:
Yes images need to be clean, crisp and tidy for pack-shots. No doubt about that. So no dirty surfaces, dust or anything else – especially for a professional camera as it will illuminate anything that’s wrong. Your phone will too! So don’t think that’s a cop out. The colours need to be spot on and it needs to be clear from the imagery about the sizing, I can’t stress that enough.
Images need to be beautiful and enticing but they must also be authentic! What you don’t need in your business are images that portray something better than you have on offer, or that look different to what you are actually selling, that will end in tears and they will all be yours.
Book a discovery call with me today and see how I can help you avoid that being an issue for you and do come and follow me on LinkedIn.