Product pages
Product photos that sell, taken on the phone you already own
· 6 min read
Product pages — article artwork
The photograph is the single biggest thing standing between your stock and a sale. A buyer scrolling on a phone decides in about a second whether your shop looks real. Almost every shop that looks unconvincing is not badly stocked — it is badly lit.
Shoot in daylight, never with flash
Flash flattens everything and turns fabric grey. Daylight does the opposite: it shows texture, and texture is what makes a photograph look like a real object rather than a picture of one.
Stand near a doorway or window with the light coming from the side, not from behind you. Between 9am and 11am, or after 4pm, gives you soft light without the hard midday shadow. If you are shooting outside, find shade — direct sun is as harsh as flash.
One background, used every time
Pick one plain surface and never change it. A painted wall, a sheet, a wooden table. The point is not that the background is beautiful — it is that it is the same in every photograph.
Consistency is what separates a shop from a collection of forwarded images. Twenty items on the same background read as one business; twenty items on twenty backgrounds read as a reseller passing on other people's pictures, which is exactly the impression that stops people ordering.
Fill the frame, then take a second shot
Get close enough that the item fills most of the frame. Buyers are looking at a phone screen where your product is already small.
Then take one more from a different angle, or of the detail that justifies the price — the stitching, the label, the back of the phone. The first photograph sells the item; the second one answers the question they would otherwise have messaged you about.
Photograph the real item
Using a manufacturer's stock image is the fastest way to lose a serious buyer, especially in electronics. Buyers who spend real money have learned to check, and a stock photo tells them you might not have the item in your hands.
Your own photograph of your own stock, even a slightly imperfect one, converts better than a perfect image everyone has seen before.
Keep the file small enough to load
Most of your buyers are on mobile data, and a photograph that takes six seconds to appear has already cost you the sale. Soko's Starter plan accepts images up to 3MB and Pro up to 5MB, which is far more than you need.
A photo straight from a modern phone is often 4–8MB of detail nobody will ever see on a 6-inch screen. Most phones can be set to shoot at a smaller size, and that is worth doing once rather than fighting the upload every time.