Essential tool for E-commerce Management! Benefits of outsourcing image editing

On e-commerce websites, consumers mostly judge the products qualities on whether or not it is good or bad by its image. Therefore, it is necessary to touch up and edit the image just enough to make the products look attractive. However, it takes time and effort to edit the products image. As a result, the huge task of image editing is procrastinated and very often not prioritized and left over. We recommend utilizing the outsourcing service to solve those issues for image editing which is essential for e-commerce websites. Let’s look at the importance of image editing, the method of outsourcing, and its pros and cons for e-commerce management.

Importance of the image editing

On the e-commerce website, the customer are not able to pick-up and seethe actual product, so the product images are the deciding factor for the purchasing. Image quality directly impact to the amount of sales. Let’s look at the reasons and how the product image affects the sales.

Significant amount of information

When we compares the written description and images, the amount of information the consumer gains from the images are much more than the descriptions. We gain the information instantly from the product image. Of course other information are necessary to be written in details, like size and quality. However, it is easier for the consumer to seethe color, design and shape by the images.

Provide a sense of context, scale, and usability

There are many e-commerce websites that sell unique products, useful products, excellent design products, handmade products, etc., Hence the product must be displayed well for everyone to understand the use of the product. With the relevant well edited image, the customer will understand use of the product instantly and won’t need to read long explanation of the products use.

Importance of the product image, backed by actual data

According to the “research of the smartphone usage”, the highest reason why people do not purchase from an e-commerce website is that “the image of the products are not clear on a smartphones”. Indeed smart phone screens are small. This research indirectly but proves that the product image is a very important factor for the consumer’s conversion rate.

Outsourcing options

To edit, trim and prepare all the images of the product for thee-commerce website could be a time consuming task and outsourcing could reduce such burden. We will explain the background and introduce how to outsource image editing for the e-commerce websites.

Growing need of image editing especially for the e-commerce business

Nowadays we all have computers and it is very easy to touch up and edit with free retouching software and tools. In order to run thee-commerce website, it is necessary to have the product images with several angles, such as an image of using the product, zoom in for a closer look or show various colors or options for the product. Those overall presentation of the product images will help to increase sales. However, it is time consuming to prepare all required images.

With this new demand, professional image editing service and the company, especially for e-commerce websites was established. With the growing need and the scale of service is expanding recently more companies are considering for the outsourcing options.

How to outsource the image editing

There are two options for the method of outsourcing the image editing. Ordering directly through the individual designer or using specialty firm and BPO company. In order to outsource to the individual designer directly, you can approaching the designer by reviewing their previous work. Also ordering through cloud-sourcing is another option. The prices vary, and mostly you need to negotiate the price individually.

On the other hand, outsourcing to aspecialty firmBPO corporation, it is essential to choose the company who can work according to your demand and discuss details in advance. The pricing plan is normally more clearer, since they already have the pricing structure determined by the contents and amount of tasks needed for the image editing.

Contents you can outsource

Let’s see the details, what kind of image editing you can do when you outsource the image editing tasks for e-commerce websites.

Clipping and changing the background

Image editing allows you to clip the image of the product, move the product to the center of the image, change the background or remove the background all together. Those kinds of image editing makes the product more visible and able to create an image that appeals to the consumer.

Create variation

Create various colors and materials from just one photo without taking photos of each product variations. This means you can eliminate the time and effort of taking multiple pictures by editing one image. Also easy to make variations with the same angle. This provides the consumer an opportunity to view and compare the various product materials and colors easily.

Color correction and elimination of unnecessary objects

It is common that the product image have many imperfection such as, dark lighting, tinge does not come up well or unexpected object like shadow of the photographer captured. When the professional editor properly edit the image, such as, change the tone, removal of unnecessary object or shadow, it will improve your image quality significantly.

Benefits of outsourcing image editing

Let’s see specifically what the benefits of outsourcing image editing are.

Specialized technique

Professional designers know what kinds of images get attention on e-commerce websites and increase sales. Based on their expertise and experiences, they will complete image editing with advanced techniques. Additionally, they use exclusive software, so the finished image is very professional. The quality of the image directly resultsin sales, so having the product image edited by a professional will provide additional boost to the sales.

Reduce lead time

If you spend too much time editing the image of the product, even though the access to the website is increased, your staff might not able to concentrate on their main tasks. However, if you outsource the image editing to a professional, this provides more time to focus on your core business, the e-commerce website operations.

Reduce labor cost

Instead of hiring and high cost professional designer who has the specialized skills, you can outsource this repetitive work. Outsourcing can help you leverage high quality design skills with more cost effective way along with your in-house project team.

Disadvantage of outsourcing image editing and the things that you need to be aware of

When you consider outsourcing, you need to know the pros and cons. Let’s look at the possible disadvantages more closely.

Budget of outsourcing and cost

If you order the services for outsourcing, it is necessary to budget for outsourcing. Comparing with in-house team, the outsourcing contract could prove too rigid to accommodate small change, result in higher cost or consume time in negotiation. Including the time and cost of ordering process,, you might need to change the outsourcing company if the cost-effectiveness does not meet the budget. Your prompt decisions are required in order to control your budget efficiently.

Coordination and control with the outsourcing company

If you cannot communicate or coordinate well with your outsourcing company, your products brand image might be affected in a negative way, or there is a risk of loosing brand control. Since the image editing is one of the key factor to attract consumer and to increase sales, it is important to maintain your quality of the brand image for the e-commerce website. Therefore, it is necessary to share and explain image of your website with the outsourcing company, even though you don’t meet them face to face.

Mitigating issues with a contract

If you choose the wrong outsourcing company from the beginning, you might experience problems. For example, “the edited image was not delivered by the deadline even the project fee was prepaid in advance” or “the contract did not accommodate for modifications”, these cases are quite common. These issues are not rare when you outsource. Therefore, it is important to confirm rules and regulations, also to review the contract before you order to prevent any issues arise in the future.

Mamasan&Company Inc. provides image editing for e-commerce websites

Mamasan&Company Inc. provides the BPO services(accounting, general affairs, human resources, administrative secretary etc.) With its unique system, expertise, we are expanding our business area to creative industries. Mamasan&Company Inc. has special features in managing the task and operated by multiple individual members led by consultant, instead of conventional department structures. It will allow us to have smoother detail oriented communications. A large amount of image editing could be handled efficiently with high-quality at the reasonable low cost, since multiple web designers are working as a team. Additionally, Mamasan&Company Inc. not only offers image editing, but also video editing and a variety of other creative tasks.

Let’s outsource the image editing to the professional designer!

Due to the characteristics on thee-commerce website, it cannot be denied that overall presentation of product images contribute a significant effect on the consumer’s decision to purchase products. Therefore, even though the image editing may consume time and effort, it is appropriate to edit the product image properly before releasing it to the website.

If it is difficult to manage within your in-house team, outsourcing is one of the business options. It will allow you to concentrate on your e-commerce websites management. Before choosing the strategy, examine the pros and cons of outsourcing carefully to make the right decision for your company.