Ma says that the high-quality product images selected by their model automatically outperform stock images in generating perceptions of trustworthiness.
People believe the user-generated pictures represent the actual condition of the product better. Stock images present more uncertainty and raise questions such as whether they are too good to be true. The study grew out of previous work on trust.
Trust is essential for society to function, but research shows levels of faith have been declining in recent years. Establishing and building confidence in digital environments is even more complicated.
Without face-to-face interactions, there is a lot of uncertainty. You dont know whats going on the other side of the screen.
People could even lie. They could post different images. At the beginning of e-commerce, there were a lot of studies on trust. But that was limited because their ability to understand pictures and language computationally has been limited.
Now, because of computer vision and natural language processing, they can understand a lot of these online interactions better. There is an opportunity to revisit these questions of online trust," Ma says.
How Customers Define Quality
To understand how customers perceived quality, both much information is collected directly from them. Even with such information, though, pinpointing what consumers want is not a simple task.
Consumers cannot always articulate their quality requirements. They often speak in generalities when complaining.
Consumers priorities and perceptions also change over time. Also, consumers perceive a products quality relative to competing products.
Further, consumers are demanding high quality at low prices. A national panel of shoppers got the question on where it would like to see food manufacturers invest more. The highest-rated response was of better quality for the same price.
Various factors influence Consumers perceptions of product quality at each stage of the buying process.
The Importance of Product Images in Ecommerce
It is no doubt that if you want to sell a product online, you need images. And not just any picture. You need high-quality images.
Even when contracting a SEO services company, good photos are essential.
1. Product Images Power Your Business
It would be hard to call product images a "secret" to eCommerce success. The reason is that most retailers these days know how important they are.
With this kind of scenario in mind, its not hard to understand why. Every seller needs to dodge the bullet of suspicion. However, the psychology of images goes deeper than that. Therefore, an inferior product image may fade quickly in the mind of your clients.
The clients will have a poor memory of the product whenever they need it hence opt for your competitors products.
2. Images give us instant information
Generally, humans are visual by nature. There is some debate over how much faster our brains transmit visual information when compared to text.
However, there is no argument that its faster. A single snapshot of a product can provide more relevant information about the products quality than paragraphs of text.
You dont have to break your back, describing products dimensions, colors, shape, and designs. You can use a single photo to do the job for you. Additionally, images provide a natural sense of scale and help customers get familiar with your item before they buy.
It explains why you need to get rid of those poor product images on your website and other advertising media.
3. Images are shareable
Sharing all sorts of materials has become a type of currency in the crazy social media world. Many socially-savvy shoppers talk about their purchases and share their experiences on social media.
Whenever they happen to share your product images, your brand gets more exposure. Reports indicate that 74 % of the population relies on social networks for information about purchasing decisions. The information includes what their friends share, repost, and pin.
Nobody will share a text-based product description, but sites like Instagram are prime for hosting photos of your merchandise.
Its free advertising, and you dont have to hire SEO services. Also, if your product images are of low quality, it will discourage sharing. Therefore, your products will not enjoy such an advantage.
4. Images help us scan
Not everyone will read the pages of the site they visit. Research reports have shown that a minuscule 16 % of readers read word for word.
A good 79 % skim for the highlights. When customers are online shopping across a diverse network of eCommerce retailers, we can guess that this 16 % is even lower.
For most people, no images mean no go.
Read the Blog: 10 Reasons Your Competitors May Out-Rank You
Images show readers what you have to offer without making them commit. If you have great photos of great products, theyll stick around to read the details.
On the other hand, poor images are an immediate send off to your potential clients. No client will commit to buying from an inferior product image.
5. Images are SEO Friendly
Optimizing on-page text is excellent. However, images can boost your pages SEO value even further. Each model includes file names and alt-text that can be tailored to improve your pages organic search ranking.
They do it by giving search indexers more information to pull. Think of it as the cherry on top of all the other benefits images provide. Alternatively, you can hire SEO experts to help you customize your pictures.
However, you cant do it with poor image qualities.
Final Thought
The benefits of images for your eCommerce site are almost too numerous to list in a single article. The difference in consumer interest is astounding.
It applies to all eCommerce retailers. Images give users confidence in the product theyre considering.
