Dynamic Imaging Is Key to Showcasing Product Customization

By: Steve Harley | April 21, 2021 | 5 Min Read

About 30 percent of products ordered online are returned—more than triple the rate for brick-and-mortar stores (where the number is about 9 percent).

In a quarter of cases, the reason for the return is that, when the product arrived, the customer thought it looked different to what they had ordered online.

This is a big challenge for anyone in the world of e-commerce. Returns are the sharp end of the problem, but there is a broader issue: customers want to see what they are buying. Through their screen, they want as faithful a representation of their purchase as possible. This is especially true where product customization is involved. If a buyer is choosing colors, or patterns, or names, or anything else—they do not want to be forced to use their imagination. They want to see it. 

Dynamic imaging is key to effectively showcasing product customization options. Offering customers a visual browsing experience that does all the visualization for them reliably drives sales. This is why imagery should never be an afterthought. It should be core to how e-commerce businesses present and showcase their products. 

The Challenges of Website Imagery

It is amazing to think how things have changed since the early days of internet e-commerce. There are so many technologies that have propelled this industry from what it was a decade ago:

• Tablets
• Smartphones

• High resolution screens

• Mega-bandwidth connectivity

• Modern browsers

• CDNs


We rarely stop to think about all of the technologies that have come together so quickly to create this still nascent industry. And, it just keeps getting smarter, faster, better.

Think about a few of the processes that we take for granted today. It was not that long ago that image asset management required an entire staff to collect, organize, scale, rename, and store all of the various image assets you needed for your website. All of this to try and optimize content delivery—just to support one product image.

Back then, every icon, thumbnail, and magnified image required special accommodation. And now, we complicate the situation with various devices and screen resolutions.

The stakes here were (and are) high, as unoptimized images are one of the causes of slow load times. Even a second of delay in the load time can cause:

• An 11 percent decrease in page views;

• A 16 percent lower customer satisfaction; and

• A 7 percent conversion loss. 


Furthermore, research shows that 57 percent of visitors leave a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Unbounce research also reveals that only 5.3 percent will wait for more than 10 seconds, especially on mobile devices.

Luckily, methods to host and showcase imagery are always improving.

Expanding Visualization

Today, using some intelligence around metadata, a little dynamic imaging, and some edge cache, your image asset management challenges are not so challenging. Gone are the days of having to photograph one or two samples of a product and then asking the customer to “use their imagination” to visualize the other color offerings, since it was too expensive to provide imagery in every product variation.

Now, we use colorization techniques and other dynamic imaging approaches to solve this challenge. Properly planned studio time can vastly reduce cost, increase customer satisfaction, and grow revenue, all while expanding visualization—an absolute must for e-commerce. This is an aspect we know drives conversions. 

If the customer cannot touch it, they want the most lifelike representation of the product, or they simply will not buy.

Take DueMaternity.com for example. In the past, this e-commerce site for pregnant women and new mothers used two-dimensional photos to show their products. But their conversion rates rose by 27 percent, just by simply switching to 360° images.

Even Golfsmith.com, a golf specialty retailer based in Austin, TX, saw a 10 percent conversion rate increase because of their products with a “special spin feature.”

Dynamic Imaging and Product Customization

One of the key benefits of dynamic imaging is what it offers in terms of showcasing product customization. Many e-commerce sites offer the classic message “put your name here,” or “put your company logo there.” Just a new spin on the “use your imagination” approach. 
 
But, for many large players, the imagination game has been replaced with dynamic imaging. Websites now enable customers to simulate a custom engraving or wrap a logo around a curved surface. Customers can “choose their own adventure” and pick product customization options that fit their own style.
 
Here are some other industries that benefit from adapting to the latest in product personalization trends:

Apparel

It was not that long ago that a garment configurator was a pipe-dream. Now, dynamic imaging allows images capable of producing trillions of permutations of pockets, plackets, buttons, and in hundreds of fabrics. The garment industry is rapidly breaking down the barriers to online apparel. For photography, illustrations, and 3D renderings, fabric draping opens doors to unlimited possibilities. As such, the apparel industry is the fastest growing segment for dynamic imaging.

Furnishing

Apparel is not the only industry that benefits from dynamic imaging—the furniture industry is also booming.
 
Think about the last time you visited your favorite furniture store and they handed you a fabric swatch-book as evidence that no two sofas were alike. Somehow, those hundreds of fabric swatches were a promise that you would never walk into your neighbor’s house and find they had an identical sofa to yours. Dozens of fabrics available, and you are left to mentally upholster the sofa. Just another twist on the “use your imagination” method.

 
While customers demand to see what they are buying, the manufacturing and photography process just is not practical. Yet, dynamically draping fabrics onto a single product image can solve the problem with a single mouse click.

Dynamic imaging has become the defining solution to displaying product customization options for customers.

The Significance of Dynamic Imagery

As Manish Chowdhary, CEO of Pulse Commerce, said:

“E-Commerce has never been so competitive. Barriers for entry are very low, which has caused the number of online stores to skyrocket, and has dramatically reduced switching costs for shoppers. Customer experience is now the main battleground for merchants trying to stand-out in the crowd and captivate shoppers. Only those who deliver an outstanding personalized experience stand a chance…”

This is why dynamic imaging should never be an afterthought. With such a visualization solution, e-commerce brands can become more competitive by more effectively showing customers what product customization actually looks like. 
 
Customers see a real-life representation of the products or services they buy, while the brand’s reputation increases because they are meeting their customers’ expectations constantly. It is a win-win.
 
So, take stock of your e-commerce technology. Are you really positioned to take on your competition? If not, then dynamic imaging could be the visualization solution you need.