Four ways to better showcase your products
Posted: Fri 1st Oct 2021
Great product presentation conveys quality. It gives customers a sense of how products are used and your ethos. This means investing time in showcasing can help increase sales.
In this blog, we look at four ways your small business can improve what it's offering.
1. The benefits of having great photos
Photos are the first thing prospective customers look at online. E-commerce shoppers can't interact with your products either, so photos have to do a lot of work to help them understand what you do.
Provide context by including other items in the shot and backgrounds that are relevant to your brand. A hiking backpack could feature a Brecon Beacons vista. A child's toy could appear on a nursery floor with other items your target market enjoys.
Models help prospective customers understand products. Their clothes and demographics help your customers identify with what you're doing, and they convey the brand's personality.
Small businesses have an opportunity to stand out by using real customers in a world of near-perfect sock image models. What do your customers look like?
It's important to use high-quality photos. Phone cameras are an option if you don't have the budget for a photographer. It's helpful to include several angles and colour variations on your listings too.
2. Writing attention-grabbing product descriptions
A picture tells a thousand words but descriptions sell products. It's the first thing customers check after the images have drawn their attention and before they click on that all-important 'buy now' button.
The description needs to include all the information customers want to know.
Think about the questions you've answered in the past and try to cover as many as possible. You know your product inside out. It's crucial to put yourself into the shoes of someone who's seeing it for the first time.
Make sure you cover your unique selling point – what differentiates it from similar products – at the start of the description.
What are the one-three features that mean people should buy from you? Whether it's price, sourcing quality or your returns policy.
Making product titles descriptive helps with SEO. How are customers likely to find your product? What will they search for? 'Small handheld torch with rechargeable batteries' will be easier to find than 'Smith's torches'.
Product descriptions are an important opportunity to convey your brand. Customers won't always read your 'About us' page or engage with you on social media.
Your product might be handmade or ethically sourced. Talk about your story and why the business is amazing.
3. Setting out your market stall
Displaying products in the real world is a fine art. You've paid for your market stall and know you will have footfall. How do you make sure you get the most out of it?
Little Hungarian Hearts sells hand-embroidered textiles, supporting artists in economically-deprived areas of Hungary and Romania. Founder Christina Pengelly says:
"The money these artists earn helps them stay in their communities and pass down these slowing disappearing embroidery traditions to the next generation."
Market stalls play an important role in her business. The brightly embroidered products are a natural draw. Christina complements this with an eye-catching roller sign and laminated notes that explain Little Hungarian Hearts' purpose.
Authenticity is an important part of purchasing decisions at markets. People want to know where products are made and why, and to learn more about your story.
Christina recommends sellers curate what they feature, believing too much clutter will prevent people's eye getting drawn to a stand. She has a few other tactics to get attention too.
"I often pick up one of my products to model. Lots of people will be drawn to that one piece and approach the table. It's a great conversation starter. And even though this might be cheating because I don't sell food, a big bowl of chocolates will always lure customers to the table."
4. Social media profiles are important shop-fronts
Social media is about starting a conversation. Sell too hard or too often and followers will lose interest. That said, it's important to think about how you showcase products on these platforms.
Take time to update the branding, images and information on your profiles to make sure it's consistent.
The amount you include will depend on how many products you have. The points to cover are similar to the product descriptions mentioned above, but there's less pressure to include everything.
Photos and video are crucial to social media. Creating content is more accessible than official product listings.
People expect a level of familiarity and showing the real you will work better than being clinical. That doesn't mean using low-quality photos. But it does mean you can experiment with filming and photography on your smartphone.
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