Insider tricks to increasing Amazon sales via product images

There are numerous ways to optimise your Amazon listings in order to increase your sales (all of which we discuss in a series of other articles)

There are numerous ways to optimise your Amazon listings in order to increase your sales (all of which we discuss in a series of other articles). Some of these methods can have a dramatic effect on your profit margins, so it’s worth taking note. However, the area most often overlooked is image optimisation.

Not only can the right kind of images help you sell significantly higher volumes of your product, but the correct approach can also enable you to tap into the expanding mobile-commerce market.

More and more shopping takes place on mobile devices so it’s important that shopping platforms, such as Amazon, adapt to make the most of this shift in consumer behaviour.

But how can you, as a Brand or Seller, make the most of increased mobile traffic and raise your own sales conversion rates on Amazon?

In this article, Amazon sales expert, James Pitts-Drake (CEO and founder of Optimizon Amazon Agency) explains how to optimise your images to increase your sales on Amazon.

Increased mobile sales on Amazon

Data shows that overall ecommerce sales continue to rise year-on-year. We can also see that the proportion of ecommerce sales via mobile devices has increased from a 52.4 percent market share in 2016 to 72.9 percent in 2021.

Furthermore, recent statistics indicate that 80 percent of all online shoppers start browsing for products on mobile first.

What does this mean to your brand? Simply put, It means that your website, Amazon listings, and any other sales resources online should be optimised for mobile. In fact, it’s essential.

How to optimise Amazon listings for mobile

There are a few ways to optimise your Amazon images, particularly for mobile users, which we’ll touch on below. However, branded storyboarding your images is perhaps the most effective.

It’s worth pointing out that this method doesn’t strictly adhere to Amazon’s image guidelines, but take a look at some of the top performing listings, and you’ll notice a similar theme. Top brands and agencies are using this method, and you should too.

Storyboard images are basically graphic designed images used on your product listing images, which include captions and key features about the product. The idea is for the images to be more like an ‘Instagram experience’ because mobile users are more likely to flick through the images and buy the product (rather than reading the lengthy bullet points and text descriptions).

This is an important point. Browsing mobile users are far less likely to read the product descriptions thoroughly, so providing critical information in a bitesize and easy to digest format will increase the conversion rates.

Amazon product image requirements

It’s important to note that you cannot storyboard all of your images. Amazon’s product image requirements are notoriously strict, so there is a method for including this type of image. Never attempt to storyboard the first image. This should strictly adhere to Amazon’s requirements.

The main guidelines our creative team follows when presenting storyboard image ideas are:

• First image: The main image must always be a product image on a plain white background, with no writing or logos (following Amazon’s strict requirements)
• Images 2-4: Here we use branded design images but with a focus on product imagery again, including captions that call out key features or technical info.
• Images 5 & 6: For the last images we also use branded design photos, but this time include lifestyle imagery of the products being used or add in about the brand.
• Image 7 (video): If possible include a quick 30 second video demonstrating the key features of the product and anything about the brand, where it’s designed/manufactured, or other important messaging.

We typically place the images in this order so the customer goes on a journey through the seven photos (or six photos and a video). Our analysis shows that this order has produced the highest conversion rates.

Remember, the customer has come this far, so they are already at the part of the buying funnel where they’re almost ready to make a purchase. By storyboarding the images, you are making sure the photos include information that confirms their decision to hit that buy button.

Getting your images accepted by Amazon

As mentioned, Amazon’s guidelines are strict. Technically speaking, Amazon is against images with writing on top. As a result, you may find that the storyboard images are rejected.

Optimizon has a good track record of getting storyboard images accepted by Amazon. The general rules to follow are:

• Keep the text to image ratio low. Amazon definitely won’t accept images absolutely covered in text.
• Make sure the design is high quality and befitting to the product and brand. Brash, jarring text is likely to be detected and rejected.
• Ensure the image hosting the text also meets Amazon’s image guidelines (i.e. make sure your image isn’t being rejected for other reasons).
• The main image must always be a plain image of the product on a white background.

If your images are rejected, tweak them, make the text more subtle, and resubmit them. Yes, this process can be painful, but it’s worth the effort in the long run. As always, if you have trouble achieving this result, feel free to reach out to our team of experts https://www.optimizon.co.uk/knowledge-base/.