Kristin Currier

I haven’t posted anything in a long time. What’s been going on? Well, for one thing, I’ve been slogging through the Javascript Essential Training series of tutorials by Dori Smith on Lynda.com. It’s an excellent series, and I feel that I understand Javascript at its most fundamental level. Dori rocks and I like her sense of humor. I’m not sure I could write my own code straight from scratch, but I can at least implement existing code and tailor it to my needs. But it’s not my intention to be a Javascript programmer anyway, as my focus will be on aesthetic design and CSS. I’m an art girl, not a math girl, and Javascript is a bit math-y. But at least I can move foward with it a bit, and probably start learning some jQuery soon.

I am also reading DOM Scripting by Jeremy Keith in addition to the Lynda.com tuts. I take the book with me on the train and follow along on my laptop. It’s a solid book and I highly recommend it for the beginner who has knowledge of HTML and CSS already. I have to admit though – it’s taken me literally MONTHS to get through it. I’m not a programmer, and the Javascript language was very foreign to me. I had to keep reading and re-reading the same chapters, especially in the beginning, to get around a steep learning curve. It was an amazingly frustrating experience! But, in the end, it will be worth it.

Now, I’m going to go start learning WordPress theme building. I started dabbling a bit long ago, but decided I should learn more advanced coding skills first. With WordPress, I will also be learning PHP and more advanced CSS, as well as CMS stuff. I’ll be changing my website soon and moving all files into WordPress, instead of just having a static site with a WP blog attached to it. I built my site while learning semantic HTML and CSS a ways back, and it’s a very minimalist site, a little boring, but hey, it’s clean, valid and was a good start. Time to improve it.

So, what else is up? Got a promotion, yep. I am currently Senior Web Graphic Designer at my company. Not bad for someone who came from print design, took a break to start a painting business, got back into temping for design when the economy blew up, and studied studied and studied web technology through Lynda and other sources while doing Photoshop work for the web. It’s amazing how much stuff is out there on the web for anyone who wants to learn something. There’s just absolutely no excuse to be ignorant of anything anymore. And one doesn’t need to spend money to take a class somewhere. If you work online creating online content, why would you go anywhere else for your education?

Other stuff – wedding plans are still on and becoming more solid. We are watching the oil in the gulf with apprehension, but we aren’t freaking out yet. Islamorada is a bit far up the Keys chain and the oil might not make it there.

Bag on Timbuk2

The importance of displaying products in eCommerce can’t be emphasized enough, yet sadly, it’s one of the most overlooked aspects of online visual merchandising.

Customers online are separated from the one thing that the brick-and-mortar customer takes advantage of each time she walks into a store – the ability to pick the product up, feel it, open it, snap its snaps and button its buttons. How does it look? What kind of quality is it? How much functionality does it have? How will it look on me? Is it worth the money?

For many buyers and managers, the thought process of how to keep selling the product once it’s placed into inventory stops at the creation of the item #. The same goes even doubly so for products on the web. But we need to be doubly vigilant about how a product is visually represented online for the very reason a customer is removed from being able to make a physical assessment in a store. For some reason, how products look on the web is taken even less seriously than how they would on a shelf. As more and more customers do their shopping online, and the cost of renting in commercial buildings skyrockets, retail companies need to pay attention to how their products look online, and to ensure that all the visual information needed is there to help the customer make a confident, informed decision.

If you are selling a product that doesn’t rely on the emotions or senses as much as just plain necessity, maybe this doesn’t pertain as much to you. But if you are selling apparel, home goods, jewelry or other lifestyle items, you should seriously consider how your products look online. Would you pay $739 for this blurry, moldy looking bag? I know this brand. They make gorgeous bags. You wouldn’t know it from this terrible picture.

Would you pay $739 for this?

The nicer your product is, the more you invest in making sure it looks impressive. What would you, as a customer, want to see?

Here’s the basics for better online product presentation:

1. Hire a good photographer with a professional camera with access to a good studio with proper lighting. You little point-and-shoot won’t cut it here. Make sure your photographer understands product photography and how to fill a frame. Product photography should be big, informative and clear.
2. Hire a designer proficient in Photoshop retouching with knowledge of web graphic optimization. Yes, this is what I do for a living, and I might be biased, but I can guarantee you that a solid Photoshop artist can drastically change the way your products look online, and, if consistent, your entire website. That designer should have expertise in color and tonal corrections, removing backgrounds, creating shadows or reflections, removing flaws, changing colors realistically without destroying textures or shapes, and sharpening images for clarity. They must understand optimizing images for the web at many different sizes. They also must develop a scalable content management system that allows them to keep the images organized.
3. I have a solid merchandising and retail background, but if your designer does not, you need to guide him or her, or make sure you have a merchandising department who can develop standards for how your products will be shown. For instance, a tote bag for my company will have a front shot, back shot, side shot if needed, open shot, detail shots of special features, and sometimes a model shot. Zappos does an excellent job at this. How they merchandise shoes with multiple views indicates they understand how online customers shop. The goal is to help the customer “pick-up” the product and look at it from all angles, as if they were standing in a store.

Bag on Zappos

4. Invest in Zoom software (Adobe Scene 7) or hire a front-end developer who knows how to use jQuery or Javascript to get you some whiz-bang rollovers and lightbox effects for multiple views of your product. Small thumbnails are fine, but what customers want are large images where they can see every detail. So make sure your thumbnails are linked to larger images, and that those large images are high quality. If you can’t afford the Zoom or rollovers, have a section of your product page or link to another page that shows more views of the product.

Product presentation is often skimped on because it doesn’t show an immediate cost benefit like email campaigns, special offers, or home page banners. But think how you shop. Perception is everything. If your products look fantastic online, customers will believe they are. Great product presentation is at its very core good customer service and excellent salesmanship.