Retail store photography is more than just pictures and art – it’s a multi-faceted tool and one that you need to invest in. Today’s hyper-competitive market makes advertising difficult. Businesses and organizations need to be able to quickly and decisively capture attention. Even the best products and services require high-quality marketing and assets in order to be sold.
Professional photography is a driving force for business success. Just look at some of your competitors or brands you admire. Almost always, these businesses leverage professional photography and other media forms to effectively entice their target markets.
Today’s consumers are both highly visual and increasingly selective with their time. This has led to businesses turning to professional photographers to create attractive visual assets that can be used in both digital and traditional marketing campaigns.
Retail store image example of a clothing store.
Here are Five Reasons Why Your Business Needs Retail Store Photography
Retail store photography is essential for businesses that rely on retail stores to sell their products. Store photography can be used to showcase merchandise, promote sales, and attract customers. It can also be used to document store layouts and displays. In addition, retail store photography can be used to create virtual tours of stores, which can be helpful for customers who are considering making a purchase. Whether you’re looking to document your store’s layout or attract new customers, retail store photography can be an essential tool for your business.
Demonstrates Value
High-quality store photography is often necessary to properly illustrate your business. As a retail business, one of your main selling points is the visual and construction quality of your location. Therefore, by offering professional photography assets that are viewable to your customers, you are giving them the ability to grasp the value you provide. Absent imagery or poor quality photos can significantly diminish your brands perceived value, and allow many customers to write you off.
SEO Ranking Boost
Professional photography aids in your search engine optimization (SEO) rankings. Having a retail site where customers can browse and shop provides a consumer-focused experience. When your website features professional photography of your retail products, it further enhances the user experience — a critical factor in the SEO algorithm. Additionally, specific photos can rank for attached keywords, and Google Image search is increasingly popular, allowing organic searches to point directly to your product inventory — helping quickly connect customers with their search intent.
Develop a Unique Brand & Style
Part of being a successful business in the retail industry is being able to elevate your brand. When businesses fail to differentiate themselves from their competitors, or lack a true identity, it is often difficult to grow sales and even survive. People are motivated to buy for more reasons than just liking your products — they want to like your brand too. Cultivating an attractive and pleasing store environment is necessary for keeping customers in your sales environment.
From in-person store visits to website clicks, branding subconsciously pulls in customers. This translates into the importance of professional photography. An experienced photographer can help artfully craft imagery that will establish your brand, look, and feel. Ultimately, carving out your position within the retail market.
Photography Catches Attention
A picture is worth a thousand words. It’s so cliché, but it’s true. Imagery has the power to evoke human emotions and reactions. Good imagery can stop someone in their tracks, and cause them to fill up their shopping cart. Being in the retail industry, so much of your business hangs on the perception of attraction. You need your store to appeal to the consumer in a physical way, even if the product provides a useful solution. When professional photography gets incorporated into your business marketing plan, you can more effectively draw in consumer interest — and move them towards your place of business.
Drop The Cell Phone – Your Customers Are Judging Your Business
Well don’t actually drop your phone! Cell phone images of a business just don’t look professional. Even worst most of them are really bad potentially making your business look terrible! See, the fact is that retail store photography is just really hard. It takes years of training as a photographer to even be competent at it, never mind a great retail store photographer. It’s not reasonable to be able to expect to be able to do it yourself.
Now I am not saying that you should never take pictures of your store or let your customers take photos. You should! The power of social media for retail can’t be denied. But, what I am saying is you should have at least a few high quality, properly executed retail photos of your store, to pair with those shots. Those professional shots need to be on your website, they need to be on your google business listing and they should be in your ads.
Look, I don’t want to be the person being all negative trying to tell you that you need to buy photos on a retail photographer’s website. Obviously, we are a bit biased when it comes to professional photography, but here comes some truth. If your store looks bad online, dark, cluttered, dirty or uninviting – customers will avoid it. They won’t show up. They will go somewhere else.
Professional Photography Uses
As any retail store owner knows, photography is essential for quickly communicating your brand messaging and giving customers an exciting idea of what to expect from their experience. Professional photographs have a wide variety of uses and can be used to grab attention on: websites, Google My Business listings, social media, online ads, signage, print collateral, posters & flyers, etc. High-quality retail store photography is an important investment that will help you stand out from the competition and attract new customers.
Do You Need to Hire a Professional Retail Photographer?
If you’re in need of professional photography resources, contact me. As a business owner myself, I understand how important it is to market successfully. High-quality photography is now an essential part of any business. I specialize in a variety of photography areas (including commercial photography and retail photography) and have worked with hundreds of businesses and entrepreneurs to help take their brand to the next level.
We are your retail store photography specialist’s across Canada! Our locations include: Calgary, Hamilton, Mississauga, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg to mention a few.
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