This socialist-world principle of sameness should be seen alongside the fact that these sites use some of the drabbest product images across all types of media. E-commerce companies use some of the most cutting-edge technology in various facets of its management.
But why are they not bothered about the quality of their display images?
Just compare the product shots of brands on e-commerce sites with those at brick-and-mortar stores, like the shopfront of a kirana outlet. If a soft drink brand has sponsored the sign-board, it will ensure that an evocative image is displayed on it.
Even water droplets on the soft drink’s bottle will look refreshing. But the same brand’s image even on the top e-commerce sites would look dull. What explains this dismissal of online images?
The ‘product tile’ is possibly the last mile of a brand’s digital marketing initiatives. It is the final stimulus that could determine whether the consumer buys a particular brand or not (or the one next to it). There have been many studies done to understand how decisions are taken in the e-commerce world.
Our studies show that while buying frequently purchased products, the consumer decides to click or not on a product tile in a matter of 0.92 seconds.
Given such near-instantaneous decisions, no one needs a post-graduate degree in graphic design to recognize that a product tile with an evocative product shot (say, a soft drink bottle with water droplets) is far likelier to attract a click than one with a drab product shot.
Amazon is possibly the most prominent e-commerce company in the world. One can safely assume that it would have done numerous trials to figure out what best influences consumer behaviour online.
Amazon’s website states: “As against standalone images of products against a white background, products placed in a lifestyle context have 40% higher click-through rates.” This suggestion from a global e-commerce leader on how to improve sales seems to have fallen on deaf ears among marketers.
Digital marketers have no reason to be complacent in their efforts to influence the consumer’s behaviour. Rather, they should be a worried lot today. Click-through-rates (CTRs) in e-commerce have been falling sharply.
In 1994, when banner advertising first started, a typical CTR was 44%. By 2022, the count had crashed to a paltry 0.35%. There has been a more than 100 times fall in CTRs over the years.
This is a clear indication of how e-commerce sites are struggling to influence the consumer’s buying decisions. It is in this context that one should evaluate why brand images get such little attention on e-commerce websites. Does the problem have deeper roots?
The back-end operations of most e-commerce companies are run by engineers. It is evident that these engineers understand the world of numbers and technology. They also know the importance of achieving scale in today’s world of commerce, more so if they work for a business based on technology.
But it is likely that very few of them have ever been trained on the subtle art of human persuasion. This art requires a sophisticated understanding of the difference in emotions, for example, that a serif font will evoke instead of a non-serif font in the consumer’s brain. That this art is not being applied online shows.
The easiest way to achieve scale in the e-commerce business is to create a standardized template for all product images. That is what must have happened. So, a white background, as recommended for some visa application mug-shots, arose as the common standard.
There was a rational justification that products stand out best against a white backdrop. But what about brands whose packaging is predominantly white in colour? How will those brands stand out against a white background? Such questions had no relevance in a world where standardization and scale were given priority.
Today, as the world of business evolves on the power of technology, including relative novelties like artificial intelligence (AI), a potential danger is emerging.
The chasm between the ‘quantitative’ world of data and technology and the ‘qualitative’ world of design and creativity is widening. Drab product shots against an undifferentiated white background on e-commerce sites are just one indication of this rising problem.
In the past, most famously in the success of Apple as a company, one did see the magic that happens when technology and design come together. But this synergy between the two has varied, going up and down in waves, even though many companies routinely claim they look at problems through the eyes of the consumer.
It is good to note, however, that slowly but surely, many more companies are seeing the benefits of combining the power of engineering and design. This movement will gain strength once a good combination of ‘quantitative’ and ‘qualitative’ education is delivered right at the technical college level.
Trans-disciplinary education should become the norm of our technical education system. Only then will our engineers fully understand the utility of art as a differentiator in a business based on technology.
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