Is Professional Photography Really Worth It?

Professional Photographs and their worth…

Kicking off your very own e-commerce shop has never been easier. With do-it-yourself fool proof platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce readily available, just about anybody with enough drive can pull together a beginner’s platform. But with so many brilliant businesses popping up, how does one differentiate and stand out from the crowd? Does SEO really matter that much? Won’t sponsored Facebook posts just do the trick? Surely, professional photography isn’t really worth it either when an iPhone could do the job?

The reality is, if you’re going to make a success of your start-up, you’ll have to invest in every aspect – from the all-singing, all-dancing Magento website, right through to magazine-ready photographs. Sure, professional photography may seem like an unnecessary expense when your pal who’s doing photography at college could snap some shots for free, but really consider the impact that quality photography could have on your brand.

Branding with Professional Photography

Starting out, any luxury brand should consider the brand presence on the site. Selling luxury products and looking to be featured in the next issue of Vogue or Cosmopolitan? Professional grade images can often be the difference between getting that big feature and simply being disregarded as another “amateur” attempt at brand fame.

Consider your e-commerce shop homepage as the digital equivalent of good old visual merchandising! When you consider the shopping experience with traditional brick and mortar shops, the public favourites always present a bright, clean and uniform floor. The same applies to your site photography. Keep things uniform and sharp, and you’ll find this instantly adds value to your product or service.

Professional Photography in Action

Here at POSH, we’ve seen e-commerce clients achieve sales of £18,000 in only 24 hours as a result of one high-end commercial standard photo after swapping to a professional who truly understands the needs of a client.

When focusing solely on e-commerce as the primary revenue channel, you’ll need to have every tool in your arsenal to stand out in an over-saturated market. If that means swapping out a student project for professional photographs, it may be initially considerably pricey to begin with, but the return on investment is guaranteed to be great.