Tony McGrath
11 February 2011
Would you feel more comfortable purchasing a product online if you could see an image of it before you bought it? Online auction giant eBay is conducting research to determine just how much pictures influence shoppers' decisions to buy - or not to buy - over the internet.
A paper based on the research, which is set to be presented at the WWW 2011 Conference next month in India, will explain just how important photographs are to making a sale via the web. Depending on its findings, eBay and sites like it may decide to add search features that will be able to filter out results based on the quality of the attached images. This would make it essential for the masses of people and merchants who sell on eBay to upload only their most accurate images of the highest quality, ShopSafe reports.
A decision to commit to high-quality images might actually be good for etailers of all sizes, as it could help cut down on returns and exchanges that occur when consumers don't get the products they were expecting. It could also help protect shoppers from scammers, who try to make scratched, broken, torn or defective merchandise look appealing with low-quality photographs.
Etailers can go to extra lengths to make sure customers are safe by doing business only with reputable ecommerce payment providers and offering a top-notch online shopping cart experience that clearly outlines return and exchange policies.
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