Shopify merchants have to adopt innovative solutions to survive and strive in today’s highly-competitive e-commerce marketplace. When it comes to product photography, you can either use traditional product photography or a virtual photographer. Both alternatives deliver high-quality images. So, how do you choose to enhance your competitive edge? First, the best solution should help you deliver incredible visual experiences in your Shopify store. Second, it should accomplish the first mission cost-effectively, quickly, and efficiently. Integration with other solutions like Shopify Product Customizer is also important to consider.
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Using virtual photographer software is easy and quick (threekit.com)
Delivering high-quality images of the product in your Shopify store quickly and at a lower cost is a major advantage over the competition. If you’re thinking about Shopify product photography to enhance your competitive edge, you should try a virtual photographer. But what is the difference between a virtual photographer and traditional photoshoots?
The Difference: Virtual Photographer vs. Product Photoshoots
The main difference between virtual product photographer and traditional photoshoots is in the image-creation process. A virtual product photographer is a software that generates images from product design using advanced technologies to deliver realistic computer-generated images (CGI).
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Virtual photography is done digitally (threekit.com)
Product design files like sketches, photos, samples, or existing CAD files are collected and uploaded on the software. It customizes and reconfigures product designs to generate photorealistic images, which are uploaded on your Shopify website instantly. The entire process is 100% digital and can integrate with Shopify Product Customizer.
On the other hand, traditional product photography requires you to ship the entire product inventory to the studio or the venue of the photoshoot. The products are then set up depending on technical requirements before they are photographed manually with a camera. Post-production editing is undertaken after the photoshoot to address any quality issues. Lastly, photos of your products are prepared to be uploaded on your Shopify website.
Even though both traditional and virtual photography delivers high-quality images, the process is completely different. Also, the resources you need for each alternative are not the same. With a virtual photographer, you only need the software, and you're ready to produce high-quality images. On the other hand, you may need to hire a professional photographer for a traditional photoshoot or invests in all the resources needed for DIY product photography. Virtual product photography can increase your competitive advantage over competition significantly compared to traditional photoshoots.
What are the Benefits of Using Virtual Photographer?
A virtual photographer is the future of e-commerce images and offers a wide range of benefits for Shopify merchants. Here are 9 benefits of using a virtual photographer instead of traditional product photography:
1. Cost-Effective
From shipping products to actual photoshoot and post-production editing, traditional photography is expensive since you will need to outsource experts in each step. DIY product photography will cost even more because you have to acquire and maintain all the equipment and resources needed to deliver high-quality product photos.
With a virtual photographer, you can avoid all these costs. Most virtual photographer software providers charge users only a small fee and break down to less than $1 per photo, compared to about $100 to $400 for a traditional photo. Even at $100 for a traditional photo, you will still save about $99 per photo if you use a virtual photographer. Can you imagine how much you can save in the long-run as your inventory increase? A lot, right?
2. High-quality visuals
Virtual product photography creates photorealistic images that are very similar to traditional photo. Can you tell which one of the photos below is a virtual image? You can't, right?
Virtual and traditional photos are similar (threekit.com)
High-quality images can entice the customer to purchase. Statistics indicate that visual presentation can influence the purchase decisions of 83% of online shoppers. This is why virtual photography has a high return on investment.
3. Time-Saving
Traditional product photography is laborious and time-consuming. With a virtual photographer, you just click the mouse and the software takes care of everything. Well, it’s almost that simply anyway. When a highly anticipated product is released, you must develop a 3D model of it. From there, you can create virtual photos to start selling long before the competition. Virtual photography does not need actual physical products. So, you can produce images of new products before they’re delivered or manufactured. You’ll be ready those products offer to your customers the minute they arrive.
4. Scalability
Can you imagine how long it will take to complete a traditional photoshoot with 50 or 100 products, all with different customizable features? Too long. A virtual photographer is highly scalable and can deliver any number of photos you need quickly, which can help manage higher traffic and orders during the holidays. It allows you to scale up seamlessly if your inventory increases suddenly. Once you upload product design on your virtual photographer software, it can generate thousands of photorealistic product images within a short period.
5. Customization
Shopify virtual photography allows for quick customization to address specific demands in the marketplace. Unlike traditional photography, virtual photographer software gives you the freedom to personalize product images in real-time.
Virtual photos are customizable (threekit.com)
You can also enhance product features in virtual photos with photorealistic modeling to entice specific customer segments. 3D virtual photos are also used on other visualization solutions like Shopify Product Customizer to enhance user experience.
6. No Reshoots Necessary
A virtual photographer allows you to reuse product designs uploaded previously to generate new photos for your products if there are new updates or any inventory changes. You only make a few changes to meet your needs like color or materials, and the software will take care of the rest. For traditional photography, you will reshoot any product updates like change in the color of the brand's logo.
7. Mobile-friendly
Mobile usage of online shopping is increasing rapidly. Using mobile-friendly photos is a priority for all merchants on Shopify and other platforms. 3D rendered images and CGI delivered by the virtual photographer are mobile-friendly and shareable. Customers can share virtual photos of your products with friends and family using their smartphones. Nothing is sweeter than a free ad, right?
8. Loading Speed
Did you know that 44% of mobile users can leave your Shopify website if images won't load, and 53% can leave if a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load? Using Virtual Photographer on Shopify can help you avoid this unfavorable situation. It creates pre-rendered images that load quicker than traditional photos.
9. Integration
You can integrate Shopify virtual photographer into your website for seamless operation. Also, any product model generated using the software can be reused in other applications like Shopify product customizers, 3D product configurators, or 3D product builders. In most cases, companies that provide virtual photographer software for Shopify also offer all these solutions on the same platform. You can manage all 3D models, videos, and computer-generated images of your products across one integrated platform.
You don’t need additional skills or training to use a virtual photography platform. Your in-house team can oversee the entire process. To leverage images of your products effectively, you will need Shopify Product Customizer.
Threekit offers Virtual Photographer software that creates photorealistic computer-generated images to help businesses sell more. You can deploy and use images of your products on ThreeKit’s Shopify Product Customizer to create interactive 3D and augmented reality experiences. For more information, please schedule some time to engage with one of our experts.
