Anyone who works in e-commerce knows that pictures need to be small and open quickly. But if you just throw the image into a compression tool, set a quality parameter of 80% and export it, then you are only doing the most superficial layer. There are three layers of underlying logic for e-commerce image optimization, and most people have only encountered the first layer.
The first level is file size. There’s nothing much to say about this. The smaller the image, the faster it loads and the higher the conversion rate. Amazon itself has produced a data: for every 0.1 second that the page loads slowly, the conversion rate decreases by 1%. If your main image is a 5MB original image, and the user clicks on your list and waits for three seconds before it is loaded, he will have already swiped away.
But there is a pitfall in compression: not all images should use the same compression parameters. JPEG compression is "lossy". Every time you adjust the quality from 100 to 80, you are losing some color information. For the main image, you should keep the quality above 90, because these images are the first impression that users decide whether to click in or not. For display pictures and usage scene pictures in the details page, 80 to 85 is enough. For background textures and atmosphere images on A+ pages, 75 is acceptable. Different types have different parameters, don’t make one size fits all.
The second level is format selection. Of the four formats: JPEG, PNG, WebP, and AVIF, many sellers only know the first two. JPEG is suitable for photo-type images, with small file size and good compatibility, but it does not support transparent backgrounds. PNG supports transparency and is suitable for logos, icons, and white background product images, but the file size is usually several times larger than JPEG. WebP is a format promoted by Google. The file size is 25% to 35% smaller than JPEG at the same quality, and it supports transparency. AVIF is more radical and is 20% smaller than WebP, but the compatibility is not good enough yet, and older browsers and mobile phones may not be able to display it.
My current approach is: all images will be in WebP format by default, while retaining a JPEG as a downgrade solution. The code is written like this: first load WebP with the picture tag, and fallback to JPEG if it is not supported. Both Amazon and Shopify now support WebP uploads, so there’s no harm in switching over as soon as possible.
The third layer is metadata and structure optimization. Many people don't know this. When you take a photo and export it, the camera or mobile phone will stuff a bunch of things into the file: GPS coordinates, shooting time, camera model, aperture shutter ISO, this is called EXIF data. If your competitors download your pictures, they can directly see where you took them and what equipment you used to take them. Although it is not fatal information, there is no need to give it away.
In addition, the JPEG file itself can be set to "progressive" encoding. Ordinary JPEGs are loaded line by line from top to bottom. When the network speed is slow, users will see the pictures unfolding downward like a rolling shutter door. Progressive JPEG loads a blurry global preview that gradually becomes clearer. Users will "feel" the image is loading faster, even if the actual loading time is the same. This experience difference is especially obvious on the mobile side.
Finally, let’s talk about an easily overlooked point: the image file name. Do not upload with a name like IMG_4827.jpg. Search engines read the file name to understand the image content. You should use a descriptive, keyword-containing file name, such as "stainless-steel-water-bottle-500ml-white.jpg", with hyphens separating words. This is not only for search engines to see, but also for screen readers of visually impaired users.
A good e-commerce image is not only visually beautiful, it is also technically carefully processed. File size, format, metadata, naming, loading method, each item is worth spending time to adjust. Your competitors may have taken something similar to yours on the main image, but the site that loads 0.5 seconds faster will have a higher conversion rate than yours.
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