At the beginning of October eBay rolled out a big site update which saw the launch of a new more modern looking logo plus the promise of many more updates to come.
From my perspective eBay are aiming to take the business into a more Amazon like structure, moving away from the bargain basement second hand heaven of old to a more slick more retail focused site.
One of the changes was much larger image thumbnails in the search results and the all new “pinterest style” image feed, which means your product images will be much more visible and so its never been more important to get this part of your auction listing right.
I have said this for years and I will say it again, good images make sales! As an eBay seller, eCommerce site seller or any type of internet marketer you should be making sure your images look as good as they can as this is more or less what your buyer has to go on, people really do judge a book by its cover when it comes to shopping online.
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If you spend much time on eBay you will see it over and over again, if there a few auctions finishing near the same time for the same thing, its not always the first one to finish which has the highest bid, often you can look down the page at the fourth or fifth item with great images and good auction text that is out performing the others simply because the buyers feel more comfortable buying that one than the others.
Take a look and see for yourself, I’ll go over auction listing text in another post but for now lets think about your image.
The Right Hardware
To get the best possible image you will need the best camera you can get your hands on, it doesn’t have to be fashion industry good but if you have to wind it on before you take a picture then it’s time for an upgrade! Seriously though if you have a compact camera in the house these are usually pretty good, try to avoid a cell phone or web camera unless you have to as they can look grainy in low light.
Lights Camera Action!
On the subject of light, try to use as much of it as you can! Natural daylight will always look the best so set up in a room where the sun in coming in, if your item has a reflective surface try to avoid the direct sunlight as this will glint and bounce off all the corners and will be tricky to shoot but somewhere well lit is perfect.
Plain With No Irony..
Try to get your item against a plain background so your eye is focusing on the great product and not the ironing board out back!
Set Your Scene
If your item comes in a box set it up so you can see the box, instructions and any accessories, try to show that it has everything it is supposed to.
The More the Merrier
Lastly take a few different angles and positions for your product and see which looks best, sometimes you might not notice something isn’t quite right until you get the picture on your computer screen by which time you have packed away and its to late to set up again.
That should give you something to keep you busy, I’ll be back shortly with an article on making the most of your auction sales copy, until then.. Happy Snapping!
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